A new year of great music at the Royal British Legion in Llay gets off to a swinging start on Tuesday, February 3, as North Wales Jazz open their 2015 programme of events with a performance by the immensely popular Brownfield-Byrne Quintet.

The Brownfield-Byrne Quintet, or BBQ, was conceived back in 2009 by two young North Wales musicians, tenor saxophonist Liam Byrne and trumpeter Jamie Brownfield, and while initially inspired by the trumpet and tenor tradition of 1950’s bebop, the band’s sound has broadened considerably to incorporate earlier forms of jazz, drawing inspiration from the small groups of the 1930s, New Orleans rhythms and classic Duke Ellington, giving the quintet a wide appeal and a sound all of its own.

Trumpeter Jamie Brownfield, winner of the Rising Star category at the 2012 British Jazz Awards whose influences include Clifford Brown and Wynton Marsalis, has a prodigiously broad playing style running the gamut of jazz trumpet.

Liam Byrne on tenor sax, a postgraduate of London’s Guildhall School of Music, can often be heard playing in the Andy Prior Big Band, and has a deeply resonant tone and a growing reputation as a torchbearer of the jazz tenor saxophone tradition, inspired by the likes of Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and Sonny Rollins.

Completing the line-up of the Brownfield/Byrne Quintet are three more fine young musicians, North West based Andy Hulme (guitar), Ed Harrison (double bass) and Jack Cotterill (drums).

The performance starts at 8.30pm and admission is £6.50, concessions £5.50, school children £3. Further information is available from North Wales Jazz on 01745 812260 and at www.northwalesjazz.org.uk .