Seb Rochford and Co, Brilliant Corners

SEB ROCHFORD AND CO, BRILLIANT CORNERS A masterful double play of celebrated Andrew Hill album 'Smokestack'

A masterful double play of celebrated Andrew Hill album 'Smokestack'

If you still haven’t been to Played Twice, a monthly jazz night held at Brilliant Corners in Dalston, I suggest you do something about it. The concept is simple. First there’s a playthrough of a landmark album on the venue’s top of the range analogue soundsystem – an anorak’s dream, all glistening valves and sleek silver turntables – and then a band reinterpret that recording live in the venue.

Ornette Coleman (1930-2015), Jazz Liberator

ORNETTE COLEMAN (1930-2015), JAZZ LIBERATOR His techniques were rooted in black American musical idiom, but also severed jazz history

His techniques were rooted in black American musical idiom, but also severed jazz history

Like John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, who died this week, was both a defining and divisive figure in jazz history. His highly individual and virtuosic playing and his development of a non-harmonic style of improvisation and composition have remained milestones in the development of modern jazz. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, and developing as a musician in a series of R&B bands in Los Angeles, he studied musical theory privately, initially meeting widespread ridicule whenever he proposed his novel techniques.

Jazz FM Awards 2015

The legendary Hugh Masekela and the electrifying Loose Tubes are among the winners

Hosted by self-confessed jazz nut John Thomson, a.k.a. The Fast Show's “Jazz Club” presenter Louis Balfour, the winners of this year's Jazz FM Awards were announced on Wednesday evening in the atmospheric setting of the Great Halls at Vinopolis.

CD: Maria Schneider Orchestra - The Thompson Fields

A stunning new collection from the acclaimed composer, arranger and bandleader

With slowly chiming piano chords, an impossibly high sustained note on the accordion, and a melody of the utmost loveliness on alto clarinet, the achingly beautiful “Walking by Flashpoint”, the opening track of The Thompson Fields, welcomes you into a sound-world of rare eloquence.

theartsdesk in Bergen 1: Jazz in a sardine factory

THE ARTS DESK IN BERGEN 1: JAZZ IN A SARDINE FACTORY Cacophony, minimalism and the confessional at the Nattjazz Festival on Norway’s west coast

Cacophony, minimalism and the confessional at the Nattjazz Festival on Norway’s west coast

Reggie Watts has a few things to say about Norway. In Bergen to play Natjazz, the annual jazz festival, he’s concerned about the local predilection for fish soup. Be careful, he warns, it can be dangerously hot. Then there are trolls and the Norwegian crispbread knekkebrød, which is especially impressive as it can keep fillings dry. Sandwiches can be eaten in the rain – and it rains in Bergen. A lot. Watts is fascinated by the countryside cabins Norwegians take off to in the summer. Most of all though, the word Norway distracts him.

DVD: Whiplash

DVD: WHIPLASH A thriller about jazz drumming - what's not to like?

A thriller about jazz drumming - what's not to like?

Any parent, or anyone who's ever stood in front of a class needs to watch Whiplash. In a film brimming over with ideas, the recurring question is whether or not your pupils will ever achieve greatness if you overpraise them. As JK Simmons's Terence Fletcher explains, the most harmful words in the English language are “good job”. He refers to an inexperienced Charlie Parker having a cymbal thrown at him by an angry bandmate, and the first major shock in Whiplash comes when an enraged Fletcher hurls a chair at student drummer Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) during a rehearsal.

Carleen Anderson: A Tribute to Sarah Vaughan, Theatre Royal, Brighton

CARLEEN ANDERSON: A TRIBUTE TO SARAH VAUGHAN, BRIGHTON Honouring a jazz icon in sometimes challenging, sometimes thrilling style

Honouring a jazz icon in sometimes challenging, sometimes thrilling style

Carleen Anderson’s range of vocal scales and styles is matchless in contemporary pop. Where she aims those enviable resources is the only issue anyone could have with her, a matter of taste she’ll eventually make irrelevant tonight with a flood of gospel-jazz exhilaration.

GoGo Penguin, Corn Exchange, Brighton

GOGO PENGUIN, CORN EXCHANGE, BRIGHTON From Manchester, on Blue Note - British jazz's new stars continue to soar

From Manchester, on Blue Note - British jazz's new stars continue to soar

It’s a shock to see the Corn Exchange’s hundreds of seats sold out for a jazz piano trio. When I first heard GoGo Penguin two winters ago, it was in an East London basement, where new recruit Nick Blacka’s thunderous double-bass was inspiring a few intrepid dancers to their skittering beats, among a crowd of dozens. Since then, there’s been a Mercury nomination, and a recent three-album deal with America’s gold-standard jazz label, Blue Note, a remarkable achievement for a British band.

CD: Snarky Puppy and Metropole Orkest - Sylva

CD: SNARKY PUPPY AND METROPOLE ORKEST - SYLVA Ambitious and imaginative US-Dutch collaboration thrills at every turn

Ambitious and imaginative US-Dutch collaboration thrills at every turn

From fulsome, modally inflected string lines (“Sintra”) to the funkiest of New Orleans brass grooves (“Atchafalaya”), this first major label album from Grammy-winning, NYC-based collective Snarky Puppy, paired here with Holland's crack Metropole Orkest under their principal conductor Jules Buckley, is a brilliantly arranged and artfully executed tour de force.

Wild Card, Jazz Café POSK

Nu-jazz funksters revel in old-school melodic improvising

Jazz-funk organ trio Wild Card have been slowly building a reputation for smoking funk tunes and grooves you could lose a pantechnicon in for some years now. Led by French guitarist Clément Régert, with organist Andy Noble and drummer Sophie Alloway, they perform with quite a range of guests, both instrumentalists and singers, which keeps the atmosphere of their repertoire fresh and varied. Their rise to prominence has accelerated recently with the release of their third album, Organic Riot, which has been garnering rave reviews internationally.