Matt Wates will be appearing at Herts Jazz Club in Welwyn Garden City

MUSIC fans are in for a treat at the Hawthorne Theatre in Welwyn Garden City tonight (Sunday).

Herts Jazz is proud to welcome the incredible Matt Wates Sextet to the Campus West venue this evening.

A firm believer that music should regain the swingy melody it once held, Matt leads his sextet with seamless harmony, delivering perfect jazz notes with humour and evident pleasure.

Matt said: “In general, I am trying to put back into the music some of the things that I feel have got lost over the years.

“Above all, I maintain that jazz should be fun to listen to as well as to perform.”

The combination of two saxes, trumpet and rhythm section is a fairly classic one in jazz and has appeared many times in the last 50 odd years.

It creates a lot of possibilities for an arranger/composer.

As a writer, Matt basically tries to come up with material that will be fun to play, and to create a strong mood that will communicate itself well to an audience, perhaps even a non-jazz audience.

In style, the sextet – Matt (alto), Martin Shaw (trumpet), Steve Main (tenor), Leon Greening (piano), Malcolm Creese (bass) and Matt Home (drums) – certainly resembles many of the great small bands of the 50s and 60s, such as those of Horace Silver and Art Blakey.

Tickets for the gig cost £13 online, £16 at the door and £10 for club members. Under-21s and students pay £5. Book online at www.hawthornetheatre.co.uk/whatsonstage.html