Top gigs for 19-25 Feb UK and Ireland including a spread of great acts at the Liverpool Jazz Festival and Mark Kavuma touring Ultrasound to Guildford

Soft Machine Band on the Wall, Manchester Mon 19th Feb

RBC Big Band Eastside, Birmingham Mon 19th Feb

Paul Dunlea jam session Crane Lane Theatre, Cork city Monday 19th Feb

Lars Danielsson's Liberetto Watermill, Dorking Tues 20th Feb

Hot Flamingo feat. Molly Amour The Good Fellowship Inn, Hull Tues 20th Feb

Nikki Yeoh and NYJO present Speechmik X-Ploration Ronnie Scott's, London Tues 20th Feb

Cahill/Costello The Rum Shack, Glasgow Tues 20th Feb

Neil C. Young Trio Matt and Phred's, Manchester Wed 21st Feb

Emily Francis Trio Peggy's Skylight, Nottingham Wed 21st Feb

Nic Meier Cu Mumbles, Swansea Wed 21st Feb

John Settle + MG4 The Cask, Scarborough Wed 21st Feb

Tineke Postma Aria Group Vortex, London Thurs 22nd Feb

Mark Kavuma Quintet Cricket Pavilion, Guildford

It's the enticing Noah Stoneman on piano with trumpeter Kavuma and Theo Erskine on tenor saxophone, his Ultrasound playing pals - in fact the whole album band is listed by the venue as the line-up for this Guildford gig. Kavuma blew us away a while back down the East End on Brick Lane with Songbird (Mussinghi Brian Edwards) and Deschanel Gordon that time in his band. And most recently hard bopper Kavuma, one of the Late Late Show hosts at Ronnie's, was heard again to effect with the pair prominent in the sound last year. But Erskine is clearly a new face we still haven't caught live going places and worth knowing about because of the record. By the way Deschanel has won new fans who listen primarily to chart music in the band of acclaimed singer Olivia Dean as he has gigged and plays on Dean's highly credible UK top 10 album Messy while Stoneman first made us lit up inside in Dalston playing live with Xhosa Cole paying homage to Unity in March 2020 on that Larry Young-loving night of course on a Hammond organ just before the first Lockdown.

Tommy Smith & Gwilym Simcock, David Helbock's Austrian Syndicate, Attuned Quartet, Yolanda Charles Project pH Instra-mentals, Denys Baptiste's Late Trane and more Liverpool Jazz Festival, Capstone Theatre, Liverpool Thurs 22nd-Sun 25th Feb

Hoop Tap Social, Botley, near Oxford Thurs 22nd Feb.

Eric Darius Pizza Express Jazz Club, London Thurs 22nd Feb-Sat 24th Feb

Seonaid Aitken Quintet The Blue Lamp, Aberdeen Thurs 22nd Feb

Jean Toussaint Quartet Hidden Rooms, Cambridge Thurs 22nd Feb

Moonscape Hen and Chicken, Bristol Thurs 22nd Feb

Strictly Smokin' Big Band featuring Dennis Rollins The Glasshouse, Gateshead Fri 23rd Feb

Becca Wilkins' Reverie Hampstead Jazz Club, London Fri 23rd Feb

Scott Flanigan trio Scott's, Belfast Fri 23rd Feb

Mario Bakuna Quartet The Bear, Luton Sat 24th Feb

Oscar Lyons The Hunter club, Bury St Edmunds Sat 24th Feb

Bex Burch + Rachel Musson The Globe, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Sun 25th Feb

Dixie Mix Yalm Food Hall, Norwich Sun 25th Feb

Lee Meehan Organ Trio Arthur's, Dublin Sun 25th Feb in the afternoon. Lee's Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars was among our top rated Irish jazz albums, right up near the top, in 2023.

Denys Baptiste - the last artist ever to record on the Dune label: Identity By Subtraction is highly satisfying - pictured, takes his Coltrane homage The Late Trane, an already sold out show, to the Liverpool Jazz Festival on Sunday 25th Feb. The ex-Bheki Mseleku player is a widely adored tenorist who came on to the scene in the 1990s, not least by bass don-of-dons Gary Crosby. On piano Nikki Yeoh is in Denys' band which is good news given how fine her form was back in the summer at Crazy Coqs - read a review - and also earlier next week Nikki appears on Tuesday night at Ronnie's with NYJO on her Hermeto inspired Speechmik X-Ploration.

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Not at all what I was expecting from the piano, keyboards, organ icon - best known for his long tenure with US singer-songwriter god James Taylor and jazz guitar great John Scofield among many other things. What was that expectation, pray, tell? Erm like a swinging Hammond organ trio, guv, if truth be told. He does one of those, too. Goldings has monster chops. Going through the tracks - it's a keys-trumpet duo with old mucker John Sneider, whose chops include great tonal command - 'The Veldt' was the first track that excited me. Then 'In Walked Bud' is a comfort blanket. But hey listen closely and behind the trumpet all the dinky sound effects from the keys, the layering in the production is so interesting as Sneider noodles away, his playing sounding like none other than Linley Hamilton whose Ginger's Hollow represented a career peak last year and was one of the best UK and Ireland releases of the year. It's not a surprise that Linley and his wife Maggie have booked the great Larry for a date soon in their Dechomet club in the County Down countryside - surely the Belfast jazzer will be itching to grab his trumpet for a little spot at the gig in the absence of Sneider in which Goldings is joined by pianist-singer Jake Sherman. I loved the rickety keys sounds on 'Hesitation Blues' which is quite antique and bluesy, a sort of jangling number that belongs in spirit to the 1920s - Goldings uses an unusually reverberating Wing and Son upright piano on the album among other keyboards.

And by complete contrast he also makes use of possibly bespoke programming in the synths that don't sound at all corny - the title track itself is futuristic, full of pitch bending and smeary technological sounding smudges. Best tracks, oh easily the treatment of classic Stephen Foster song 'Beautiful Dreamer' that has a very old feel to it. Sounds crazy, Larry on paper - frankly it all makes perfect sense. Goldings is to use that word I never like to use as it is a cliché but stumped for anything better it is true here so lyrical when he solos. And Sneider is just the right side of grandiose when he begins to do some flourishes later in his improvisation on that song that Bill Frisell has done so much to popularise all over again in recent years. Also a high point, the poignant heartbreaking ballad 'Diary of a Lost Girl' is a must. SG

The Magy's Farm date is 27 February and follows London shows at the Pizza Express Jazz Club over the previous two nights also duetting in the Dean Street basement. Hilariously Goldings has a soft spot for blunderingly earnest jazz educator Hans Groiner, a remarkable creation, who the Pizza says will also be putting in an appearance

Daily jazz blog, Marlbank

Top gigs for 19-25 Feb UK and Ireland including a spread of great acts at the Liverpool Jazz Festival and Mark Kavuma touring Ultrasound to Guildford

Larry Goldings and John Sneider, Chinwag, Sticky Mack Records ****