Sophie Alloway + Hannah Horton Quartet HAVERHILL ARTS CENTRE, HAVERHILL 18 April
Binker Golding 606, CHELSEA 18 Apr
Tim Whitehead THE ELEPHANT, FINCHLEY 19 Apr
Mark Kavuma THE JAM HOUSE, BIRMINGHAM 22 Apr
Neil Cowley Trio, APEX, BURY ST EDMUNDS 23 Apr
Bill Frisell & Eyvind Kang CADOGAN HALL, CHELSEA 23 Apr
Norma Winstone and Tommy Halferty THE DIGITAL HUB, JAMES STREET, DUBLIN 23 Apr
Hugely influential English singer Norma Winstone in duo with revered Derryman Irish jazz icon Tommy Halferty. Read a 2014 interview run in these pages and read a review of Vital Spark that’s one of 2026’s most essential releases.
Nubiyan Twist BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER 24 Apr
Norma Winstone, Tommy Halferty and Derek Whyte CLEW BAY HOTEL, WESTPORT, CO. MAYO 24 Apr
Liane Carroll Trio COWSHED JAZZ CLUB, ASHWELL 24 April
Sarah McKenzie THE PIZZA, SOHO 24 Apr
Georgia Cécile PEGGY’S SKYLIGHT, NOTTINGHAM 25 Apr
Knats THE GLAD CAFE, GLASGOW 1 May
Nicolas Meier World Group THE BEAR, LUTON 1 May
Trish Clowes’ My Iris + Louise McMonagle WORLD HEARTBEAT, NINE ELMS 1 May
Nigel Mooney Trio ARTHUR’S, DUBLIN 2 May
Ian Shaw 606, CHELSEA 3 May
Alexander Hawkins CAFE OTO, DALSTON 5-6 May
Georgia Mancio and Robin Aspland MAGY’S FARM, NEAR DROMARA 3 May
Makaya McCraven NATIONAL CONCERT HALL, DUBLIN 7 May
Claire Martin and Ian Shaw CROWMARSH VILLAGE HALL, GIFFORD 9 May
John Moriarty and Randy Ingram Quartet TRISKEL, CORK CITY 9 May (lunchtime)
Mark Nightingale + Hannah Horton Quartet HAVERHILL ARTS CENTRE, HAVERHILL 10 May
Paul Clarvis and Liam Noble 1000 TRADES, BIRMINGHAM 10 May
The always worth it Pigfoot 2 shuffle Brumwards.
John Moriarty quartet feat. Randy Ingram MAGY’S FARM, NEAR DROMARA 10 May
The gig also includes a reading by Maggie Doyle from her new prose-poem diary, Magy’s Farm: Where Music Grows.
Jo Harrop STOKE BY NAYLAND RESORT, LEAVENHEATH 13 May
The drummer in the band of fine singer Jo Harrop is Darren Beckett, known for his work with Brandon Flowers of The Killers.
More recently Beckett was also on 2025’s highest rated Irish jazz album on marlbank, Matt Benson’s crossover collection, Sit Back Down Again on which he meshed well with Dave Redmond both players proving pivotal to the fired up groove.
Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox ANVIL, BASINGSTOKE 13 May
Jon Regen trio UNITED CLUB, ST HELIER 14 May
American pianist and singer-songwriter Jon Regen’s 1996 hitherto unreleased piano trio album From Left to Right with bassist Earl May (1927-2008) and drummer Sunny Jain precedes this gig in Jersey with an April release. Read a 2016 review of Regen playing live in Soho spot Crazy Coqs.
Elina Duni & Rob Luft With Corrie Dick WOLVERHAMPTON ARTS CENTRE, WOLVERHAMPTON 14 May
Chalk up a Sheffield gig in the home of world championship snooker which incidentally starts on Saturday and runs to the 4th of May, it’s Gwilym Simcock whose best record I reckon is above, down to play this Steel City theatre with bassist Conor Chaplin, saxist Rob Buckland, singer Claire Booth and strings/woodwind group Ensemble 360 in tow. Not at all “Snooker loopy, nuts are we”. But kind reader you would indeed be bordering on potty, jaded by the dizzying heights of the tall stool elsewhere, to miss them if local and at an – as it were – loose end. The frame is set.
Gwilym Simcock THE CRUCIBLE THEATRE, SHEFFIELD 16 May
The Impossible Gentleman reliably pots the reds in, screws back for the yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black every time.
Tony Kofi and Denys Baptiste GUILDFORD PAVILION, GUILDFORD 21 May
Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane themed. Tenorist Denys Baptiste’s Identity By Subtraction – the last album issued by Gary Crosby (who was also on the record) and Janine Irons’ Dune label that was active and influential in the late-1990s and into the 2000s – is highly collectable on CD if rifling in the secondhand record store racks. Quite the find, dear reader, if on the hunt you chance upon it.
GoGo Penguin EPIC STUDIOS, NORWICH 23 May
Cécile McLorin Salvant, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, Oxford 28-29 May
Matt Benson CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE, BELFAST 30 May
Jeff Goldblum and the & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra BORD GÁIS ENERGY THEATRE, DUBLIN 30 May
Derek Nash Band THE BOHEMIA, FINCHLEY 31 May
Judith Owen WALES MILLENNIUM CENTRE, CARDIFF 4 June
Mario Biondi ST LUKE’S, GLASGOW 10 June
Tomorrow’s New Quartet BREWERY ARTS, KENDAL 11 June
Shuteen Erdenebaatar Quartet Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick City 19 June
Quite a revelation in 2023 – Rising Sun from pianist Shuteen Erdenebaatar, a musician hailing from Mongolia where she studied in Ulaanbaatar later championed by the Goethe Institute and excelling academically in Munich, Erdenebaatar was joined by soprano saxophonist Anton Mangold who also plays flute on the record and by bassist Nils Kugelmann and by drummer Valentin Renner. Tunes are strong, often quite bittersweet and poignant in nature, with hints of folklore from her homeland as on the flute line on ‘An Answer From The Distant Hill’. Gentle and thoughtful it’s all highly distinctive and speaks to the heart. Further Irish touring dates in June – the band along with Shuteen are Simon Comté on sax, Kugelmann and drummer Amir Bresler – include Triskel, Cork city (20th); Siamsa Tíre, Tralee (21st); Sugar Club, Dublin (24th); Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray (25th); and Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny (26th).
Dave Milligan’s Chroma MERCHANTS HOUSE, GLASGOW 14 June
Sarah Hanahan THE AMERICAN BAR, BELFAST 9 August
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis NATIONAL CONCERT HALL, DUBLIN 13 August
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis UNIVERSITY CONCERT HALL, LIMERICK 14 August
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