Jazz in the Bar

Chapter Four are back at Chapter on Sunday 8 November, the first of a run of jazz nights that continues through to 13 December. It's a night they run themselves, and this year it comes with a bit of a milestone attached: Jazz in the Bar is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

The quartet is Glen Manby on alto sax, Jim Barber on piano, Don Sweeney on bass and Greg Evans on drums. They're the core of the night, though they're occasionally joined by guests like tenor saxophonists Osian Roberts and Jonathan Lewis, drawing on the wider network of South Wales jazz musicians. The music is live, in the venue's café bar, and the run stretches from 8 November through to 13 December.

There's a fair bit of history behind it. Jazz in the Bar started in 1995, when the bandleader was offered a regular gig free of promoter pressure and asked theatre technical manager Trevor Turton for use of the grand piano in the old upstairs bar. It fit into a kidney-shaped recess in the mezzanine, and the bar managers, Will and Alan, were supportive and wanted to bring jazz back to Chapter. In those early years, the piano was wheeled in at floor level and the mezzanine tables were lit with candles in empty Mateus Rose bottles, turning the room into a pop-up jazz club each week.

Things shifted after the bandleader spent six months at a music school in New York: the upstairs bar was refurbished, the mezzanine floor removed, and the night moved downstairs to the café bar area. From there, the weekly gigs eventually became monthly. Now, three decades on, the night is still going, with the same quartet at its centre. You'll find them at Chapter in Cardiff, starting 8 November and running through to 13 December.