Blog

Current events and comments

19 Aug 2025

Thus page will be for occasional comments to supplement the main business here – the calendar. Notable new venues, unexpected bookings, late changes etc. We’ll see what comes up

Smart booking at Wiltshire Music Centre

7 Jul 2026

I don’t know who does the booking at Wiltshire Music Centre, but they’re on a roll… Worth noting because after nabbing a UK date for Samara Joy (what a voice) last night they are following up with Gretchen Parlato next Sunday (July 12). It’s a great venue – seats about 200 and superb comfort and […]

and another festival…

12 Jun 2026

No sooner does a note appear here about the choice of festivals over the Summer than news arrives of another – It’s a three day affair at Radford Mill Farm in Somerset, and programmed by Ian Storrer. There are several levels of posh camping on offer too. Full details here

Festivals refresh

2 Jun 2026

Regular weekly gigs thin out over the Summer, but other events make up for that a bit. Is there anywhere that doesn’t have something billed as a jazz festival these days, be it ever so small? Well, Bristol doesn’t seem to be able to manage one at the moment (though maybe the profusion of gigs […]

Remembering Keith Tippett

13 May 2026

There was a moving, and affirmative, event at the Beacon yesterday to launch Martin Phillips’ excellent biography of Keith Tippett. Tony Benjamin has a generous account of it here, with a great set of links if you want to sample more music from one of the greatest players and composers born in Bristol. I reviewed […]

Summer starts early…

7 May 2026

The heading doesn’t imply quite the good news you might assume. I mean the Summer break. I reckon quite a few of you are regulars at the Wednesday Bristol Music Club sessions and/or the BeBop Club. Both are gigs where the organisers take a well-deserved breath over the Summer. At BMC, recently revived under new […]

Bristol New Music

15 Apr 2026

I’ve not listed all the programme on the calendar, to save my time, but it’s worth noticing the excellent Bristol New Music Festival, which runs from April 22-26. There are a couple of artists who might be billed as “jazz”, but that’s not the point. It’s anything goes for these few days, and lots of […]

Promotion – any help?

11 Apr 2026

Visitor numbers here are still growing – slowly. I had imagined they’d level off soon, but now I wonder if a bit more effort might ensure a higher steady-state. The promotion I’ve done mainly has been at gigs I go to fairly regularly, like the BeBop club, Bristol Music Club, Ian Storrer’s gigs at the […]

“Profound and intuitive rapport…”

12 Mar 2026

Just to note that Greg Osby and Florian Arbenz, who are playing for Ian Storror at the Lantern/Beacon on Sunday night March 15th, just stopped off in Belfast as part of their tour and top a review of the Brilliant Corners Festival* there that just ran on UKJazzNews. “The rapport between American alto saxophonist Greg Osby and […]

Mark Lockheart, anyone?

5 Mar 2026

All gigs are equal as far as the calendar goes, but I’ll draw attention to reasons others give to anticipate the odd one or two that stand out… Case in point: there’s a terrific feature interview with ex Loose Tubes and Polar Bear sax player Mark Lockheart on UKJazzNews this week. It’s about his new […]

Jam Sessions? Oh yes…

1 Mar 2026

If Bristol looks like it has more gigs than you’d expect for a city our size, I reckon the same is true for Jam Sessions. These don’t get listed every month on the calendar as I want to make it easy to find the regular gigs, and because it would mean putting in quite a […]

Yunmi Sang and BEJE at St Paul’s Church, Feb 21st

9 Feb 2026

This site promotes all the gigs, but there are special mentions for new or out of the way venues so mentioning this one as it is in St Paul’s Church in Clifton (just down the road from Bristol Music Club). It’s also an unusual gig, as it happens – featuring Bristol trumpeter Dave Mowat with […]

New series – Jazz at the Bristol Music Club

28 Jan 2026

Just to note that the gig formerly known as Fringe Jazz, weekly at the Bristol Music Club, has been renamed now it’s under new management (see earlier posts on this for details). For clarity, it’s now going to use the name of the venue, and just be Jazz at the Bristol Music Club. It won’t […]

New gig – Brilliant Corners at the Fringe

5 Jan 2026

Using this page again to note, not a new venue, but a new gig. Worth a mention as it was announced too late to make it into Tony Benjamin’s Bristol 24/7 monthly roundup for January. Brilliant Corners is the branding for a new promotion at The Bristol Fringe in Clifton, on the final Tuesday of […]

BristolJazzLive – help spread the word?

29 Dec 2025

This little site has been running a few months now so end of year seems a good time to take stock, Most people seem to think it’s a good idea. And weekly visitors are creeping up. So definitely worth carrying on in 2026, I think. It’d be nice to reach more people, of course. Websites […]

Fringe Jazz continues!

19 Dec 2025

Just a quick update – having wished farewell to Jon Taylor as organiser and promoter of Fringe Jazz (see previous post), it is good to hear that the gig will carry on. It was a last minute thing, evidently, as Bristol247’s nice Tony Benjamin feature on the history of the gig a couple of weeks […]

Farewell Fringe Jazz?*

1 Dec 2025

That’s Fringe Jazz at Bristol Music Club in Clifton, in its current incarnation… And yes, it may be farewell. Jon Taylor, who runs the gig, has let it be known he is not carrying on after Christmas. (Understandably – Tony Benjamin in Bristol 247 reckons he’s been putting on gigs, on and off, for almost […]

Bath Jazz Weekend 2026

9 Nov 2025

The Bath Jazz Weekend run by Nod Knowles for All of the Above Promotions has lifted the dead days of early January for a few years now, but Nod has really excelled himself for the next one. As usual it’s a clever combination of the best players/groups from here and roundabout, old friends from further […]

Jazz Promotion Network Showcase

8 Oct 2025

I said I’d post on this page for things out of the ordinary, and this one definitely qualifies. The UK Jazz Promotion Network is now fairly well established and its annual conference runs alongside a showcase of new(ish) bands that promoters might find it good to hear. Last year it happened in Bristol, and the […]

PPianissimo – new series at Bristol Music Club

12 Aug 2025

Bristol Music Club, tucked away in Clifton, is already home to the Fringe Jazz series most of the year. Now, it will also host a new monthly series, PPianissimo, curated by pianist John Law and his frequent musical partner saxophonist Jon Lloyd. First one is Sep 5th (note early evening time slot). Here’s the flyer… […]