Lea DeLaria played a party at the House of Commons. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian
As jazz events go, the London jazz festival does a nice line in parties. Disregarding all the music for the moment, this has been a three-party LJF, starting with a vodka-laced launch event at the Baltic back in September (difficult to remember much about that one), followed by the slightly bizarre "Jazz in the House" bash at the House of Commons. Members of the Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group queued up to tell us what big jazz fans they were, and culture secretary James Purnell (a former BBC planner) told us the sad tale of how he'd once had tickets to see Miles Davis playing live in London, but missed his train. Attendant hacks hoped that wasn't a metaphor. Lea DeLaria sang, making this the first occasion (a matter of some pride for the MPs) when they'd had live jazz playing while the house was still sitting. Internal TV monitors kept us up to date with parliamentary proceedings.
The third (and best) party was the annual Jazz on 3 live broadcast from Pizza Express. Big signs told us that by entering the venue we agreed to be filmed - a radio first? The hospitality was a little more frugal than that at Baltic, but the music was incredibly generous, with live sets from Luke Barlow, Larry Harlow, Charlie Hunter and an excellent improvised set from Byron Wallen and David Okumu - last-minute replacements for Ketijl Bjørnstad. And though on one level this was a small cliquey party, with just a few jazz scene insiders (musicians, promoters, DJs, journalists), it was also (thanks to Radio 3) the most accessible of the lot: the first taste of the LJF for people outside London. And, yes, you can "listen again" now.
Musically, the Pizza Express party was terrific: Barlow's band is not exactly "death jazz", but wild and woolly - they're playing opposite Acoustic Ladyland on Thursday.
Charlie Hunter's trio, with fine keyboard player Erik Deutsch, was a delight (after some disappointing recent albums) and Larry Harlow's cracking Latin Jazz Encounter included guest super-shredder Elliott Randall. That he's still best known for his guitar solo on Steely Dan's Reeling in the Years should not be held against him...
· For more from the London jazz festival, visit Guardian Unlimited Music's jazz site.
