Jazz & Blues

There are few more powerful blues performers than Otis Grand, a guitarist who, despite a large personality, has made a speciality of sharing his records with other names. The latest album, Grand Union (Blueside), sees him teamed up with Anson Funderburgh and Debbie Davies. Grand brings his UK tour to the Mean Fiddler tonight.

Tomorrow, the Blackheath Halls play host to Julian and Steve Arguelles and the Apollo Sax Quartet, while the following day sees Kate Dimbleby at the South Bank's Purcell Room in support of her lightly funky album Good Vibrations (Black Box).

More grooves will be in the air at Camden's Jazz Cafe, for a week from Monday, when the James Taylor Quartet, pioneers of the British acid-jazz explosion, take up residency. In a poppier vein, Sarah Jane Morris (above) one-time cohort of the Communards, spends six nights at Ronnie Scott's, Frith Street.

The French horn is not everybody's idea of a jazz instrument, but, back in the 1950s, Julius Watkins made a credible case for it with a couple of pure-bop sessions for Blue Note. Those hugely enjoyable recordings - featuring the likes of Hank Mobley and Art Blakey - are being issued on CD as part of the label's "Connoisseur" series in the run-up to its 60th anniversary. Equally recommended are collections from saxophonists Frank Foster and Gil Melle and guitarist Sal Salvador, plus a cracking brace of albums from trumpeter Howard McGhee.

Fans of mainstream jazz should invest in Verve's 10-CD set devoted to Norman Granz's famous "Jazz at the Philharmonic" shows. Or try the sampler CD "Best of the 1940s Concerts", which includes great music from the likes of Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins and, again, Howard McGhee.

Roger Trapp