Simon ParkinTONY WOODS PROJECTMilestones Jazz Club, Hotel Hatfield, Lowestoft, �7 (�6 cons), 01502 568684Engaging, intelligent post-bop with a folk edge from saxophonist Tony Woods and a fine band featuring superb guitarist Mike Outram.Simon Parkin

TONY WOODS PROJECT

Milestones Jazz Club, Hotel Hatfield, Lowestoft, �7 (�6 cons), 01502 568684

Engaging, intelligent post-bop with a folk edge from saxophonist Tony Woods and a fine band featuring superb guitarist Mike Outram.

An alto-saxophonist and composer, Woods' emotional work is full of subtle surprises that mingles hard-hitting post-bop and English folk music, a raw passionate edge with a tender lyricism. His modern jazz freshness and originality is helped no end by the backing of one of the UK's top bands, featuring not only the great Mike Outram, but Robert Millett on vibraphone, Andy Hamill on double bass and drummer Milo Fell.

If ever a band deserved a higher profile, it has to be this one. They mix European sensibility and American grooves, with Woods' deceptively reserved playing igniting all kinds of hidden fires.

This appearance, the latest of the Milestones excellent monthly jazz night at the Hotel hatfield on Lowestoft's Espalarde, is part of a national tour supported by Jazz Services.

www.milestonesjazzclub.co.uk

KATIE BROWN

Rackheath Green Man, August 4, admission free, 01603 782693

Outstanding professional alto player, Katie Brown studied saxophone and clarinet at the Royal Northern College of Music. She won a Daily Telegraph Young Jazz Soloist of the Year Award in 1992 and in 1994 won a Rotary Scholarship to study jazz for a year at the University of Tennessee.

Since returning to the UK she has been working as a freelance jazz musician in and around London. For the past 11-years she has held the post of saxophone teacher and jazz educator at St Paul's School in London where she leads the school big band and various jazz ensembles.

This performance at the Green Man will see her backed by the home band, the Mike Capocci Trio.

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ACOUSTIC LADYLAND

Norwich Arts Centre, September 24, �10 (�8 cons), 01603 660352, www.norwichartscentre.co.uk

This most singular of bands loves to mess with convention, although there is nothing about them that is tricksy or arch. Their sound is jazz - but not in the least inhibited by the jazz tradition, fired by fierce post-punk attitude.

Based upon their mutual distaste for jazz sterility and respect for Jimi Hendrix (hence the name), Acoustic Ladyland have been rattling minds since inception in 2001. The band is Pete Wareham (saxophone/vocals) with Seb Rochford (of Mercury-nominated Polar Bear) on thunderous drums, Tom Herbert (bass) and Tom Cawley (keys).

Their 2005 album, Last Chance Disco, saw them another break with jazz tradition with the drafting in of acclaimed indie music producer Paul Epworth who has previously worked with Bloc Party, The Futureheads and Maximo Park.

And their latest album, Living With A Tiger, edges even closer to a full-on rock album, albeit one informed by jazz. Wareham's blazing alto and tenor leads erupt with a blazing ferocity, while Rochford's drumming provides the concrete backbeat.

www.myspace.com/acousticladylandmusic