ONE OF MY FATHER'S PAINTINGS REDISCOVERED!

This 1962 painting by my father Tom Mallin adorns a kitchen wall in France. Thankyou for sharing it with me! I was 8 years old when he painted it. I can remember the table and mat...

JOHN WARD & MARIO PRICE GIGS

John and Mario

Up and coming concerts

Saturday August 27th – The Cut in Halesworth, Suffolk
Sunday Sept 11th - Charity Ceilidh, Oulton Broad Community Centre, Suffolk
Sept 22nd – Darlington Arts Centre, County Durham
Sept 23rd – Cropton Folk Festival, North Yorkshire

Sept 24th – The Swan, Harleston (Waveney & Blyth celebration festival)

More details on John Ward's website

ENDLESS COLLECTION

The struggle is not the collecting of found broken items for my art but the endless sorting and cataloguing.

SEPTEMBER 4th GIG AT MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB - ZOE GILBY

GIFTED YOUNG SINGER RETURNS TO MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB

This month’s concert at Milestones Jazz Club on Sunday 4 September features the return by popular demand of an exciting and gifted young singer from Newcastle fast making her mark on the UK jazz scene – Zoe Gilby and The Andy Champion Trio.

Zoe Gilby last appeared at Milestones in 2010 when she entertained a large audience with accessible, exciting music without losing the deeper subtleties of a fine jazz musician.

Zoe has already been praised by Courtney Pine as deserving of wider recognition when he played her debut CD on his BBC Radio 2 show.


Zoe’s is a versatile voice, which mixes great jazz technique and a healthy dose of the blues with a deeply expressive and agile quality.


A childhood steeped in jazz means that her many influences are clear - not only great vocalists like Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Nancy Wilson and Anita O'Day but also revered instrumentalists like Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker and John Coltrane.


"I was brought up on listening to jazz", says Zoe, "I have had this passion passed on to me from my father who worked professionally as a jazz trumpet player and arranger for over 40 years."


In 2007 she released her debut CD, ‘Now That I Am Real’, which has subsequently been broadcast on radio stations across Europe and the US.


While still so young, Zoe has already performed with fine musicians like Louis Stewart and Jim Mullen, at international jazz festivals around the UK and at prestigious venues like Ronnie Scott’s Club in London.


Zoe’s long-time accompanist, the endlessly resourceful double bass player Andy Champion, will lead sympathetic support on a repertoire of American songbook classics, modern jazz standards and originals from her new CD, ‘Looking Glass’.


The band’s full line-up features Zoe Gilby (vocals), Andy Champion (double bass), Simon Brown (piano) and Brian McAllister (drums).


All Milestones gigs are held on the first Sunday of every month and take place at Hotel Hatfield, Esplanade, Lowestoft with the doors opening at 8pm.

Admission - £7 / £6 (concession).

"Deserves wider recognition and a major record deal. An excellent CD."

Courtney Pine, BBC Radio 2


"Sparkling debut by an exuberant singer whose lively personality comes across on every track. Sheer enjoyment throughout."
Jazz UK Magazine

"Modern, mature... swings like a bell."

Carol Kidd MBE, singer

"An impressive performance from a sophisticated young singer. Her voice has real character. Powerfully sultry and expertly handled"

Jazz Journal International


"A wide vocal range, warm timbre and clear diction which she uses skillfully to unveil her moods. It's clear that she's already found her own voice."
All About Jazz USA

NORTH ELMHAM CHAPEL RUINS, NORFOLK

Interesting ruins. North Elmham's chapel was once a Saxon Cathedral.

GRESSENHALL MUSEUM, NORFOLK

Gressenhall Museum of Rural Life, featuring the Workhouse and Farm, is a must-visit educational tourism location for all to visit. Probably the best museum in East Anglia.

GRESSENHALL COTTAGE

As is made clear, Gressenhall Workhouse wasn't the monster of Dickensian shadows. A beautiful prison?

THE OLD SCHOOL DESK, GRESSENHALL, NORFOLK

I sat in  desk like this at Clare Primary School in the 1950s. These desks occupy the girls' school house in Gressenhall Museum when it was a work house.

THE HORSE, GRESSENHALL MUSEUM

Here is the large wooden horse, based on a drawing by April, one of Norfolk's Traveller Children. The horse was constructed by Karl Foster.

THRESHING MACHINE, GRESSENHALL MUSEUM, NORFOLK

I remember a huge threshing machine like this but gently collapsing at the back of my parents' house in the late 1950s, Snow Hill, Clare, Suffolk. It was inhabitted by chickens in Mr Gifford's Meadow. Though it briefly retained its name, a small farmer bought the field, Mr Lee, but he was bought out by a bigger farmer as he struggled with a few acres.

My mother left in 1981 and the field is now full of mock Georgian houses...