In August at the Monmouth Show in 2007, jazz-in were on stage in the band stand at the time that the Spitfire did it's aerobatics; consequently we missed it. However we're booked again for 2008 and maybe will get a second chance to enjoy the spectacle.

The quartets' appearances also include The Vale of Glamorgan Hotel, The Glen-yr-Avon Hotel, Cwrt Bleddyn Hotel Usk, County Hall, Cwmbran, the Jazz Cafe, Cardiff and The Celtic Manor, Newport for the Five Counties Awards ceremony

On September 28, 2008 we are again appearing at the Riverfront Theatre, Newport, this time in their lunchtime recital series and on February 13, 2009 at The Stage Door, The Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl.

Jazz In is resident at the Hen and Chickens, Abergavenny, every sunday lunchtime and appears every six weeks or so at the Queens Hotel, Monmouth in the weekly, wednesday evening jazz sessions.


REVIEW: The Riverfront Theatre, Newport

BOTH jazz lovers and those who know little about the music are apt to overlook its minor miracles of invention.

Take, for example, the subtle stimulus provided by drummer, John Gibbon, towards the end of 'Stella by Starlight', played as a trio number alongside pianist, Lynn Thomas, and bassist, Dayne
Cronenburgh,while Jazz-In's leader, John Collier, rested his alto sax and flute.
Performing with brushes - a dying art - and on a minimal kit, he showed that without a rhythm section operating convincingly with instinct, variation and drive, a small jazz group can barely leave the doldrums.

Jazz-In's foursome avoided them from the start, hopping straight into view with Coleman Hawkins's 'Stuffy' and minutes later beguiling with a dreamy introduction to 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow', segueing into a fast semi-bossa tempo for the home furlong.

Little was predictable about this well-practised local band, not even its approach to modern classics - such as Miles Davis's 'So What', performed as a modal feature for the busy but time-sensitive Cronenburg. At the end there was a diminuendo , so brief as to be almost missable, but helping to give the performance shape.

John Collier was pivotal to the quartet's efforts, not hogging the podium in Dave Brubeck's 'Brotherly Love' , for example, but driving everything forward on Herbie Mann's single-chord 'Memphis Underground', a test of concentration and locomotion.

Lynn Thomas enjoyed the supremacy of many of his moments on 'Stella', but throughout kept the chord changes clearly visible.

A fine, entertaining band.

Nigel Jarrett