Jazz Preview: Ed the legend promises a bucketful of fun

Most of the music will be on Sunday, but tomorrow afternoon will welcome a blast from the past in the shape of one of West Yorkshire’s jazz legends, trombonist Ed O’Donnell, and his band.

Ed is 84 years old, and still playing with the vigour which has characterised a rumbustious career which has taken him from the Vernon Street Ramblers in the late 1940s, through the Yorkshire Jazz Band, the Paramount Jazz Band, Ken Colyer’s Jazzmen, when one of his colleagues was Acker Bilk, and our own Yorkshire Post Jazz Band.

His allegiance to New Orleans jazz remains steadfast and his rasping tailgate style continues to reflect an admiration for the early masters of the idiom, particularly Jim Robinson and George Lewis. “It’s what I like, it’s what the band like and we are still enjoying it,” says the ageless and indestructible Ed.

Sunday afternoon is devoted to a mixture of jazz, salsa and blues, beginning with the excellent Leeds Jazz Rock Orchestra, directed by Brendan Duffy. Los Cameradas will then move in with the hip-swinging salsa which has made them favourites at the nearby Seven Arts centre.

Seven Pieces of Silver offer an accomplished salute to the music of Horace Silver, and the Al Morrison Blues Experience close the weekend with the strains of BB King, T Bone Walker, Robert Johnson and Ray Charles.

Regent Street, and its bucket, should be overflowing.