May jazz gigs at the Howard Assembly Room

 Courtney Pine and Zoe Rahman 4 May

 Cory Henry 14 May

High Masekela 28 May

Three major jazz concerts grace the Howard Assembly Room in Leeds during May. Firstly Courtney Pine and Zoe Rahman refashion well-known standards on 4th May with an intimate airing of their studio album Song (The Ballad Book) . Pine’s virtuosic bass clarinet combines with Zoe Rahman’s exquisite keyboard interplay on standards including Amazing Grace and A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, alongside more recent classics from Chaka Khan and Donny Hathaway.

Another huge talent using the Great American Songbook as his raw material, young Hammond organ maestro Cory Henry (14 May) takes jazz and gospel standards as jumping-off points for playful, soulful and incandescent improvised excursions.

A friendship stretching back over half a century is celebrated with the visit of two jazz icons, South African horn player Hugh Masekela and American pianist Larry Willis, on 28 May. From Masekela’s righteous apartheid-era Afro-jazz and hits like Grazing in the Grass, to yet more standards from the likes of Gershwin and Cole Porter, they promise a cross-continental journey through the music and the turbulent history of the last century, in the company of two legendary performers who were there.

More details and tickets
http://www.operanorth.co.uk/howard-assembly-room