Jazz notes

2:53 pm Thursday 5th June 2014
Music news and reviews
Apart from discussions about styles of jazz and its performers` competence (or lack of it), the next concern is the sound within the room, usually described as the room`s “acoustic.”

With the big British revival of live jazz in the 1950s and 60s, the main venues tended to be church halls and we were so excited with this new music, we didn`t care whether the sound bounced around the hard walls and echoed up into the rafters.

Pub venues are less problematic, having modest-sized rooms with low ceilings and need little electronic amplification, except for vocals. Hotels and restaurants have carpets, curtains, tablecloths and upholstered chairs, all of which absorb extraneous sounds and save having to sweep up the damaged ears off the floor at the end of the night.

One of York`s top-rated rooms, acoustically, is Middleton`s Hotel, Skeldergate/Cromwell Road. The various buildings in the Hotel complex have a fascinating history – brickworks, organ factory, sawmill to name just three previous occupants.

Thursday night jazz at the Hotel is in the Central Lounge area, where some of the handsomely vaulted roof beams were salvaged from the sawmill woodyard and they do a terrific job in mellowing down the music to very comfortable levels. Judge for yourself tonight, when the six-piece Mardi Gras Band will play at 8.30pm (01904 611570).

The National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) is based in the de-consecrated St Margaret`s Church, Walmgate, and the lofty ceiling and beautiful stone walls work wonderfully with voices or un-amplified instruments. However, there has been some criticism in the past regarding the sound quality for music with any amplification. Measures have been taken by the management and we can expect tomorrow night`s concert by the Karen Sharp Quartet to be a treat for the ears (01904 658338).
Read more: http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/leisure/music/11259503.Jazz_notes/?ref=rss