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Jazz On 3

I'm back home after an intense few days in Manchester. But what a blast. I interviewed John Abercrombie, Manchester-based trumpeter/composer Richard Iles (who turned out to be one of the most gifted, and modest, musicians I've met in ages... his gig on Thursday night was a triumph, and introduced me to a very exciting saxophonist called Andy Schofield), Swedish pianist Bobo Stensen and saxophonist Joakim Milder. They were three very contrasting, but very enjoyable interviews reflecting three very different gigs. Abercrombie led his guitar-Hammond-drums line-up, with a fiery and fun Gary Versace replacing his previous organist Dan Wall. The music sounds better on the radio programme than it did in the Royal Northern College Of Music auditorium, where the guitar was a little lost in the mix. Iles's Miniature Brass Emporium was a real revelation... gorgeous arrangements for an unusual brass-heavy instrumentation, and great solos by Iles, guitarist Mike Walker and saxophonist Andy Schofield in particular. On Friday night, Bobo Stensen played music by Swedish saxophonist now deceased Borje Fredriksson. As well as Joakim Milder, he had bassist Palle Danielsson and drummer Fredrik Noren. Stensen's been one of my favourite pianist ever since I heard him with Charles Lloyd... this quartet's incredible. Friday night was frantic (the programme was broadcast shortly after the end of the Stensen gig, from an old UN ambulance, parked outside the Green Room venue), but a great buzz. You can still catch it online, via the Listen Again facility, by going here, and clicking "Jazz On 3".

Jazz in Manchester

I'm in Manchester, booked into the Palace Hotel in preparation for three days of radio work culminating in a special Jazz on 3 from the Manchester Jazz Festival, to be broadcast on Friday, on BBC Radio 3, 11.30pm-1am. This is the first time I've presented the entire show. Am I nervous? Yeah. But I'm looking forward to heading out in an hour or so to interview John Abercrombie, one of my favourite guitarists, who'll be performing tonight, down the road at the Royal Northern College (with Hammond organist Gary Versace and drummer Adam Nussbaum). In the meantime, I'm enjoying the Palace. I grew up in Manchester (left when I was 18), and the old Refuge Assurance building, opposite Oxford Road station, was always an amazing landmark, but this is the first time I've ever got to look inside. If you're ever passing, it's worth wandering into the foyer. It's grand in a way unique to turn-of-the-century Manchester.

The online gambling meltdown

As the online gaming industry teeters on the brink of a very peculiar meltdown, perhaps the most astonishing aspect of all this is how little has changed since Jay Cohen's battle with the US Government over World Sports Exchange at the end of the last millennium. The American courts are still relying on the hopelessly outdated 1961 Wire Act to defend the interests of Nevada's powerful lobby groups... meanwhile, online gambling's grown from boom town to giant global industry. Back in the early days I interviewed a very interesting man, an American, called Joe Gallagher, who had set up in business providing turn-key virtual casino operations to entrepreneurs wanting to get a foothold in a burgeoning sector. Fortune's were guaranteed. The downsides? You had to move to Dominica, and there was no certainty you wouldn't be arrested if you set foot in the US. It just wasn't clear. Six years later, it's still confusing. Reading this morning's news I tried to revisit my Gallagher interview, which ran in the Financial Times, back in 2000. I found it here, hosted by Gallagher himself.