Where are the top cats in October?
Esbjörn Svensson Trio at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Ron Carter's USA group, also at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Oct 19th
And at Ronnie Scott's Club, Joe Zawinul (Oct 14th - 19th) and Cedar Walton (21st - 26th)
Jazz Café presents Joshua Redman for two nights (28th/29th) as part of Camden's Black History Month (his dad's playing at Pizza Express on those days - see below)
British jazz royals John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine celebrate 50 years of jazz together with a mega concert at the Royal Albert Hall (20th)
And Harlem's Gospel Choir visit the Royal Festival Hall (18th)

Jazzin' round the London clubs
Andy Sheppard with his 'Nocturnal Tourist' show at Subterannia (26th); The Spitz presents Gilad Atzmon's interesting Orient House Ensemble for not one but two nights (16th/17th)
Singer Curtis Stigers returns to Pizza Express Jazz Club (11th - 14th) followed by Ben Allison's Peace Pipe (17th), Pat Martino (18th - 21st) and Dewey Redman (28th/29th)
Chelsea's 606 Club offers engaging Canadian tenor player Steve Kaldestad (29th)
Rising star Chris Bowden plays the Subterannia (12th), whilst at Highgate's Lauderdale House, Malcolm Lockeart's highly-original Perfect Houseplants bring their mixture of contemporary jazz and classical, Brazilian, ragtime and cartoon tunes
Bush Hall welcomes terrific Russian piano improviser Amina Figarova and her quintet, which includes flautist Bart Platteau and US flugel star Dimitri Methany
(13th)

Black history month
To mark this diasporic celebration Beat Dis, the Notting hill based music collective, has introduced a season of live jazz and masterclasses at the recently refurbished Tabernacle Arts Centre in Portobello
Styled the Notting Hill Jazz festival, the series was launched on Oct 2nd with a reception where guests included Courtney Pine, Darren Taylor, Kevin Haynes, Brian Edwardes and a number of London's top black jazz musicians
Highlights of the festival include: Jason Yarde (16th) ace guitarists Cameron Pierre & Alan Weeks (19th) Tony Kofi (20th) award-winning pianist Zoë Rahman (23rd) and vibes player Orphy Robinson with his quintet (26th)


Out-of-town

gigs worth catching
Cambridge Modern Jazz Club is back on Thursday nights at their old venue, the Portland Arms, Mitcham's Corner: Maidstone's Pizza Express presents (for 2 nights) the incomparable Stacey Kent (22nd/23rd) followed by genial Canadian vibes maestro Peter Appleyard (25th)


Tours of note
Singer/songwriter Juliet Roberts returns to her jazz roots with a debut album for Dune Records, 'Beneath the Surface', launched with a tour featuring rising star Soweto Kinch on sax as follows: Lincoln (19th) Southampton (26th) Harrow (27th) Northampton (31st)
And category-defying Finnish accordion wizard Kimmo Pohjonen stars in a UK tour in Manchester (30th), then Coventry (31st)


What's new pussycats
Groundbreaking initiative from Peter Wallis, enigmatic manager/programmer at Soho's Pizza Express Jazz Club is a new jazz imprint - Dean Street Records - whose first release features the explosive 9-piece Dean Street Underground Orchestra, a creative collective led by Tim Garland
The album, appropriately titled 'Soho Story', was recorded live at the club in September and includes such luminaries in the UK jazz world as Henry Lowther, Gerard Presencer, Barnaby Dickenson, Gareth Williams, Orlando Le Fleming, Sebastiaan de Krom, John Paricelli, Martin Shaw, Spanish saxophonist Perico Sambeat and jazz drummer Ballard, a colleague of Garland's from Chic Corea's band Origin
Dean Street Underground Orchestra is now on tour as follows: Kendall (16th) Coventry (27th) and returns to London's Pizza Express Jazz Club for a short residency from Oct
30th - Nov
2nd

What's in store for November - and beyond
Bela Fleck, Manu Dibango, Yellowjackets and Rachel Z
And the London Jazz Festival (Nov 15th - 24th), which continues to focus on accessible world music in addition to appearances by many jazz giants: George Coleman, Johnny Griffin, Chucho Valdès, Brad Mehldau, David Murray, Joe Lovano, Lee Konitz, Mathew Shipp, Chris Potter, Jane Monheit, Tomasz Stanko and Femi Kuti are typical of the broad range of this year's festival programme (info
& booking: [www])
And next year, Dave Brubeck celebrates his 82nd year with a UK visit