"Sebastian's Album of the Week" on the Jazz Show Online

I've started doing CD reviews on radio for Kate Winter and Alex Hutton's The Jazzshow Online, which is broadcast on Hayes FM, Blast FM, and - apparently - a huge number of stations across West Africa. The format is a five minute podcast with some talk and two sound-clips. They are a chapter within each week's programme. Kate and Alex have a guest each week, and the interviews are fascinating.

So far five of my reviews have been broadcast (you need to press the downward-facing arrow, and then click the pop-up window:

1) Jacqui Hicks - A Child is Born - 33 Records

2) Julian Arguelles/ HR Big Band - Momenta - Basho Records

3) Neon Quartet -Catch Me - Edition Records

4) Rachel Musson's Skein - Flight Line - F-IRE

5) Mason Brothers Quintet, Two Sides One Story - Archival

This week's prize draw: Get your Hicks

This week's prize draw for newsletter subscribers is the new CD from Jacqui Hicks. Jacqui is originally from Yorkshire. As a teenager and into her twenties she sang and played saxophone in NYJO. And she's been working and accumulating experience ever since.

Jacqui is a wonderfully strong jazz singer. She's made two CDs with pianist John Critchinson. The first, With a Song in My Heart, was five years ago. This new one, A Child is Born, is the second. Also on the album is a rhythm section heaven - Dave Green and Tristan Maillot - plus Martin Shaw and Bobby Wellins. First call, first take players all round.

I go for the authority with which Jacqui just nails things, and gets them down as clear as a bell. And then there's a sense of passing on the melodic line like a relay baton - which makes her and Critch ideal partners. And then there's her range - from really quiet perfection (Josef Nyrow's Autumn Nocturne is a jewel) to an incredibly punchy and forceful rendition of Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.

This is a cut-down version of a review I've just recorded for Blast Radio