Jazz Preview: When a man is tired of jazz... there is literature

Scarborough Jazz provides the answer next Wednesday with Jazz and Dr Johnson, an evening dedicated to his eventful life devised by Chris Hodgkins, an accomplished trumpet player apart from being the director of jazz services.

Chris will be accompanied by Max Brittain, on guitar, Diane McLoughlin on alto and soprano saxophone and Alison Rayner on bass, with actress Susan Sheridan handling a narrative which draws on Boswell’s famous diaries.

The evening will be an introduction to the Scarborough Literature Festival which takes place on the following four days.

Mike Gordon, who organises Scarborough Jazz, says: “It’s good for the club to link with the literature festival because we both contribute to the cultural life of Scarborough and help to put the resort on the map artistically.”

A double bill at Wakefield Jazz tonight features two groups selected for support by Jazz Yorkshire.

Tenor saxophonist Matt Anderson, who leads a quartet completed by Aubin Vanns (guitar), John Marley (bass) and Sam Gardner (drums), has been commissioned by Creative North Yorkshire to write a suite entitled Songs for the Ridings.

Yoruba is an eight piece band led by pianist-composer Aron Kyne whose affection for Latin music is reflected in high octane, rhythmic sounds performed with zest by some of the brightest young talent in West Yorkshire.