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Jazz at the Keys presents high quality modern jazz performed by leading musicians in convivial and atmospheric surroundings at an affordable price. We aspire to entertain and enthuse in the hope that you will discover the delights and surprises of this wonderful music created in the moment. Whether you are a jazz aficionado, simply curious as to what jazz is all about, or somewhere in between, we extend a warm welcome to you all. Licensed Bar

Ticket Prices For All Events:

£10 - Students £7

Doors Open 8.00 Sessions Start 8.30

Book Tickets

Spring Summer Season 2017 - 1st July Alan Skidmore and Rod Mason

Skidmore began his professional career at 16 and early in his career toured with comedian Tony Hancock. In the mid to late 1960s he worked with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Ronnie Scott's band. In the 1970s, he was part of Keith Tippett's jazz fusion big band Centipede and worked with Soft Machine, The Nice, Graham Collier, Brotherhood of Breath, Mike Gibbs, Elton Dean, Kate Bush, and Curved Air. He has worked with Chick Corea, Alexis Korner, Georgie Fame, and Van Morrison. In 1977 he was in Lala Kovacev's avant-garde jazz quartet European Jazz Consensus with Gerd Dudek and Adelhard Roidinger. The group released two albums the same year entitled Four for Slavia and Morning Rise.

His first solo album was 1969's Once Upon a Time and on this and his other albums a strong John Coltrane influence can be heard, especially on his 1988 album Tribute to 'trane, and 1998's After the Rain, orchestral settings of tunes that had been recorded (and some of them written) by Coltrane. In 1973 he co-founded the all-saxophone ensemble S.O.S. with John Surman and Mike Osborne. At the end of the Apartheid regime he went to South Africa to record with musicians from the percussion group Amampondo, including pianist Simpiwe Matole, playing modern jazz over a texture of African percussion and chants.

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Rod is a Midland lad who moved North to study the Saxophone at the now Huddersfield University. He started playing the saxophone aged 12 during his 2nd year at secondary school. Whilst at school he became involved with the local Big Band and discovered the joys of swing and jazz. He played in many local youth jazz orchestras as well as playing with the M.U. Big Band. Upon moving to Huddersfield he began playing with many Northern bands and also started to form his own small groups. One of the big turning points for Rod was one Friday night watching The Old Grey Whistle Test, when he first discovered the Billy Cobham band which at that time included the Brecker brothers and John Abercrombie). This was to change his musical outlook on life.
Whilst at college he gained his degree in Music studying all the great classical composers but also did talks for the college on jazz music and for his final assignment wrote about jazz music.At University he formed with others the Northern Jazz Orchestra which played throughout the North at festivals and other venues, Rod was the M.D. for 2 years. He also had a small band playing original compositions.

Ben Crosland Trio


Ben Crosland	Dave Tyas

The Hudersfield Daily Examiner

Review: Ben Crosland Trio with Steve Waterman and Dave O’Higgins @ The Keys, Huddersfield

The new series of gigs launched by jazz scene mover-and-shaker Ben Crosland drew a good-sized audience to The Keys for a night of hard swinging music featuring front-liners Steve Waterman on trumpet and flugel and Dave O’Higgins on tenor sax.

Crosland himself backed up on bass guitar – playing with restrained muscularity - and the other members of his Trio were the eloquent keyboardist Paul Kilvington and drummer Dave Tyas, who might just qualify for the “veteran” tag, but has lost none of his energy and resourcefulness behind the kit.

It was interesting to note the sheer speed of his response to ideas from the soloists. When trumpet or sax played triplets, for example, Tyas seemed to pick up and echo this almost instantaneously.

The repertoire for the night consisted largely of post-bop numbers composed or arranged by canonic figures such as Art Blakey, Horace Silver and Benny Golson. But the gig really took off three numbers in with a Latinised and funky version of Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily So.

This was one of the performances of the night, introduced by a rolling bass riff and including a sax solo from O’Higgins that culminated in the high velocity playing he is noted for.

Another standout number was a Steve Waterman composition, the modal Destination Unknown, which became a fascinatingly multi-episodic performance. After a sheets-of-sound sax solo there was an impressionistic drum interlude over a pedal bass and a mesmerising coda from the trumpeter, in which Waterman used circular breathing to execute a long, repetitive cadenza that had overtones of Phillip Glass.

The gig included two ballads – I Fall in Love Too Easily featured trumpeter Waterman and When Sunny Gets Blue was a solo vehicle for O’Higgins that begun beguilingly as a duo for sax and bass. A willingness to vary the texture at various points was one of the impressive aspects of the evening.

The next Jazz at the Keys is on Saturday, March 5, when the Ben Crosland Trio will be joined by reedsman Alan Barnes.

By William Marshall

2016

Jazz At The Keys - 2017 Winter-Spring-Summer Season

	11th February		25th March		8th. April		1st July
	John Ethridge		Alan Barnes with Ben Crosland Trio		Mike Walker/Iain Dixon Quartet		Alan Skidmore with Ben Crosland Trio

Jazz At The Keys - 2016 Autumn-Winter Season

	9th September		1st October		5th November		2nd December
	Snake Davis		Mark Nightingale		Tina May with Nikki Iles Trio		Art Themen

Jazz At The Keys - 2016 Spring-Summer Season

6th February		5th March		2nd April		7th May		4th June		2nd July
Dave O'Higgins and Steve Waterman		Alan Barnes		Jim Mullen/Rod Mason Quartet		Stuart McCallum Trio.		Martin Shaw		Dennis Rollins