Mike presents an evening highlighting the influence of the great arrangers – Quincy Jones, Ernie Wilkins, Fletcher Henderson, Neal Hefti, etc. – illustrating how the bands for which they wrote adapted to the arrangers’ ‘tailor-made’ scores and took on their distinctive styles.

Complementing Simon Spillet’s evening of UK recordings made by Victor Feldman, both before and after he emigrated to the USA to join Woody Herman, Brian plays some of the outstanding recordings he made on the other side of the Atlantic. Having settled in California, Feldman worked with the cream of West Coast musicians and will be heard tonight playing piano, vibes and percussion with the likes of Shelly Manne, Bill Holman, Leroy Vinnegar, etc. There will also be recordings with ‘visitors’ such as Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis, but it will predominantly be a an evening featuring the best of the West.

Two ‘bring-your-own’ evenings in the last 18 month, devoted to tune titles containing female and then male names, produced examples far in excess of the number we were able to accommodate in the allotted time, so by popular request, this evening we revisit these themes. Favourites from “Audrey” to “Zoot” will be welcomed.

Simon presents an ‘evening of two halves’ – firstly, Victor Feldman’s UK studio recordings on Tempo, Esquire, etc. from the 1940s and 1950s, and then a second half including PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED tracks recorded during his 1960s trips back to London, after he had cemented his reputation as one of the stars of the US jazz scene. There will be material taped at Ronnie Scott’s, and for the BBC, with musical colleagues that (surprise! surprise!) include Tubby Hayes. For unavoidable reasons this has had to be re-arranged from the original February date, but it’s another great KJS exclusive from Simon, so it’s worth waiting for.

Following his first two talks on jazz in Germany, Michael focuses tonight on international contributions to the German jazz scene, from Sam Wooding and Arthur Briggs in 1920s Berlin to touring jazz greats such as Chet Baker and Mary Lou Williams. But it’s not all one-way traffic, as he also includes some German musicians who have become recognised internationally – does the name Hans Last sound familiar?

Harold exercises his Presidential right to present whatever musical delights take his fancy, but it’s also rumoured that he will hand over some of the airspace to his First Lady – a sort of jazz ‘Mr and Mrs’ evening.

A memorial evening for Mick Butler, one of the original members of KJS, who, until his death in January this year, had been a ‘regular’ since the Society’s inception in 1969 and more recently our Treasurer. This is a members’ ‘bring-your-own’ evening celebrating the breadth of Mick’s tastes in jazz, with one half devoted to Art Pepper, about whom Mick had planned to do a presentation this evening, and the other to Mick’s original love, New Orleans jazz.

There aren’t many jazz musicians who were born in pre-revolutionary Russia, who for a period in the 1940s edited the ‘The Jazz Record’, and who could be heard at various times on the fledgling Blue Note label and at the Bull’s Head, Barnes. Such a musician was pianist Art Hodes, and to-night Bryan picks out some of the highlights of a prolific recording career that extended over 50 years.

Two of our newer members share the evening, playing a selection of favourite tracks that give an indication of where their personal jazz tastes lie on the ‘Morton to Mingus’ spectrum.

Early jazz brass solos were confined to the cornet/trumpet and trombone; then the pre-War period saw growing use of the valve trombone and later the fleugel horn. Since that time, a miscellany of other brass instruments has gradually been introduced, mainly from the classical sphere, and to-night John Bell, himself a player of some of these infernal machines, takes a lightning look at some of the instruments that have surfaced in the jazz world with varying degrees of success – bass trumpets, tubas, euphoniums, mellophones, Wagner tubas, etc.

An evening of tracks that have newly arrived on members’ CD players, giving them the opportunity to share the sounds that have got them smiling and enthusiastically tapping their feet in 2015, however they’ve been acquired.

Simon presents an ‘evening of two halves’ – firstly, Victor Feldman’s UK studio recordings on Tempo, Esquire, etc. from the 1940s and 1950s, and then a second half of PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED tracks recorded during his 1960s trips back to London, after he had cemented his reputation as one of the stars of the US jazz scene. There will be material taped at Ronnie Scott’s, and for the BBC, with musical colleagues that (surprise! surprise!) include Tubby Hayes – another great KJS exclusive from Simon.

Bill turns estate agent as he puts together a portfolio of prime addresses with jazz credentials, from Basin Street to the Moon, enlisting the help of Cannonball Adderley, The Wee Trio, and other ear-catching musicians to impress you with that musical ‘wow factor’.

Chris presents an evening of compositions all bearing the title “……….. Blue”. His choices range from Fats Waller’s “Black And Blue” to Mongo Santamaria’s “Afro Blue”, proving there’s more than just one ‘kind of blue’.

The traditional New Year alphabetic opener by the Secretary this year reaches the letter ‘P’, a relief after last year’s struggle with the ‘O’s. Included in the selection, stretching from ‘Hot Lips’ Page to Janet Putnam, will be some predictable famous names like Parker, Pepper and Peterson.

A convivial evening, with the generosity of our Treasurer ensuring members are suitably fed and watered. Bring your own seasonal jazz sounds to ensure the evening goes with a swing.

Last year’s ‘smart-ass’ winner sets the questions for this year’s quiz. He even promises to give you all the right answers………….but not necessarily in the right order! Come and do friendly battle with fellow members for the coveted KJS trophy, and listen to some great music in the process.

An evening of mature Art Pepper as Mick picks up the story of his life and music from 1959 until his final recording a fortnight before his death in June 1983. There will be performances on clarinet and tenor as well as his more familiar alto sax, with his own groups and in the stellar company of the likes of Marty Paich and Barney Kessell.

No, not Dan Dare, Jet Morgan, or even John Glenn, but Sun Ra with whom we travel the spaceways from Birmingham, Alabama, to Chicago and New York via Saturn. Sun Ra’s discography is extensive, exciting and eclectic, and Graham’s trip will take us from his early work, reminiscent in some ways of Fletcher Henderson, to Free Jazz, taking in Swing and Bebop along the way.

This year sees the centenary of the birth of two of the greatest singers associated with our music. Whether Frank Sinatra has a place in the jazz world has often been debated, but as someone who acknowledged the influence of Lester Young, to-night we’ll put aside that debate; while in Billie Holiday’s case, her jazz credentials have never been in question. So to-night is a ‘bring-your-own’ evening of recordings by Sinatra and ‘Lady Day’, and maybe versions by other musicians of the small number of superior songs they both wrote.