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Christine Tobin in glamour gig at Pigalle, Piccadily Hot on the heels of  her performances at Monterey Jazz Festival and New York's 55 Bar (where she sung with brilliant saxophonist Mark Turner), Britain's most original jazz singer-songwriter Christine Tobin returns to London, on 17 October stepping onto the West End stage to perform at the Pigalle by Eros in Piccaddily, an elegant 1940s style jazz club that's giving nearby Ronnie Scott's a run for it's money. Christine tells us "the programme will consist of a sophisticated take on the 'American Songbook' in a classic jazz style but expect the odd surprise!" Featuring on the gig with Christine are young rising star on piano, Barry Green, double bassist Jeremy Brown and drummer Simon Lea Prices are £20 or £55 with dinner, tickets sold in advance. Reservations: 0845 345 6053 Tel: 020 7734 8142 Fax: 020 7494 2022 pigalle@vpmg.net and www.thepigalleclub.com
Please also get along to see Christine performing at the Vortex in Dalston on 29th September and the London Jazz Festival in November (see lives)

For photos of Christine performing at the Haarlem Jazz Festival in August click here
To find out more about Christine's Babel CDs click here

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Billy Jenkins' 50th birthday tour in October

For his 50th birthday celebrations guitarist-singer Billy Jenkins brings his Songs of Praise band described by Billy as a 'forward looking retrospective of his work' with improvisers from all areas of Billy's career. Featured are young alto sax firebrand Nathaniel Facey, violinist Dylan Bates, trombonist Gail Brand, Tuba-ist Oren Marshall, and drummer Charles Hayward.
The dates are as follows:

6 October - Millenium Hall, 520 Ecclesall Rd, Sheffield (presented by Sheffield Jazz) (Booking: 0114 276 7093 (subject to booking fee)
7 October The Sage, Gateshead (band as above) (Ticket Office:  0191 443 4661)
8 October - The Shed, North Yorkshire (band as above) 01653 668494 theshed.co.uk
11 October - The Wardrobe, Leeds (Presented by Leeds Jazz) (band as above) 0113 2694077 thewardrobe.co.uk
12 November - The Spitz, Commercial Street, London E1 (London Jazz Festival) ( band as above) spitz.co.uk

Billy has a new DVD Ain't Going Yet, a documentary bringing together his two passions in life: bowls and music. You can purchase it by clicking here. It also features the three music tracks as stand alone extras - all proceeds go to the bowls club - Jazzwise gave the DVD 4 stars saying "Jenkins' shambling blues style is a worldperfect soundtrack for this utterly unpretentious pastime and turns the almost slow-motion scenes of the bowling match into an unlikely pop video. Lovely, gently eccentric and utterly charming".Referring to Jenkins' voice over narrative it says:"As for Jenkins' presenting style he gets my vote as Humph's [Humphrey Lyttelton - longtime BBC jazz presenter] replacement when the trumpeter finally gets that great gig in the sky".

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New CD release: Liam Noble & Ingrid Laubrock - Su-Ling
In the shops from 2 October buy it from our site now
Among the Babel stable's Autumn releases is a gem of a duet recording by two of the most original and experimental young musicians on the London scene. Ingrid Laubrock is a former BBC Jazz Award nominated Rising Star and this year's winner of the award of Arts Foundation fellowship for jazz composition. Liam Noble has been described by the Guardian as “…A brilliant pianist…who hardly plays a solo without at least one turn of phrase that brings you to the edge of your seat”. On the CD, with their unique energies, the duo perform standards with a twist, tunes by Thelonious Monk and on the fly improvisations with remixes by Babel's Polar Bear drummer/leader Sebastian Rochford. Listen to samples here or purchase the CD here.

Other 2006 releases:
Julie Sassoon's solo piano New Life (in the shops 21 August, available online here now);
and Huw Warren/Peter Herbert: Everything We Love And More (click here to buy online)

Remember: buying them direct helps us more as a small label than if you go through the shops!

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September-October unmissable gigs at the Vortex
September
29 Christine Tobin Band with Phil Robson (guitar), Jeremy Brown (bass), Thebe Lipere (percussion).

October
2nd - Herb Robertson and NY Downtown All stars. A gig not to be missed featuring Tim Berne, Tom Rainey, Sylvie Courvoisier and Mark Dresser.
4th - Vortex Foundation Big Band
9th - Finn Peters Quintet
19th - Last Amendment AKA Crass Collective
23rd - Vocals @ the Vortex. Singer-songwriter night.

Phone 020 7254 4097 for more info and tickets (www.vortexjazz.co.uk).

The BBC Electric Proms are wired for the most exciting sounds of the year, spliced together over a series of unrepeatable performances at London's legendary Roundhouse in Camden from 25-29 October.A series of jazz cross-generation duo gigs including Babel artists as follows:
25th October - Tom Arthurs and John Taylor.
Hugh Hopper and Seb Rochford

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Babel Newsletter Questionnaire (it's your turn to ask the questions next month. The featured artist is saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock. Best one wins her new duo album with Liam Noble Let's Call This...but all your questions will be featured. email us here now)
This Month's artist: Finn Peters
This month the Babel Club Newsletter has a new feature in which we put questions to a Babel artist. On the launch of saxophonist/flautist Finn Peters' new album Su-Ling we gave him temporary leave of absense from his finntet and help him into the Babel hotseat. While not trying to embarrass him too much, we came up with some searching questions and him, some revealing answers.

1/ How do you unwind when you're not playing or listening to music?

I really like cooking. I love traveling. I like reading a lot too. I can think of worse ways to unwind than lying on a beach, reading a book. I also like water sports surfing, sailing and swimming etc. I recently started getting interested in bird watching – saw some Puffins a couple of months ago and a pair of Sparrow Hawks yesterday!

2/ What inspired you to play the sax and flute?

I grew up around musicians and music. We had a studio at our house I started out playing recorder, then flute, then got a saxophone from the local school aged 11 and started trying to copy the playing on all my dad's Wayne Shorter records. When we moved to Spain I started playing along with the marching bands, then when I was around 13 I really started listening to Charlie Parker – after that there was no turning back! I had great teachers when I was at school too and that really helped.

3/ Who are your heroes?

Lord Buckley, Harpo Marx, Evan Parker, Han Bennink. I have a lot of heroes actually.

4/ Favourite album of all time?

That is almost impossible to answer. It could be loads of things. For the sake of argument let's say "A Love Supreme."

5/What CDs have you been listening to recently?

I listen to different music all the time and have thousands of records. Off the top of my head Bernard Wright "Nard": Kraftwerk "Computer World": Bugz in the Attic "In the doghouse": Eugene McDaniels "Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse", a lot of Detroit Techno, Labi Siffre, a lot of Talking Heads, Norman Conners "Slew Foot", Messiaen "Illuminations of the Beyond" (imagine calling your record that!) Cachao, Gran Combo, Conjunto Libre, EPMD, Bennie Maupin's new album, Yusef Lateef's new album…………I could go on and on. Basically a lot of music but actually not that much jazz.

6/ If you had to take just 3 CDs and 3 DVDs to a desert island what would they be?

Again, I'm not very good on the desert island disc-type question. Probably music wise it would be classical –do you get to take the scores as well? Actually what about box sets? If so: Ravel complete works, Coltrane on Impulse, and Donald Fagen "The Nightfly" I've listened to that on a desert island before and it works really well. Films: La Dolce Vita (Fellini), Trees Lounge (Buscemi) and Milou en Mai (Malle)

7/ What bands should we be listening out for at the moment?

Anything that Kaidi Tatham AKA "Agent K" is involved with. I like Mathew Herbert's stuff. Tom Arthur's is really good. In fact a lot of the music coming from the F-ire guys is great. Magic Malik – the baddest flautist on the planet!! Also Dimi Mint Abba from Mauritania. Can't forget Bembe Segue and Eska of course!

8/ Any good stories about life on the road?

Once I got involved in an impromptu jam session with a concert cellist who was wearing an electric blue ball gown, and a hurdie gurdi player. That was pretty bizarre.

10/ What would you not mind being woken up in the middle of the night for?

A Stevie Wonder session. It does still happen. I can think of plenty of other things that are probably unprintable!

Finn Peters Quintet plays at the Vortex, N16 on 9 Oct. Phone 020 7254 4097

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Remember to email us with your questions for next month's featured artist, Ingrid Laubrock. The best question gets a free copy of her and Liam Noble's new duo CD Let's Call This...

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Where to go for your November London Jazz Fest Tickets
Friday 10 November - Oriole/Ingrid Laubrock ( Spitz, Commercial St, E1 (020 7254 4097)
Sunday 12 - Christine Tobin (Floral Hall, Covent Garden, 4pm phone 0207-304 4000 )
Sunday 12 November - Oregon + Julie Sassoon (Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank click here )
Sunday 12 - Billy Jenkins 'Songs of Praise' ( Spitz, Commercial St, E1 (020 7254 4097)
Monday 13 - Finn Peters + Tom Arthurs (Spitz, Commercial St, E1 (020 7254 4097)
Monday 13 - Led Bib + Chris Batchelor (Vortex, Jazz Club, N16, 020 7254 4097)
Wednesday 15 - Britten Sinfonia Bach Meets Moondog incl. Seb Rochford (drums) (QEH,click here)
Thursday 16 - EST + Polar Bear (Barbican, EC2. www.barbican.org.uk)
Friday 17 - Christine Tobin (Vortex, Jazz Club, N16, 020 7254 4097)