U3AC JAZZ ON A MONDAY AFTERNOON AUTUMN 2025
FOLLOW-UP INFORMATION FOR THOSE INTERESTED
Basic Texts:
“Jazz” by John Fordham. Published by Dorling and Kindersley, 1993. Out of print but check on ebay for very cheap used copies at around £3 including postage. It is very well illustrated and particularly good for beginners, aimed at a wide audience including young people.
“A New History of Jazz” by Alyn Shipton, 2nd Edition 2008. Published by Penguin. Currently used copies on ebay for around £5 including postage.
The Players:
“The Rough Guide to Jazz” by Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather and Brian Priestley, 3rd Edition 2004 (Miles Davis on the cover). Published by Rough Guides distributed by Penguin. Out of print but around £4 used including postage on ebay. It is good for giving details of a large number of jazz performers and their key recordings.
The Recordings:
“The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings” by Richard Cook and Brian Morton. The latest (and probably last as Cook died young soon after) edition was the 9th published by Penguin in 2008. Up until the 7th edition it listed and reviewed all the UK Jazz catalogue that was current at the time of the edition, so old editions are still very useful and can sometimes turn up cheaply in charity shops and on the internet. This is the “Bible” for jazz recordings. The seventh edition of 2004 is considered to be the most useful as it fully covered all recordings available at the time, whereas editions since 2004 were selective. The 2004 7th edition is now quite sought after and is currently available on ebay for around £9 including postage. Paul Neeve (books and CDs on the north side of Cambridge Market by Rose Crescent) on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays often has copies for sale for around £5. Taken from the above Penguin Guide is “A History of the Music in 1001 Albums”. There are mixed feelings as to how useful it is.
A BBC Music Magazine Special Jazz edition of “100 Jazz Legends” by Geoffrey Smith was published in 2011. It is very useful with recommended recordings for each of the 100 legends. Currently £8 including postage on ebay. There is also a small format “Rough Guide to 100 Essential Jazz CDs” on ebay at around £3 including postage. This is a real bargain.
The UK based jazz magazine with the widest coverage is “Jazzwise” available monthly from what was W H Smiths in the city centre but is cheaper on subscription. An internet subscription web-based edition with access to all back-numbers is also available. It has articles and reviews of new recordings and re-releases. They also have “The 100 Jazz Albums that Shook the World” published in 2022 for £14:99 which is excellent.
The full series of the Ken Burns “History of Jazz” made for US PBS TV is currently available in a 4 DVD box set for £13 on ebay. The accompanying book is also well produced and can currently be got on ebay for £4 including postage.
THE CAMBRIDGE LIVE JAZZ SCENE:
- The current (September 2025 - things can change quickly so you must check out the situation before you go) jazz sessions in the city are:
- Cambridge Modern Jazz, currently has one gig a month on Thursdays at Hidden Rooms, Jesus Lane, Cambridge. See the current leaflet and their website for information and to buy tickets on line:
www.cambridgejazz.org
- This years Cambridge Jazz Festival is being held between 5th and 23rd November 2025. The details of the programme are now available on their website:
www.cambridgejazzfestival.info
- Listen put on jazz gigs in Cambridge covering the more free improvisation spectrum of jazz. These are normally held monthly on Saturdays in the Unitarian Church, 5 Emmanuel Street, next to Christ’s Pieces, Cambridge. Check the web for details:
www.listencambridge.com
For October 2025 they have four weekly gigs.
-Sound Hunt put on free improvisation gigs in Cambridge. These were monthly in the basement of the Thrive Café in Norfolk Street, Cambridge. The café is due to close at the end of 2025 and an alternative venue at Junction 3 is being suggested. Check out Sound Hunt’s website:
www.soundhunt3.wordpress.com
-There are jazz gigs at Stapleford Granary but be warned that public transport back from Stapleford late at night is poor. Check their website:
www.staplefordgranary.org.uk
Regular Jazz Sessions
The current (September 2025 - things can change quickly so you must check before you go) regular jazz sessions in the city are:
-Tuesdays 8:00pm, The Tram Depot, off East Road opposite Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. This is a variable but friendly and laid-back jazz jam session.
-The Cambridge Jazz Speakeasy has well organised gigs on the first Wednesday of the Month at the Tram Depot and on the third Wednesday of the month at the Newnham Croft Social Club, Hardwick Street, Cambridge starting at 7:30pm. There is no entry charge except for special one-offs. You do not have to be a member of the Social Club to get in.
-Sundays 7:30pm at the Tram Depot Andy Bowie’s quartet play mainly 1950s and 1960s numbers. No charge but they take a collection for the band. A great way to end the weekend especially as most of us don’t have to go to work the next morning!
-The Geldart pub on Ainsworth Street, Cambridge has live jazz most Tuesdays and Sunday evenings. Entrance is around £6. Check their website. It is currently the place for top flight local jazz.
-The Gonville Hotel overlooking Parker’s Piece has live jazz on Friday and Saturday evenings at 7pm to 9pm organised by Robin Phillips. You just have to buy an (expensive) drink! They also have one-off jazz gigs.
-Parkers Tavern at the University Arms Hotel in Regent Street, Cambridge, (overlooking Parker’s Piece) has live jazz on Fridays between 9pm and 11pm. You just have to buy a (very expensive) drink.
-The Lab Cocktail Bar on Regent Street, Cambridge has live jazz gigs about once a month on Sundays at 4pm organised by Tim Boniface.
- Hot Numbers Cafe in Gwydir Street, Cambridge has live jazz once a month on Fridays organised by Kevin Flanagan.
-Cambridge University have a jazz orchestra (CUJO) that is of an exceptionally high standard and gives occasional but poorly publicised concerts. Most of the members are not even studying music! Keep an eye on the internet. Individual colleges often have their own jazz groups but this obviously varies from year to year depending on the student intake.
-Clare College has jazz gigs in the cellar under the chapel. These normally start at 9pm on occasional Saturday evenings in term time. You need to keep an eye on the internet. They are not fussy who they let in.
Cambridge Junction, Cambridge Arts Theatre (currently under refurbishment) and Cambridge Corn Exchange have occasional jazz gigs.
Sadly Herts Jazz and the Herts Jazz Festival did not survive the pandemic and have shut down. Peterborough Jazz Club restarted monthly gigs at the Key Theatre in Peterborough in January 2024.
The Apex venue in Bury St Edmunds has some jazz gigs but for those without their own wheels be warned that public transport out of Bury in the late evening is a nightmare! Saffron Hall at Saffron Walden also has jazz gigs.
The St Ives (Cambs not Cornwall!) Jazz and Blues Festival takes place in September. It uses many venues in the centre of the town, so you walk from one event to the other. It is mostly free in terms of having no admission charge (not the type of jazz!).
SOURCES OF JAZZ ON RECORD/DISC:
There is a list of 100 recommended recordings on this website which would form a core jazz collection. The glory days of having over 10 record shops in central Cambridge, including a specialist jazz record shop, are now unfortunately long gone. The following is what is around at the moment, although things can change:
-FOPP (owned by HMV but run independently) is in the centre of Cambridge in Sidney Street near Sainsbury’s and has a Jazz CD section on the ground floor to the back left and also currently has a new record (LP) section to the middle right of the shop. They have good discounts on CDs. In the past over time you could build up a good basic jazz collection and never spend more than £4 for a CD. However prices are now starting to rise fast for some things. Blue Note CDs that were £4 last year are now £11. They have the Avid 4LPs on 2CDs for £6 and in the past they have had box set reissues cheaper than on-line. There are also some new LP reissues. The staff are helpful and can order things for you.
-Lost in Vinyl just north of Magdalene Bridge have new and new reissue jazz LPs. They are cheaper than FOPP and the same or even cheaper than online and without postage costs. They can order things for you.
-There are second hand LP record and CD stalls on Cambridge Market. There are different stalls and price ranges on different days. Paul Neeve on Fridays, Saturday and Sundays on the north side is very knowledgeable and helpful. Also check out charity shops.
-Otherwise you will have to go to London or use the internet. In London “Rays Jazz” in Foyles bookshop in Charing Cross Road is the longest running specialist jazz record store and has both new and second-hand CDs and LPs. There are occasional record fairs in Cambridge sometimes with a specialist jazz stall.
RADIO AND TV
National Radio (see listings in Jazzwise magazine). Schedules can change at short notice
-Despite its name, the radio station Jazz FM is available on DAB in some areas or online (but not on FM!).
-A new Jazz online radio station based in the UK is One Jazz Radio
-BBC Radio 3 Weekdays 11:30pm “Round Midnight”
-BBC Radio 3 Sundays 4pm till 5pm “Jazz Record Requests”.
-BBC Radio 2 Tuesdays at 9pm Jamie Cullum expertly covers a very wide range of jazz.
All BBC Radio programmes are available for free on demand on the BBC I Player
-Check Cambridge Radio (formerly Cambridge 105) on line. Pete Butchers has a jazz programme every week on Sundays between 4pm and 5pm. He previews all the local live gigs for the next few weeks. The sound quality is also very good.
There are loads of internet jazz radio stations across the world. Current favourites include:
-KCSM USA West Coast
-Jazz 90.1 New York
-Pure Jazz Radio (Worldwide cover including Scotland and South Africa!)
TV
-Very little in the UK, especially when compared to the Far East.
-Video/DVD of old concerts and occasional one-off programmes on the BBC (normally BBC 4 on Friday evenings) and Channel 4.
-Quincy Jones founded Quest TV can be viewed online
-The full series of the Ken Burns History of Jazz made for US PBS TV is currently available in a 4 DVD box set for £13 on the net. The accompanying book is also good and can be got for £4 (including postage) online.
