Tonight:
9°c
Latest: Policeman admits murdering his fiancee — also a constable — then staging a fake car crash days before they were due to marry in St Lucia
More...
New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Jack Massarik's rating
Reader rating
Description: American jazz ensemble.
Phone: 0207439 0747
Website: www.ronniescotts.co.uk
Email: ronniescotts@ronniescotts.co.uk
Trains: Tube: Leicester Square 
Extra info: Party Hire, Air Conditioning, Pub
Well played: Trumpeter Alexander Sipiagin does Mingus Dynasty
It's exactly half a century since 1959, something of an annus mirabilis of jazz, being the recording date of three seminal albums — Kind of Blue, Giant Steps and Mingus Ah Um. Their progenitors, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus, are all long gone, but Mingus’s feisty widow, Sue, keeps his music alive with a vengeance fuelled by the struggle to hear it performed during his lifetime.
Listening to a brilliant septet drawn from this orchestra last night, one was struck by how well Mingus’s ensemble arrangements are now played, far more precisely than when he was alive. His original soloists were superb but it has taken 50 loving years for section players to reel off his complex orchestral visions. And how proud Charles would have been to find two Russians — bassist Boris Kozlov and trumpeter Alexander Sipiagian —among them, a living embodiment of his multi-racial dream.
Reincarnation of a Love Bird, Mingus’s salute to Charlie Parker, drew impressive solos from Sipiagin and altoist Craig Handy. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, a classic requiem for Lester Young, inspired masterly tenor-sax from London-born Wayne Escoffery and a powerful new vocal — “he took him a white wife and some saw red/ enough to drive them from their hotel bed” — by trombonist Frank Lacey.
A lesser-known Mingus gem, GG Train, featured Donald Edwards, latest in a long line of butt-kicking drummers dating back to the great Dannie Richmond. Give yourself a treat and hear them.
Until tomorrow. Information: 020 7439 0747.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
