Quinteto Astor Piazzolla [quintetoastorpiazzolla.com]

I KNOW Sting is Marmite to some, but I have a soft spot for Gordon Sumner’s alter ego. Not only has he written a hefty batch of decent songs, in his pomp he employed top-notch jazzers (Branford Marsalis, Guy Barker) and gave them a taste of the rock’n’roll lifestyle. But over and above that, back in the late-1980s, he set up his own record label called Pangaea.

It had an adventurous catalogue, including titles from a little known New York producer called Kip Hanrahan. I haven’t the room to go into the story of Kip, an exciting, exhilarating, infuriating and sometimes pretentious maverick, whose body of work (mostly on his own American Clavé label) I have assiduously collected.

Check out Days and Nights of Blue Luck Inverted on Pangaea as a starter or any of the albums featuring Jack Bruce (yes, that one), whose voice he used to great effect (I love the EP A Few Short Notes from the End Run).

Anyway, what Kip also did was support Argentinian “Nuevo tango” bandoneon master Astor Piazzolla, who you might know from Grace Jones’ I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango). Kip featured Piazzolla on Days and Nights.. and Pangaea put out a trio of Hanrahan-produced albums by the Argentinian.

I caught Piazzolla live in London the late-80s (he died in 1992) and it remains a memorable concert for me, the fusion of jazz, classical tango and wide-screen cinematic themes coalescing into a stirring, evocative soundscape.

So, I shall be in the audience for Quinteto Astor Piazzolla at the Barbican on Sunday, July 27. The group was set up by the Astor Piazzolla Foundation to preserve and promote the work of the composer and the concert will feature many of his best known works, played by first rate musicians. Tickets: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2025/event/quinteto-astor-piazzolla

Amy Gadiaga

Not sure if Sting will be there, but he is at the Kentish Town Forum on October 24, although that is, of course, sold out.

Fun fact: the voice of the classic “You Know When You’ve Been Tango’d” advert is the late, great Gil Scott-Heron. (The set by his writing partner Brian Jackson was another stand out of this year’s Love Supreme festival).

Anyone who has been following the rise of British jazz over the past five or six years will be well aware that the Jazz Re:freshed organisation (now some 21 years of age) has played a pivotal role in promoting many of today’s key players with its record label and gigs (still going strong every Thursday at Ninety One Living Room in Brick Lane, see https://91livingroom.com/)

It also runs an annual festival (Jazz Re:Fest, naturally), based this year at the Clore Ballroom on the lower floor of the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, running noon till 10pm, July 26.

The line-up is a cracker, including Blue Lab Beats, DoomCannon, the excellent drummer Jas Kayser and singer-bassist Amy Gadiaga, who played a wonderful and emotional set at Love Supreme recently. Plenty of albums and merch for sale, too. And it’s free. See: https://www.jazzrefreshed.com/jazz-refest-2025

Jazz Re:freshed mostly represents the cutting edge of modern jazz, but if your tastes run to the more traditional, then check out clarinet virtuoso Adrian Cox’s new album, Club Croco, with guitarist Honey Boulton and Parisian bassist Alex Gilson.

There is an obvious deep love of this New Orleans-style music at work and the superlative playing is hugely evocative of another time and another place.

The amiable Adrian, who delivers a polished, entertaining and immersive live show, brings his trio to the Pizza Express Soho on July 26, with two shows, the earlier one sold out, but at the time of writing there were still tickets for the 9pm slot. See: https://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/whats-on/adrian-cox-trio#event-dates