2-5-1

In this episode of 2-5-1, Simon Whiteside and Nick Tomlin dive into the 1962 British neo-noir drama film "All Night Long", directed by Basil Dearden. This unique film is an updated version of Othello, set in 1960s London, featuring cameos by renowned jazz musicians such as Johnny Dankworth, Tubby Hayes, Charles Mingus, and Dave Brubeck. Key Topics Covered The plot and characters of "All Night Long...

Tunes we Love You Go to my Head

Welcome to 2-5-1, the podcast where two pianists dive into a single subject in just five minutes. Today, Nick Tomlin and Simon Whiteside explore the timeless jazz standard "You Go to My Head", written by Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie. Key Topics Covered The song's structure and format, including its A-A-B-A plus tag format and typical performance in E-flat The use of alcohol references in the lyr...

Welcome to 251, where two pianists, Simon Whiteside and Nick Tomlin, dive into the fascinating world of jazz and art. In this episode, they explore the jazz paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat, a renowned artist who drew inspiration from the world of jazz. Key Topics Covered The early life and career of Jean-Michel Basquiat, including his participation in the Times Square Show and his rise to fame i...

Welcome to 2-5-1, the podcast where two pianists, Nick Tomlin and Simon Whiteside, dive into a new jazz-related topic every episode. Today, they're reviewing the documentary film "Ronnies", which tells the story of the iconic London jazz club Ronnie Scott's. Key Topics Covered The history of Ronnie Scott's, from its founding in 1959 to its 60th anniversary in 2019 The documentary's focus on Ronnie...

Mid Season Break Announcement

Whiplash is a 2014 American independent psychological drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle , and starring Miles Teller , J. K. Simmons , and Paul Reiser . It focuses on an ambitious music student and aspiring jazz drummer (Teller), who is pushed to his limit by his abusive instructor (Simmons) Chazelle completed the script in 2013, drawing upon his experiences in a "very competitive"...

A long time ago we did an episode on humour in jazz.  you can hear it here  This is a longer investigation into it.

in another one of our tunes we love Nick and Simon discus But Beautiful  But Beautiful " is a popular song with music written by Jimmy Van Heusen , the lyrics by Johnny Burke . The song was published in 1947. One of five songs written by Burke and Van Heusen featured in the Paramount Pictures movie Road to Rio (1947)

one of our under the radar pianists episodes John Williams there Jazz pianist . Yes the Star Wars guy!

Following on from our last episode this is a special longer examination of what makes a jazz singer 

We ask is Laufey a jazz singer. what do you think?

One of our jazz book reviews podcasts about the  Novel The Horn by John Clellon Holmes-born 12th March 1926 Studied at various places Columbia 1943 and post-draft at the New School 1949 where he met Jack Kerouac and remained a life long friend First novel published as Go a fictional book based on real characters and considered the first beat novel The Horn was his second novel and again conta...

we discuss the issue of notating jazz in traditional western music notation in this episode

We discusss  " Stella by Starlight "  a popular jazz standard with music by Victor Young that was drawn from thematic material composed for the main title and soundtrack of the 1944 Paramount Pictures film The Uninvited . Appearing in the film's underscore as well as in source music as an instrumental theme song without lyrics, it was turned over to Ned Washington , who wrote the lyrics...

in this episode we discus the pianist and vibraphonist Eddie Costa

in this episode we discuss the winners of the jazz categories of the grammy awards 2026 Large ensemble-christian McBride Best Jazz Vocal Album-Portriat Samara Joy Best Jazz instrumental album -Soouthern Nights Sullivan Fortner Best Alternative Jazz Album-LIVE-ACTION-Nate Smith Best Latin Jazz -A Tribute to Benny Moré and Nat King Cole – Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Yainer Horta & Joey Calveiro best Live...

In this episode we discuss the writer and dramatist Alan Plater and his connection to jazz.

We are starting a new strand to the ever expanding tapestry of 2-5-1 : Tunes we love and why. The first of these is on the song Softly as in a Morning Sunrise by Sigmund Romberg a 32 bar  AABA format tune, often in C minor, that has become a favourite amongst musicians. Here is an Apple Music play list which is only the tip of the iceberg [or should that be Romburg?]

Nick leads the discussion on the TV jazz show Jazz Casual. Most episodes are available on YouTube  Wikipedia describes it thus " Jazz Casual was an occasional series on jazz music on National Educational Television (NET), the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The show was produced by Richard Moore and KQED of San Francisco, California . Episodes ran for 30 minutes. It ran...

What is Mainstream Jazz? Is the term still relevant? Who coined the phrase? find out in this episode

In this episode we delve into the dark world of jazz and the detective.  Jazz has become associated with the gumshoe detective e.g. Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe and the whole world of film noir including seedy nightclubs and femme fatales.  We decided to investigate further "so I drew my Smith and Wesson 9mm and Nick was soon singing like a canary"

We have done Christmas specials before which are about Christmas jazz albums or specific Christmas jazz songs. This year we are offering suggestions for gifts for jazz lovers including among other things "the smell of jazz"   Amazon UK List Here   Previous Christmas episodes 2020 2021 2022  2024 This is our Instagram This is our Facebook group

Send us a text In this episode we discuss Philip Larkin [the English Poet] and his love of some jazz and his hatred of other jazz  This is our website   This is our Instagram This is our Facebook group