27 October 2025Saxophonist Pete Allen launches new album in Newbury and London
One of the UK’s most enduring traditional jazz ensembles, the Pete Allen Jazz Band launch their new album, New Orleans Wiggle – Jazz Magic, with two gigs on the 2nd and 4th November.
The band, led by the irrepressible clarinettist and saxophonist, play The Bowlers Arms in Newbury on the 2nd and Pizza Express Live Jazz Club in Soho on the 4th.
Now in the forty-eighth year of his career, Pete Allen has represented England at the Sacramento Dixieland Jazz Jubilee. He has also led the Worldwide All Stars, alongside Louis Armstrong alumni Barrett Deems and Jack Lesberg, and received Honorary Citizenship of New Orleans for his contribution to British music and tourism. His legacy also includes more than 100 recordings and a plethora of BBC broadcasts and European tours.
Allen's current band comprises some of the UK's most experienced and accomplished musicians in the traditional and mainstream jazz field and features trombonist Roger Marks, trumpeter Chris Hodgkins and reeds specialist Trevor Whiting alongside Allen in the frontline.
26 October 2025Pianist-composer Euan Stevenson launches new partnership
Scottish pianist-composer Euan Stevenson launches a new collaboration with internationally acclaimed soprano Julia Doyle with his latest single, Kyrie on 7th November.
Recorded in London’s Temple Church, Kyrie is Stevenson’s setting of the ancient Kyrie eleison text from his choral work Missa Brevis. It features Doyle accompanied by cellist Peter Gregson, organist Roger Sayer and Stevenson’s partner in the New Focus jazz-classical duo, saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski.
“Finding fresh musical ideas to marry with an ancient yet eternally profound text was the creative stimulus for writing this music,” says Stevenson, whose Missa Brevis also includes settings of the Gloria and Agnus Dei. “With the ‘Kyrie’ text, the sound of the words alone is so beautiful that, as a composer, you cannot help but be inspired. There is also a steadfastness inherent in the text that is a comfort in these turbulent times.”
Stevenson, whose commissions include arrangements for the English Chamber Orchestra with international violin soloist Pinchas Zukerman and accompaniments for supermodel Naomi Campbell during London Fashion Week, is also the songwriting partner and musical director for Jazz FM favourite, singer Georgia Cecile.
Kyrie is released by iOcco Classical and will be available for streaming from 7th November. Stevenson and Wiszniewski bring their New Focus: The Classical Connection to The Bridge in Dumfries also on 7th November.
26 October 2025Vintage jazz specialists play fundraising concert in Dundee
A band that features some of the leading exponents of vintage jazz plays at Discovery Point on Dundee’s waterfront on Saturday 8th November.
The Rhythm Rascals Collective includes Chicagoans, multi-instrumentalist Andy Schumm and reeds specialist Natalie Scharf alongside New York bassist Jennifer Hodges, Argentinean pianist Lucas Ferrari, Fernando Montiart on banjo and guitar and singer Ali Affleck.
The concert is a fundraiser for Dundee Heritage Trust, the only independent charity in Scotland that cares for two Recognised Collections of National Significance and operates two five-star visitor attractions. Less than 2% of the Trust’s operating costs are publicly funded.
Tickets cost £25 and are available from Eventbrite. The concert starts at 7pm.
16 October 2025Dublin label makes two more albums by guitarist Louis Stewart available again
The relaunched Livia Records continues to reactivate the great Irish guitarist Louis Stewart's back catalogue with two releases.
Due on 14th November, Alone Together features Stewart with flute virtuoso Brian Dunning in a set of ten duets from 1979. Alongside familiar tunes including There Will Never Be Another You, Chick Corea's Windows and Joe Henderson's Inner Urge tracks include Definitely Doctored, co-written by Stewart and Dunning and showing their wit and accomplishment.
The second release is the reactivated Tunes, from 2013, which features Stewart with his great friend, pianist Jim Doherty, who discovered a teenage Stewart in 1960 and set him on course to become Ireland's first world class jazz musician. They recorded Doherty's Spondance in 1986, which Livia reissued earlier this year, and by 2013 they were so comfortable in each other's company that Tunes might be considered a series of intimate conversations based on some of their favourite standards.
09 October 2025New harp duo showcases three harp styles
The Meeting of Friends, the first recording by a new harp partnership, is released on Tuesday 7th October.
Leading Scottish harper Karen Marshalsay met Cheshire-based composer/harpist Lauren Scott through online harp ceilidhs during lockdown designed to keep harp players from across the world in touch with each other and playing together to rase their spirits in a difficult time. What started as a means for harpists to meet online and play during Lockdown quickly became a way to support each other during Covid times through the joy of shared music.
Their friendship has continued and they recorded together for the first time a few weeks ago.
Composed by Lauren during the summer of 2024, The Meeting of Friends features Karen playing the wire-strung clarsach from the Gaelic tradition and the distinctive-toned bray harp of the lowlands together with Lauren playing the modern lever harp, creating an intriguing blend of sounds and musical styles.
It was recorded by Rob Buckland in Cheshire just before both players released new solo CDs, with Lauren’s Night Lotus coming out on 29th August and Karen’s Eadarainn a’ Chruit : Between Us the Harp following on 5th September.
“We had a great time recording the music,” says Karen. “It’s had some early radio plays. The response has been really encouraging and we’re hoping to work together again soon when our respective schedules allow.”
04 October 2025Tommy Smith and Gwilym Simcock release concert recording
Saxophonist Tommy Smith and pianist Gwilym Simcock release their first recording together, Eternal Light on Friday 3 October 2025 exclusively via Bandcamp.
A live album recorded direct to 2-track at The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 11 September 2025, Eternal Light captures Smith and Simcock in concert at Scotland’s flagship jazz venue. It features seven original compositions – two new works by Simcock, Weathered and Old Husbands’ Tale, alongside five of Smith’s recent compositions: Eternal Light, Land Between the Rivers, Body or Soul, Harlequin, and El Niño.
The music highlights the deep rapport between two of Europe’s most distinctive voices in contemporary jazz, weaving lyrical interplay, improvisational risk, and a profound sense of storytelling.
Smith has enjoyed an international career spanning collaborations with Gary Burton, Chick Corea, John Scofield, and Arild Andersen. Simcock, one of the most versatile pianists of his generation, has built an international reputation through collaborations with Pat Metheny, Bill Bruford, and the Impossible Gentlemen. Their duo partnership has been described as “a conversation that can go anywhere — from whisper to roar, from abstraction to melody” and Eternal Light reflects the pair’s commitment to risk-taking and reinvention, presenting a body of work that is both grounded and exploratory.
“The duo is the most intimate and exposed of formats,” says Smith. “There is nowhere to hide, although the solo saxophone is even more transparent, but that is also where the beauty lies. The saxophone and piano have such complementary voices. The piano offers harmony, rhythm, and colour, while the saxophone can be a pure line, like a singer.”
Smith and Simcock met while performing with different groups at festivals and it was Smith’s long-time duo partner, the late Brian Kellock who suggested that Smith and Simcock would work well together.
“It felt natural right from the start,” says Smith. “It was as if we were already speaking the same musical language. Over time, we discovered that we share a similar appetite for risk and lyricism, and the duo developed organically. It has become one of the most rewarding partnerships of my career.”
The album is being supported by concerts at Watermill Jazz in Dorking on Tuesday 14th October and the Concorde Club in Eastleigh, near Southampton, on Wednesday 15th October.