The groove-heavy Ezra Collective [Marco Grey]

WITH the Proms in full swing, as it were, it is easy to forget that the Royal Albert Hall has quite the jazz pedigree. True, the relationship hasn’t always gone smoothly, as Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt discovered when the group played a late-night Prom in 1970.

“Before our bit, I went outside for a quick fag and then the doorman didn’t want to let me back in. I’ve got to play in there, I said. You must be kidding, son, he replied. They only let proper musicians in there.”

Jazz-rock was a new concept back then and perhaps the doorman hadn’t quite caught up with what was happening with Miles and Nucleus and the Softs.

Plenty of more conventional jazz greats had played the Hall in the 50s and 60s – Sinatra, of course, Billie Holiday, Cleo Laine, Billie Holiday, John Dankworth, Ronnie Scott, Sarah Vaughan,  Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson – and it presented nights such The Jazz Big Show, Jazz Cavalcade Star Parade and All Night Carnival of Jazz.

The RAH went through something of a fallow jazz period in the 1970s and into the 1980s, slowly recovering its mojo in the subsequent decades and in the past few years it has made a strong comeback. Not every jazzer has to try and fill that soaring but intimidating main auditorium with its 5,500 capacity – there is also a programme called Late Night Jazz (not that late: 9.30pm start) which takes place in the more relaxed Elgar Room.

Coming up in there are singer-pianist Allysha Joy on September 21; the Harper Trio (where electric jazz harpist Maria-Christina Harper combines her Greek and Egyptian roots with free jazz – check out the album Passing By to get the idea) on September 28 and on October 5 three friends of this column come together for a new concept for the Elgar – dinner and jazz. It involves Guy Barker (trumpet/composer/arranger who has played with everyone from Sinatra to Sting and is no stranger to the main hall), Ian Shaw (award-winning vocalist, new album Greek Street Friday out Sept 1) and Giacomo Smith, the lynchpin of Kansas Smitty’s.

The format, says Barker, will be: “People will eat, we’ll play some jazz, tell some stories, people eat some more.”

There’ll also be a Q&A slot – ask for the tale of the two Canadian brothers who went to see The Lost Weekend. It’s one of my favourites of a library-worth of Barker anecdotes. Details on RAH website soon.

The Elgar Room also acts as something of a hothouse /showcase for emerging bands. The groove-heavy Ezra Collective played the room a couple of years ago. Recently the jazz/dance/hip-hop group took the West Holts stage at Glastonbury by storm and soon they will be playing the main RAH auditorium. If anyone can fill it with joyous noise it will be drummer Femi Koleosi, keys man Joe Armon-Jones and the rest of EC. They take the hallowed stage on November 7.

Before that, trumpeter Matthew Halsall takes up the challenge of taming the big room. He has played the Elgar Room too, but, as far as I can recall, only as a DJ. Halsall is a Mancunian who almost single-handedly kicked off the “nu-jazz” scene there.

He began his career very much in a modal Miles style (see his very fine Colour Yes album) but has evolved towards an Alice Coltrane/Pharoah Sanders spiritual vibe, with plenty of Far Eastern influences in the use of percussion, bells, harp and flutes.

I saw him at the Palladium a while back and although the music was often soft and ethereal, the band held the audience absolutely mesmerised.

He is joined by the saxophonist Chip Wickham, who has a highly recommended album out on Halsall’s Gondwana label called Cloud 10. Halsall brings his own new album An Ever-Changing View and some old favourites to the Hall on September 21 and he is pretty stoked about it.

As he told me: “To be able to perform at the Royal Albert Hall feels like a benchmark. It shows how far we’ve come over the last 15 years as musicians, individuals and as a record label. It’s an incredible architectural space with iconic musical history and the night is going to be really special for everyone involved.”

There will perhaps be a grittier sound when super-tight drummer Yussuf Dayes plays there on October 12, as he brings the heritage of his bass-playing father’s and jazz record collection and his own love of grime and hip-hop to bear. You may remember Dayes from the Yussuf Kamaal group who made the exciting Black Focus album and promptly split up. His debut solo studio album, called Black Classical Music, is out September 10, which I suggest you buy, because, as I write, the RAH gig is very close to being sold out (although there are other dates around the country – see https://yussefdayes.com).

That shows how far in advance you have to book popular shows these days. So, think about getting tickets for Gregory Porter (December 13), who is becoming a very regular visitor, and Guy Barker’s annual Big Band Christmas (December 20), which is always a blast, as Barker re-arranges old favourites, digs up forgotten Christmas nuggets, brings on special guests (including this year new vocal supergroup Flight Call) and generally gets the Hall in the mood for the holidays.

Yes, sorry about mentioning that in August. Tickets for all events: https://www.royalalberthall.com

Closer to home, deep-voiced Italian soul-jazz-Latin singer Mario Biondi brings his crack band to The Forge for a six-night residency (August 29-September 3). I caught him at Ronnie Scott’s pre-Covid and if you are in the mood for superior easy-on-the-ear listening, you’ll love it. Tickets: https://www.seetickets.com/venue/the-forge-camden/9915

Back in Soho, Ronnie Scott’s continues to sprinkle new, innovative and unexpected artists among its roster of jazz stalwarts, something that is to be applauded, as playing the club outside the much-recommended Late Late Show slot (which begins at 11.15pm) is an important milestone for any jazz-influenced group.

One such is new Acid Jazz Records signing Mama Terra (album: The Summoned), which took the early show this Wednesday just gone. The roots of this group are in Glasgow, part of a tremendous Scottish jazz scene, which includes pianists Fergus McCreadie and Brian Kellock, guitarist Graeme Stephen, drummer Tom Bancroft, producer, DJ Rebecca Vasmant, saxophonist Helena Kay and singer Georgia Cécile, all of whom can be found slumming it here in the capital now and then.

Mama Terra’s album promises us “a conceptual journey through life and the universe” which to my mind suggested, rather ominously, an old Moody Blues album, but in fact what we have is an excellent jazz-fusion-soul band dealing in catchy songs, melodies and riffs.

Rather than the Moodies, it channels early Coltrane and late Pharoah Sanders (especially in Konrad Wiszniewski’s ecstatic sax outbursts), Robert Glasper, Meshell Ndegeocello, as well as, thanks to Rachel Lightbody’s ethereal, (mostly) wordless vocals, the first incarnation of Return to Forever with Flora Purim or (and this is going back a fair bit) Jeff Clyne’s Turning Point.

The group is the brainchild of the upper-case-only keyboard player CAFOLLA who put the group and record together during lockdown and utilised (remotely) some crack US musicians. Live at Ronnie’s, it’s the regular septet who give the album an extra fizz as they brew up a not-so-quiet storm.

The jazz element is more pronounced, with extended solos (although they don’t outstay their welcome), Rachel Lightbody often acts as the fourth instrument in the sax/flugel/trombone front line to good effect and Marco Cafolla turns out be a warm, witty host.

Starting with the upbeat and bouncy Sunday and navigating through the album (including, of course, the Jazz FM hit A Mind Supreme), with some strong new material on display, especially Root and Fruits, the band is tight – stopping a tune on the proverbial sixpence is a speciality – and it finishes with soulful vocals from Ms Lightbody on an exuberant Incredulous, a track also not on the record. Buy the album by all means but try and catch Mama Terra live for an enhanced experience.

In fact, a slightly stripped-down version of Mama Terra will be playing in a very different context at the Pizza Express Holborn on August 29. Organised by the Hampstead Jazz Club and Jazz FM as part of their Classic Albums Playback series, the band will be part of an evening exploring the importance and legacy of Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.

Introduced by jazz FM’s Claire Martin, it will feature a panel chaired by Ian Shaw, a playback of the Head Hunters record and then a mini-set of music from (or inspired by) the album performed by Mama Terra.

The event will form two programmes to be broadcast by Jazz FM. Tickets: https://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/whats-on/mama-terra-jazz-fm-classic-album-series. The following night (August 30) that very fine guitarist Nigel Price will feature in the playback session of the recently re-issued-on-vinyl Wynton Kelly Trio with Wes Montgomery – Smokin’ at The Half Note, with a trio led by Leo Greening on piano. The format will be similar to the above, with Claire Martin hosting and Ian Shaw moderating and two subsequent Jazz FM broadcasts. Note that this gig will be at the Hampstead Jazz Club and tickets are very limited – see https://hampsteadjazzclub.com/whats-on/nigel-price-jazz-fm-classic-album-series/