A Tribute to Mike Quirke

Posted on by August 2, 2025
Reply

Wishing Tom and family all the best for a great evening and celebration

See https://www.stivesjazzclub.com/st-ives-jazz-club-whats-on.html and also our gig list

From St Ives Jazz Club:

Tuesday 5th August
Doors Open @ 6.30pm – No pre-booking seats
Music Starts @ 7.30pm
FREE ENTRY/PWYC

Join us for an evening celebrating the life and legacy of Mike Quirke — cherished blues and jazz singer, father, grandfather, and friend to many. Enjoy a special live set from his sons Dave Quirke (guitar), Tom Quirke (piano), and grandson Josh (drums), performing a handpicked selection of Mike’s favourite music. As well as a live performance from his friends Kris Gayle and Roger Winslet.

Fantastic prizes up for grabs — including artwork, chocolate, wine, and music-themed treats. Entry is free, but we’ll be taking a collection to raise money for a new video camera for the club — part of Mike’s lasting legacy. The goal is to support artists by capturing performances for promotional use, helping keep live music thriving.

Come along and “let the good times roll!”

All the best
Tom and the Jazz Club team

Sam Brasher Trio and St Ives Jazz Club latest from February 2025

Posted on by February 13, 2025

From St Ives Jazz Club mailing list:

Sam Braysher Trio
Tuesday 18th February
Doors Open @ 6.30pm – No pre-booking seats
Music Starts @ 7.30pm
FREE ENTRY/PWYC

Sam Braysher – alto saxophone
Andrew Robb – double bass
Steve Brown – drums

Sam Braysher is a London-based alto saxophonist. A regular performer at jazz clubs across Europe, he has received international acclaim for his warm, delicate sound and deep knowledge of the standard repertoire and American Songbook.

He is joined here by an all-star rhythm section: award-winning Scottish double bassist Andrew Robb (Julian Joseph, Alan Benzie Trio), and ultra swinging drummer Steve Brown (Barry Harris, Scott Hamilton Quartet).

Sam’s latest album explores the work of Kurt Weill, a fascinating composer who lies at the intersection of European classical music, jazz, opera and American musical theatre, That’s Him: The Music of Kurt Weill, was released in 2024 and met with glowing reviews from the UK, Europe, Japan and USA, and received radio play on BBC Radio 3 and Jazz FM. Awarding it a top rating of
‘indispensable’, French outlet Paris Move described the album as a

“unique, moving, interconnected, creative, and exceptional entity, all coming together making it far greater than the sum of each individual part. This is the genius of Sam and his friends, knowing how to revisit Weill’s works with all the inspiration of a vast musical culture. Each track, like a treasure hunt, allows us to celebrate the essence of the original works… close to perfection.”

Braysher received widespread acclaim for the two albums released previously under his own name, both of which feature renowned international collaborators. Golden Earrings, with New York pianist Michael Kanan, was described as “delightful and surprising” by Dave Gelly in the Observer, while his recent trio album with Jorge Rossy (Brad Mehldau Trio) and Tom Farmer, was praised in Jazzwise as

“a triumph of intelligence and sentiment”.

Expect to hear fun, swinging arrangements of items from the American Songbook and jazz canon, including compositions by the likes of George Gershwin, Rodgers & Hammerstein and Carlos Antonio Jobim.

Press

“I can’t think of another alto saxophonist with a sound quite like Sam Braysher’s” **** Dave Gelly, The Observer

“Braysher’s cool, modernist twist on old songs is just superb” Simon Adams, Jazz Journal

“Saxophonist Sam Braysher is like a breath of fresh air. He has an alto sound that doesn’t sound like anyone else, and is a throwback to the classic jazz of the 1950s with a contemporary twist”. Jazz Views

“the warm-toned young London saxophonist Sam Braysher is a prize-winning investigator of the early recordings and published music of Jerome Kern, Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington and many others, and imagines a new jazz closely attuned to an old world.” John Fordham, The Guardian

“Sam Braysher has a special, distinctive sound to his alto playing: warm and subtle, expressive and thoughtful, with an approach to improvisation that combines melodic beauty and rhythmic deftness. In short, he is the real deal.” Clarinet and Saxophone Magazine

Hoping to see you all soon and please support live music.

All the best
Tom and the Jazz Club team

WHAT’S ON 2025

(There will be jazz every Tuesday from local artists)

25th FEBRUARY – RED HANDED
18th MARCH – RUE
15th APRIL – POINTLESS BEAUTY
13th MAY – JIM MULLEN
20th MAY – GARY HUGHES ENSEMBLE
10th JUNE – THE NEIL BURNS TRIO
22nd JULY – KARIM SABER QUINTET
12th AUGUST – PETE CANTER QUARTET
16th SEPTEMBER – THE NIGEL PRICE ENSEMBLE
7th OCTOBER – TOMASSO STARACE ORGAN TRIO

 

Hejira – Celebrating Joni Mitchell – Sunday 5th May 7pm

Posted on by May 1, 2024

(the following from St Ives Jazz Club newsletter)

 

Hejira – Celebrating Joni Mitchell – Sunday 5th May 7pm @The Cornish Bank, Falmouth

In case you are fans of Joni Mitchell – and live near enough to Falmouth, here’s a gig that I’d highly recommend you coming out for: All the details are on their website, here: https://thecornishbank.co.uk/TheCornishBank.dll/WhatsOn?f=90493

Here, in brief, is what it’s all about:

‘Hejira’ – celebrating Joni Mitchell (a 7-piece band featuring Hattie Whitehead, performing Mitchell’s greatest works)
Taking on the role of Joni Mitchell will be the outstanding vocalist Hattie Whitehead – who not only pulls off the qualities of Mitchell’s singing but also plays guitar like Joni, involving all sorts of Mitchell’s ‘open tunings’. Hattie grew up, surrounded by world-class musicians – being the daughter of the brilliant saxophonist, Tim Whitehead. Aside from mastering Joni’s vocal mannerisms, Hattie is a great singer/songwriter in her own right: she won the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition in 2016 and has subsequently had hundreds of thousands of streams of her original works listened to.

The material that this band performs is drawn primarily from Mitchell’s masterpiece live album, ‘Shadows And Light’. The songs on that album are beautiful, exciting and, as always with Joni, totally touching in the poignancy of the lyrics. Importantly, as with the original personnel, the band – though comprised of great and highly experienced jazz musicians – is there with the primary objective of serving the music!

As it was Joni Mitchell’s 80th birthday last year – and what with her being awarded a Grammy this year – we feel that there couldn’t be a better time for celebrating the major works of, arguably, the greatest singer-songwriter of the 20th century.

Expect an evening of Joni’s ‘great songs’, such as ‘Amelia’, ‘Woodstock’, ‘A Case Of You’, ’Song For Sharon’, ‘Edith And The Kingpin’ ‘Hejira’, ‘Black Crow’ etc.!

The band comprises:

Hattie Whitehead ~ vocals & guitar
Ollie Weston ~ tenor & soprano saxophones
Chris Eldred ~ keyboards
Pete Oxley ~ guitar
Dave Jones ~ bass
Rick Finlay ~ drums
Marc Cecil ~ percussion

Update April 2024: New falmusic site

Posted on by September 17, 2024

Welcome to the new mobile friendly and updated falmusic website.

It has replaced the old one on falmusic.co.uk which now redirects here. The old site ran under Postnuke software, which was state of the art in 2001(!), but unfortunately our webhost could no longer support it when they moved it to a new server in January 2024.

We have moved virtually all of the old content to this new site, including all original articles, working web links, and most of the galleries. However, the information in the falmusic Directory was all over ten years out of date, so that was not carried over.

For those who contributed articles and gigs you will be able to login with the same username that you had on falmusic – (contact us if you have difficulty or no longer have the same email for password reset)

The original site had a long established gig list, and we have similar facilities on this new site, though keeping it up to date will depend on your continued input as contributors since TiGeR (writer and co-founder) sadly died in 2019, and I rarely get into town these days.

All the best,

RobF, webmaster falmusic

Larry Stabbins at The Poly and St Ives Jazz Club

Posted on by January 26, 2024

Larry Stabbins and 245 are playing two events in Cornwall this week, see https://www.larrystabbins.com/events for the event at The Poly in Falmouth (on Saturday 22 April), and also see below for St Ives Jazz Club newsletter featuring his appearance on Tues 18 April.

245 Featuring Larry Stabbins
“One of the true greats of British music” – Gilles Peterson, BBC Radio 1

Nu Jazz and Improvisation from Stonephace.
Larry Stabbins – alto/sop sax
Jake Wilbourne – guitar
James Macphail – bass
Keith Michael – drums

Through a long and diverse career Larry Stabbins has led a range of cutting-edge bands across a spectrum of free, spiritual, and technofunk jazz, and Psychedelic Hip Hop. He has played in the innovative bands of Keith Tippett, Peter Broztmann, Tony Oxley, Zoe Rahman, and countless other jazz heavyweights, as well as with Jerry Dammers and co-leading ‘Weekend’, and ‘Working Week’ through the 1980s and 90s. www.larrystabbins.com

At the same start time of 7.30pm and it’s still FREE ENTRY at The Big Kettle (Western Hotel, St. Ives). PWYC.

Until further notice, we are sticking with last year’s model of myself running the local jazz night called The Big Kettle. The Big Kettle runs every Tuesday with monthly St. Ives Jazz Club special nights featuring artists from around the world and UK Jazz scene.

Details about this week’s Big Kettle gig below – same system as last year with tables booked for food direct with Western Hotel.

The Big Kettle Jazz Night

PLEASE NOTE START TIME of 7.30pm

We are therefore operating a Pay What You Can system, so please give generously at the break (there will be a hat/card reader going round) to help support the band :).

Other tables are allocated on a first come first served basis – please come early to avoid disappointment. The unbooked tables are come-and-go and we found that if people were happy to wait then a table usually comes free (but this isn’t guaranteed).

Hoping to see you all soon and please support live music.

With all best wishes
Tom and the Jazz Club team

St Ives Jazz Club Gigs, February – May 2020

Posted on by April 8, 2020

N.B. Statement from St Ives Jazz Club

Sorry due to circumstances of which you are probably all aware St Ives Jazz Club will be closed until further notice, this is in Line with the latest Government recommendations.

Details of musicians appearing at St Ives Jazz Club between February and May 2020 follow (also added to gig list).

All gigs: doors open 7.30pm, live music from 8.30 to 11-ish.
Bar snack and light meals available until 8.15

The lower prices are for St Ives Jazz Club members, MU members and Western Hotel residents. Full Time Students and under 18s get in for £5.

Programme may be subject to change please call 01736 795277 to make sure.

Tues 18 Feb £13/£8/£5
LOZ SPEYER’S TIME ZONE
Loz Speyer (tpt/flghn), Martin Hathaway (alt), Phil Dawson (gtr), Dave Manington (bs), Gaspar Sena (dr), Maurizio Ravalico (perc)
New Album “Clave Sin Embargo”, “Vibrant rhythmically exciting exploration of Cuban music and wider jazz influences… Speyer’s music engages and makes you think” John Adcock, Jazz Journal

Tues 3 March £13/£8/£5
ADAM FAIRHALL TRIO
Adam Fairhall (kbd) Marcus Vergette (bs) Pip Harbon (dr)
Adam’s playing draws from any period of jazz history. His aim is to place his deep knowledge of jazz piano techniques at the service of playful, spontaneous invention that creates its own momentum and energy.

Tues 10 March £13/£8/£5
NIGHTJAR
Matt Johns (pno) Jesse Mollins (gtr) Marcus Vergette (bs) Gary Evans (dr)
a group of musicians who play together in many different contexts, come together to do their own thing, originals, remakes of standards, and the unexpected

Tues 17th March £13/£8/£5
GAZ HUGHES SEXTET
ART BLAKEY TRIBUTE: Alan Barnes (sax) Bruce Adams (tpt) Dean Masser (sax) Andrzej Baranek (pno) Ed Harrison (bs) Gaz Hughes (dr)
Recording this music was a very easy decision for Gaz, Blakey’s music has been a constant theme throughout his life. The first jazz album he bought was Art Blakey and it remains one of his most played and treasured albums. All Star Lineup!

Tues 24 March £13/£8/£5
MAMA TOKAS
Mama Tokus, Katie Tokus (voc) Tom Unwin (pno) Ric Byer (dr) Marcus Vergette (bs)
“I’m a soulful singer from the Deep South West a composer/performer of original tunes and sly interpretations, a comic poetess”

Tues 31st March £13/£8/£5
JIM BLOMFIELD TRIO
Jim Blomfield (pno/kbd) Roshan ‘Tosh’ Wijetunge (bs) Mark Whitlam (dr)
The dynamic level of organic interplay evident in realising Jim’s original and intricate contemporary compositions is testament to an experienced trio who know each other’s playing intimately – a quality that has also been so compelling and captivating both on record and for audiences during their live performances.

Tues 7th April £13/£8/£5
DAVE JONES QUARTET
Ben Waghorn (sax/fl) Dave Jones (pno) Ashley John Long (bs) Andy Hague (dr)
“jazz can mean many things to many people. But if you’re after the marrow of the music, look no further” Jazz Journal

Tues 14th April £13/£8/£5
JOE WEBB TRIO
Joe Webb (pno) Tom Farmer (db) Shane Forbes (dr)
After a year of accompanying other artists, Joe began to write music especially for the trio. Inspired by his travels in the Netherlands, to Britpop classics and even football stars, the trio’s style is highly original, modern, slick.

Tues 21th April £13/£8/£5
ANTONIO MARZINOTTO
Antonio Marzinotto (gtr) Alex Hutton (pno) Eric Ford (dr) Miles Danso (bs)
“I try to think like a painter in my latest tunes, trying to express through music the life we lead. I hope you enjoy our effort to give you something original, and to the extent that it is possible nowadays, unique”.

Tues 28th April £13/£8/£5
OXLEY-MEIER QUARTET
Pete Oxley (gtrs) Nicolas Meier (gtrs) Paul Cavaciuti (dr) Raph Mizraki (bs)
Expect a dazzling display of contemporary fare, ranging from Turkish panache to soundscapes of latin America to English pastoralism. Hear this played on nylon string, steel string, electric, 12 string, fretless, slide, guitar-synth, glissentar guitars and more!

Tues 5th May £13/£8/£5
NOLA
Julien Marga (gtr) Joel Rabesolo (gtr) Nicolas Puma (bs) Lucas Vanderputten (dr)
Nola, two guitarists with different and complementary roots, Joel Rabesolo (Madagascar) and Julien Marga (France). The tradition of jazz is still present in the quartet’s interplay, but we also find elements of rock, african music, contemporary grooves perfectly blended together.

Tues 12th May £13/£8/£5
JONNY MANSFIELD FLORILEGIUM
Jonny Mansfield (vbs) Will Barry (kbd) Boz Martin-Jones (dr)
Jonny after being awarded the Kenny Wheeler Prize released his debut album “Elftet”. His music has received airplay worldwide to critical acclaim. Jonny was the recipient of the Tebbut Exhibition Award, Richard Turner Award, Scott Philbrick Jazz Scholarship, Principals Award from the RAM in Jazzwise’s section of ‘who to look out for in 2019’.

Tues 19th May £13/£8/£5
ROB LUFT BAND
Drawing influence from artists such as Ali Farka Toure, Bill Frisell, and Radiohead, their album, “Riser”, was released in 2017 to wide acclaim in Europe and the US. Subsequently nominated for Breakthrough Act of the Year. They are currently preparing the follow-up album, due to be released in 2019.

Tues 26th May £13/£8/£5
ESTHER BENNETT, HANNAH HORTON
Esther Bennett (voc) Hannah Horton (sax) Craig Milverton (pno) Marcus Vergette (bs)Coach York (dr)
Singer Esther Bennett and saxophonist Hannah Horton have joined forces to present a fabulous evening of jazz and contemporary song & music with a world class trio.

www.stivesjazzclub.com

For more info, call 01736 795277.

COMIN UP: tbc

Tribute to TiGeR – Timothy Gerald Richards 1944-2019

Posted on by April 3, 2024
TiGeR (Tim Gerald Richards) line drawing by Jules C.

Sadly, Tim “TiGeR” Richards, a dear friend to many of us, and co-founder of falmusic died in late December 2019.

As he became increasingly frail, Tim had moved from Earles Retreat in Falmouth and was taken into care three years ago. I lost touch with him at that point, but heard the sad news from his family on New Years Eve, via this website.

It was good to discover that he had been well cared for during this time when I met his family, carers and friends at Tim’s funeral and wake on January 7th 2020.

I first met Tim back in late 1993 when we were both involved in starting up Falmouth LETS and quickly discovered a common interest in other local community and environmental endeavours such as Falmouth Green Centre, and later FalmouthOne.

Tim always had a keen interest in groups fostering friendship and community. Before moving to Earles Retreat he was tenant and custodian of the Toc H house in Lister Street and chaired meetings of the local Toc H branch, their founding principles of friendship, service, fairmindedness and reconciliation being of great importance to him. He also had a great admiration for the Bahai faith and the principles of the United Nations.

We shared a love of jazz and blues and local music and were delighted to discover the regular jazz sessions on Mondays at the Star & Garter back in the summer of 1999, which we regularly and enthusiastically supported over many years.

Tim at Star & Garter

Tim also spent many nights in those days checking out the rest of the local music scene, and we started putting falmusic together in 2000. Over the next decade he was very active in the evenings (and early mornings!) promoting this website – the dark website theme was a conscious nod to these nocturnal activities!

Tim made many friends, both young and old, enjoying all the local venues, bands, and late night parties, as can be seen from his many articles here on this website, and occasionally treated fellow revellers to his fearsome scat singing! He also spent many nights prowling around town with his camcorder capturing a lot of local music, but sadly most of this material seems to have been lost.

In 2003 he was the driving force behind a benefit gig on Falmouth Moor for Iraq – on zero budget but with a huge amount of enthusiasm and goodwill. This combined his passion for music, peace and service, as eloquently expressed by Tim at the time here.

Setting up lorry stage on the Moor for benefit gig for Iraq in 2003

On a personal note, Tim was a great friend to me and I thoroughly enjoyed working on falmusic and other community projects with him. See here for a collage of photos of Tim produced by his friends on Falmouth LETS. Whilst he was often hard on himself, he was always unfailing kind to others, and is greatly missed by many of us who will remember Tim with great fondness.

Rob, webmaster falmusic

 

Great Tolmen Centre Music this autumn!

Posted on by April 8, 2020

The Tolmen Centre presents three great gigs this autumn, all different and all exciting.

First up on Sat Oct 26th, Chris Garrick and the Budapest Cafe Orchestra.

On Saturday November 2nd the great Irish folk musician Andy Irvine appears in a rare solo show.

And on Saturday November 23rd we present the highly original 4-piece from Scotland, Twelfth Day, with a contemporary mix of jazz, pop, folk and classical influences producing a heady brew.

For further details check out our website www.tolmencentre.co.uk

Andy V – Live at Jacobs Ladder Inn 14th September

Posted on by April 8, 2020

Reggae/dub/soul/latin and DnB – Andy V – Live at Jacobs Ladder Inn, Falmouth, September 14th – starting 9pm finishing midnight, free entry.

Andy V’s first time playing in Falmouth, at the Jacobs Ladder Inn. Come and support him and help make an awesome night of beats, bass, sax, keys and live looping!

Andy V has become known as an accompanying artist to the legendary bass music artist dub fx and now more recently as a solo act in his own right. With his multi-instrumental skills and looping abilities, Andy takes his listeners on a journey through Jazz, Reggae, Dub, Latin, Drum and Bass and Soul. Everything he does is live!

In May 2017, Andy left his home in Melbourne with his debut E.P ‘The Offering’ co-produced by dub fx. Since then, he has been constantly and independently touring around Europe and U.K performing both on the street and the stage, following in the footsteps of his mentors Mr. Woodnote, dub fx, Eva Lazarus, Lil Rhys and Snareophobe.

One year later Andy now has 3 new video releases, all featuring special guests from different parts of the world. His latest video features South Tryol’s original music son Berise from Shanti Powa. Together they found an incredible filming location very close to the home of Berise high up in the mountains. Their new video ‘Climb High’ has touched the hearts of the Italain people and now spreading into Europe.

This year 2018 will be Andy’s second official Italian tour. This time he has Berise on the mic at every show. The tour has already started and amazed the passionate music lovers of south Italy.

In recent years, Andy has established himself as right hand man to independent superstar, dub fx. In 2016 Andy opened up all the dub fx winter club shows in addition to accompanying dub fx himself.