ETHIOPIA’S leading jazz musician, pianist Hailu Mergia plays his first ever Scottish concert at Platform in Easterhouse on May 22. After being lost to music for many years, having used a 1981 US tour to escape the dictatorship and become a taxi driver in Washington DC, Mergia returned to live performance in 2013 after the blog-turned-record label Awesome Tapes From Africa reissued his album Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument. During the 1970s Mergia’s group Walias Band jammed with luminaries including Duke Ellington and Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango. He will be joined at Platform by Ethiopian bassist Alemseged Kebede and Trinidadian drummer Kenneth "Ken" Joseph. platform-online.co.uk

GLASGOW Jazz Festival launched the programme for the 2017 event at the Scottish Music Centre in Candleriggs with music from guitarist Joe Williamson, pictured, one of the "30 under 30" young Scottish-based players championed at last years event. While the festival is keeping faith with the younger generation, including the debut of a new band, Mezcla , lead by BBC Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year, David Bowden, it is also welcoming back old friends like pianist Neil Cowley and drummer Ginger Baker. Trumpeter Theo Croker and seven piece female band Nejira are among those making their festival debuts in a programme that ranges across the city from the festival's traditional home at the Old Fruitmarket to Drygate and St Lukes in the East End and Cottiers and The Hug & Pint in the West.

Centenary celebrations include the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra paying tribute to Buddy Rich, bassist Calum Gourlay marking the music of Thelonious Monk, and Alison Burns and Martin Taylor with the music of Ella Fitzgerald. That duo begins the festival at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Wednesday June 21 and the return of the Scottish Jazz Awards after four years is a highlight of Sunday June 25, alongside a dozen other gigs that day that bring the 31st event to an end.

www.jazzfest.co.uk

CANADIAN blues singer-guitarist Matt Andersen returns to Scotland in May for four concerts. Andersen, who has won the Best Solo Performer prize at the Memphis Blues Challenge and two European Blues Awards, recently released a new album, Honest Man, which was recorded in New York with Joss Stone and Amy Winehouse producer Commissioner Gordon. His previous release, Weightless, was nominated for a JUNO Award, the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy. He plays Fochabers Institute on Friday, May 19; Tooth & Claw, Inverness, Saturday, May 20; The Tunnels, Aberdeen, Sunday, May 21; and Mash House, Edinburgh, Monday, May 22.

stubbyfingers.ca