Going Out: Pop/Jazz - JAZZ & BLUES

Drum solos are an acquired taste, but the proficiency and verve of Pete Lockett's Network of Sparks mean these misgivings can generally be put to one side. The band on One (Melt 2000/Via Records), which features former Yes sticksman Bill Bruford, is helping open the London Jazz Festival at the South Bank's Purcell Room on Friday.

The same night sees the Vienna Art Orchestra performing its Ellington tribute, as part of the same festival, at the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Meanwhile, Dave Holland (above), the bassist whose latest album Prime Directive is a much more swinging affair than we have come to expect, appears at Brighton University on Tuesday as part of a festival to mark the 30th anniversary of ECM records. Other highlights include tonight's performance by saxophonist John Surman and the oud virtuoso Anouar Brahem, and tomorrow's show by trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, pianist John Taylor and Norma Winstone in their Azimuth format.

At Ronnie Scott's, Frith Street, meanwhile, the versatile saxophonist Bob Berg gives performances on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Later in the week, it is the turn of Roy Ayers, the vibes player enjoying great popularity on the back of the current enthusiasm for Latin styles.

At the Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean Street smooth jazz favourite, saxophonist Nelson Rangell, appears all week from tomorrow.

For blues fans, Big Bill Morganfield, an accomplished Chicago blues stylist and the son of the great Muddy Waters, concludes a short UK tour at the 100 Club, Oxford Street tomorrow.

On the recordings front, the Keith Jarrett solo effort The Melody at Night, With You, released to mark the ECM anniversary, is inspirational, and made even more interesting by the re-release of the early-Seventies Expectations (Columbia) featuring Jarrett's American quartet. Likewise, Cuban exile Gonzalo Rubalcaba's Inner Voyage (Blue Note) is a fascinating effort that repays many listenings.