The Chichester Jazz Club in West Sussex begin their 2022/23 season of live jazz music with the Paul Higgs Quartet presenting an evening of tunes by trumpet players Clifford Brown and Blue Mitchell (and with a recent vinyl release by New Land Records, the timing is perfect). This event will take place Friday, 16 September.

7 October will see The Power of Three featuring saxophonist Tommaso Starace while in the same month, on the 21st, The Nigel Price Organ Trio, will be appearing and we may get the chance to hear more about Nigel’s Grass Roots Jazz Project, which aims to support regional jazz venues like Chichester’s.

The final gig of last seasons events, The Chichester Jazz Club All-Stars, featured saxophonist Judith O’Higgins and she will be back with husband Dave and is expected to draw on material from their 2020 album release His ‘n’ Hers, which has been reviewed for this blog. The couple are booked in to play Friday, 18 November.

We do not have to wait long for the December gig (Friday 9th) featuring the Alan Barnes and Andy Panayl Sextet who will be saluting the music of John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley and that post-bop sound of the late 1950s.

Into 2023 and the 13th of January will see the Scott Hamilton Quartet appear at Chichester as part of their 2023 visit to the UK. The February act does not have to travel so far as it is the Xhosa Cole Quartet led by the 2018 BBC Young Jazz Musician winner saxophonist Xhosa Cole. I heard Xhosa play at this year’s Swanage Jazz Festival and it will be good to hear him play a longer set at Chichester.

The Roger Beaujolais Quartet will be playing Chichester 14 April, 2023 and I am looking forward to hearing him lead his own band as, to date, I have only heard him live in the bands of other musicians. This is the season’s line-up to date but other slots on the calendar will be filled and I will keep you up to date via this blog or, alternatively you can go to the Chichester Jazz Club website where all the information about the club, events, reviews and photographs are available to view.