BRASS JAW is a quartet working without a traditional rhythm section, Allon Beauvisin’s baritone saxophone providing much of the impetus.

This Glasgow band has a vibrant new sound, as engaging, entertaining and humorous as it is virtuosic. The big date for your diary is Friday, May 17, when Brass Jaw play the National Centre for Early Music at 7.30pm (01904 658338).

Tonight’s jazz in York will be at the Old White Swan, Goodramgate, and Victoria Vaults, Nunnery Lane. The Swan has been promoting live jazz for 20 years, with the Mardi Gras Band alternating with Bejazzled. The pub is putting the jazz in a return to the larger, central room and tonight is Mardi Gras night, at 8pm (01904 540911). Jules And The Gang will play jazz and pop classics at the Vaults in Nunnery Lane from 8.30pm (01904 654307).

York’s newest jazz date is every Friday at the Lady Anne Middleton’s Hotel, Skeldergate, and tomorrow’s band is 3 Shades of Jazz – tasty vocals, guitar and bass at 8pm (01904 611570).

Gypsy jazz is the flavour of this weekend. Tomorrow night Wakefield Jazz welcomes Sweet Chorus, a quartet fronted by John Etheridge (guitar) and Christian Garrick (violin) in a tribute to Stephane Grappelli and guitar icon Django Reinhardt (01977 680542).

Jazz in the Spa has the Remi Harris Quartet on Saturday, with Harris (guitar) joined by violinist Matt Holborn at 8pm (01937 842636), while York’s Arts Barge Project will host a Gypsy jazz jam session on Sunday at the Golden Ball, Cromwell Road, at 2pm. You are invited to bring guitars, violins, clarinets and accordions and music charts are available from christian@artsbarge.com

More jazz on Sunday comes with John Marley and trio at Kennedy’s Café Bar, Little Stonegate, from 1pm (01904 620222), Karl Mullen and Jen Low at the Waggon and Horses, Lawrence Street, at 7pm (01904 637478) and the Central Scrutinizers at the Phoenix Inn, George Street, at 8pm. The Scrutinizers has Chris Moore (piano) and Ben Lowman (saxophone) playing Mingus, Monk and Wayne Shorter. The popular Phoenix jam session is on Wednesday. All Phoenix jazz is at 01904 656401.

REVIEW

Basquiat Strings, Part Two (F-IRE Records) ****

THE average jazz fan may steer clear of a string quintet, but this is a string-driven band with jazz shoes. Think two violins, a viola, a cello and a double bass, plus the demon drums of Seb Roachford (Acoustic Ladyland, Polar Bear). Opening track Calum Campbell has a strong rhythmic structure, driven by drums and bass, while Babette II has a classical feel, with elements of free jazz. By track three, History of Her, the sound is as familiar as a saxophone-led band, even though the solo is from Jennyman Logan’s viola, backed by violins, cello and bass.

The drums are more prominent as they are in the following tracks, Scam and Great Gables. Basquiat leader, cellist Ben Davis, points out the similarity of tone between the bass line and the Brazilian berimbau, which looks like a small, tunable longbow, its solitary string struck with a stick. The lyrical Bebella develops into a bossa nova crossed with a touch of tango and Hop Scotch is based upon the tune Nice Work If You Can Get It, which I did not get at all, but it is appealingly lively. A solo cello outing, It Ain’t Necessarily So, closes a satisfying album which will bear repeated listening.