Collette Cooper performs at Rosslyn Hill Chapel on December 19. Photo: Rankin

ALTHOUGH the HQ of Hampstead Jazz Club remains the intimate basement beneath the Duke of Hamilton pub – which is absolutely recommended if you haven’t experienced it – the club has of late been spreading its wings.

“With 30 or 32 covers, it is sometimes hard to make the numbers add up,” says avuncular club owner Mayank Patel. “Especially for larger groups.”

Nobody ever got into jazz to get rich, but it’s nice to at least break even, I suggest.

“Indeed. Which is why we launched Hampstead Jazz Presents,” he replies.

The concept is simple – take the multi-talented group of musicians who regularly play the club (a jazz repertory company that includes pianists Alex Webb and Paul Edis, singer Jo Harrop, new sax star Emma Rawicz and so forth) and put them into larger settings – Ronnie Scott’s, Pizza Express, a farm in the Oxfordshire countryside (The Snug Sessions), jazz-starved cities around the UK and, in 2023, even New York.

We’ll be covering the club and its varied projects in more detail next year when its financial model changes, but there is a festive HJC Presents you should diarise now, and this time it’s a just short walk from that Duke of Hamilton base.

On December 23 the club presents A Jazzy Christmas Concert in the truly glorious setting of St John’s, Hampstead’s Parish Church, in Church Row. It features Jo Harrop on vocals and Paul Edis on piano and MD duty plus a nine-piece band including the formidable Alan Barnes on clarinet and alto saxophone, the UK’s go-to jazz flautist Gareth Lockrane, and one of my favourite trumpeters, the mercurial Ryan Quigley.

It’s a top-drawer powerhouse of a band, who will perform Edis’s new arrangements of Christmas classics. The concert will benefit the HJC musicians support fund, which helps players and technicians impacted by Covid. Tickets: https://hampsteadjazzclub.com/whats-on/jazzy-christmas-23-dec-2022/

For a full list of HJC events see: https://hampsteadjazzclub.com

Jo Harrop and Paul Edis also have an elegant, wistful album of mostly originals celebrating the current season out soon, with impressive contributions from Emma Rawicz on sax, producer/ guitarist Jamie McCredie and another fine trumpeter, Freddie Gavita. When Winter Turns to Spring (Lateralize Records) is released on December 9. Available now on Lateralize is the duo’s five-track Christmas EP, a selection from which appear on the playlist at the end of this article (but always buy a physical copy, CD or vinyl, to properly support the musicians).

Jo Harrop performs in the Jazzy Christmas Concert on December 23. Photo: Francesca Brecciaroli – www.piccolinophotostudios.com

Collette Cooper brings her dramatic and winning melange of jazz, rock and blues to Rosslyn Hill Chapel, NW3, on Monday December 19. She will be performing songs from her new album Darkside of Christmas, which as well as a heavenly host of fine musicians (eg, Ronnie Scott’s James Pearson on piano, Andy Davies, trumpet) and her impressive emotional heft, features Ray Winstone channelling the spirit of Vincent Price in his intro to a very gothic version of Silent Night, which also features haunting cello from RPO’s Richard Harwood. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com/e/darkside-of-christmas-with-collette-cooper-tickets-466287567667.

More jazz in a sacred space. Chris Ingham and his Jazz at the Movies Quintet appear with the 28-strong London Vocal Project Jazz Choir in the soaring baroque beauty of St John’s Smith Square on December 14. A Swinging Christmas promises festive classics and more in a mix of jazz, gospel and groove styles. Book at: https://www.sjss.org.uk/events/swinging-christmas.

Chris Ingham’s polished band is also at the rather more intimate and very secular Piano Bar Smithfield with a similarly swinging Christmas show (minus the choir but with the suitably warm tones of Joanna Eden on vocal duties) on December 12 and 13. Details: https://jbgbevents.com/chris-ingham’s-jazz-at-the-movies-a-swinging-christmas.html.

One of this column’s favourites, singer Ian Shaw, is as always a busy boy over this period. Although most his solo London shows are sold out, he is one of the special guests, alongside Vanessa Haynes and Strictly vocalist Lance Ellington, for Guy Barker’s perennially splendid Christmas Big Band at the Albert Hall on December 9. (www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/events/2022/guy-barkers-big-band-christmas/)

The ebullient Emma Smith is also launching a Christmas record, Snowbound, an EP which features five tracks, including the familiar (Rudolph…) and new (Blues for Santa written by Smith and Alex Garnett, who appears on the album). She’ll be bringing the tunes to the Pizza Express Soho for two shows on December 10 with musicians of the calibre of Leo Richardson (saxes) and Ross Stanley (organ) backing her. The same venue has Gabriel Latchin’s piano trio performing his excellent I’ll be Home for Christmas album (Dec 12 & 13th) and a national jazz treasure, singer Claire Martin, presents her Christmas Cracker show with peerless guitarist Jim Mullen (Dec 14 & 15th).

There are lunchtime concerts, too, featuring the Dean Street All Stars and special guests on 12-15th December.

Tickets for all the Christmas-themed shows at Soho, Holborn and Chelsea branches are selling fast, so be quick: pizzaexpresslive.com.

• Multi-instrumentalist Tim Boniface brings his Christmas jazz suite The Infant to Tufnell Park’s St George and All Saints on December 17. There’ll also be “wine and nibbles” and jazzy arrangements of some Christmas favourites. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-infant-a-jazz-suite-for-christmas-tickets-445147757927

• We have a CNJ Christmas playlist which features music from, or inspired by, the above artists. Simply scan this QR code on your phone: