JAZZ & BLUES

Even in death, Miles Davis (above) exerts a huge influence on the jazz world - to such an extent that the flow of tribute and "inspired by" albums shows no sign of stopping. The latest artist to join in is Mark Isham, a trumpeter of great subtlety who - as the just-released Miles Remembered/The Silent Way Project (Sony) shows - nevertheless has the chops to put his own mark on the material recorded by the great Davis quintet of the late Sixties and early Seventies. He begins a week at Ronnie Scott's on Monday.

At the nearby Pizza Express Jazz Club, former Yes-man Bill Bruford leads his Earthworks quartet on a return to his jazz roots from Wednesday to Sunday.

Tonight, talented singer Ian Shaw makes the first of two appearances at the Islington International Festival by appearing with Claire Martin; he appears solo on Thursday.

Traditional virtues will be to the fore on Friday, when the veteran singer Marion Montgomery appears at Blackheath Halls (0181-473 0100) with her trio. Meanwhile, a rather looser jazz will be on display at Camden's Jazz Cafe, where the reggae-ska-jazz fusionists Jazz Jamaica take the stage. And more of the same will be available the previous evening when Ernest Ranglin, the Jamaican guitarist whose album In Search of the Lost Riddim was a great success, appears with a Senegalese band at the Barbican Centre.

Roger Trapp