How do you get rid of £12 in 15 seconds, without having invested in a man called Madoff? Try the Giant Tobaggan Snow Slide at Hyde Park's annual Winter Wonderland
Read full article...Even during a prosperous year, I have often felt that Paris Fashion Week, with its champagne parties, dark-windowed limos and fashion editors wasting thousands on handbags, teetered on the absurd. But this year it was like watching Louis XIV's court gorge themselves while the rest of the country starved
It takes place at 41 venues over 10 nights and ranges from world music to the complete works of Thelonious Monk - Jack Massarik previews the London Jazz Festival.
A year to the day since it reopened its doors there are complaints that the celebrated jazz club has lost its heart and fears that it's set to be taken over.
Jack Massarik picks five groovy jazz gigs to see in the New Year and riff you into 2007.
Gig review: Prim is a word seldom applied to Chick Corea, but after 20 minutes of sedate chamber-jazz by the great US pianist, numbness began to set in and Jack Massarik was left wondering where all the Friday-night fever had gone.
Like the EST (Esbjörn Svensson Trio) before them, this hypersensitive young Norwegian piano trio create a dreamlike foam-bath ambience that vibrates heartstrings, as do singers Kurt Elling (QEH, Fri 18 Nov) and Harry Connick Jr (with Branford Marsalis, Shaw Theatre, Wed 16 and Fri 18 Nov).
Guitarist Tony Remy follows up his memorable Stevie Wonder tribute last month with a night dedicated to diminutive pop-funk hero, Prince. Remy has rounded up another all-star cast of jazz players to back up singers such as Nate James, Don-E, Z-Star and Chas Smash.
Jazz-funk guitarist Tony Remy celebrates the soul superstar's 55th birthday. The great man himself won't be there, sadly, but an A-list London line-up goes some way to make up for it. Remy has brought together tenorist Jean Toussaint and singers Roachford, Omar, Noel McKoy, Hamish Stewart and Amy Winehouse.
Youth is the theme at the premier event in the London jazz calendar, with up-and-coming singers and players, including Gwyneth Herbert, edging into the spotlight beside such international heavyweights as Ravi Coltrane and Sam Rivers.
Review:Miriam Makeba concerts attract a wide racial mix, which among other things makes her not only one of the best liked artists on the international circuit but also one of the most respected, with her pithy political messages and autobiographical clout
Ronny Jordan
Concert review: For some contemporary composers, words are no more than abstract sounds. For Luciano Berio, musicality and textual meaning were not exclusive, but inseparable.
Wherever jazz is played, the name of Billie Holiday is mentioned with a special reverence. Her intense voice gave the tritest love song an emotional punch that rattled the ribcage. And today, she still exerts a remarkable power over new generations of female singers who never heard her live...
Does a jazz alto-saxophonist from Birmingham stand any chance of beating 11 of Britain's trendiest groups to the Mercury Music Prize for best album of the year? Sax 'n' rap jazz pioneer Soweto Kinch just might, says Jack Massarik.
Although best known for his romantic, soulful tunes, George Benson is also a jazz guitarist of some repute. Jack Massarik watched his show at the Albert Hall on Wednesday, and heard both big hits and virtuoso fret work alike.
Nina Simone, who combined classical music training with an earthy, soulful vocal style that grabbed audiences all over the world, has died aged 70.
Sponsored again by BBC Radio 3, the 100th London Jazz Festival brings 10 days of national and international music to the South Bank and other regular jazz venues, notably the Dean Street Pizza Express Jazz Club, Ronnie Scott's and the Jazz Cafe. The big-draw jazz attractions include Lee Konitz, Sheila Jordan, Joe Lovano, Brad Mehldau Jane Monheit, David Murray, Courtney Pine and Julian Joseph with George Coleman, Johnny Griffin and Mica Paris.
Queues were forming for Joe Zawinul last night, and with good reason. For one, this keyboard superstar and composer extraordinaire doesn't normally play jazz clubs.
Akiko: jazz or cabaret artist? Not even her American manager knew for sure, so we applied the CHEC test.
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