John O’Gallagher – Chasing The Unicorn this evening
There’s something extra special happening down in Digbeth this evening. That “extra” is crucial because, such is the excellence of the programming at Jazz @ The Spotted Dog and at Fizzle‘s Lamp Tavern sessions that “special” has been turned into a regular occurrence: weekly at the Dog, fortnightly at the Lamp.
This evening The Spotted Dog boasts pianist and Birmingham Conservatoire teacher Hans Koller‘s band Chasing The Unicorn, featuring Conservatoire visiting artist John O’Gallagher on alto saxophone, with Percy Pursglove on bass and Jeff Williams on drums. This is a jazz group of seriously high order, all four players band leaders in their own right, and O’Gallagher a particularly welcome visitor.
The Californian-born, New York-based saxophonist’s CD The Anton Webern Project (exactly what it says) drew admiring reviews all round last year (thejazzbreakfast’s is here), and he has a new trio album coming out soon. O’Gallagher has been a sideman with Joe Henderson, Maria Schneider, Billy Hart and Rudresh Mahanthappa among others.
The classy playing of Hans, Percy and Jeff will be familiar to Birmingham’s jazz fans.
The music starts at 9pm, there is food from 8pm, a jam session organised by Filippo Radicchi afterwards and all this for £5 (or more) in the beer glass when it comes round. The fact that this is an Irish pub and today is St Patrick’s Day is just the foam on the Guinness.
- For this and the other jazz riches around town this evening – both Fizzle and Jazzlines have events on – go to the March Diary listings here.
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thejazzbreakfast 
We’re doing pretty well up here in Sheffield, thanks to the heroic efforts of Jez matthews at Lescar Jazz and a more adventurous Sheffield jazz programme. But these gigs at the The Spotted Dog – tonight’s being a perfect example – sound fantastic!