Jazz Troubadours Unanimous

"The Michael Horovitz/Stan Tracey duo is", says Miles Kington, "an unlikely partnership. Stan Tracey is a man, I would guess, not much given to reading poetry, and yet Horovitz's view of language is not so far from Tracey's playing. He is always looking for connections between words that nobody else has spotted, as Tracey sometimes seems to be searching for the ultimate chord, and they both reach peaks of excitement when they seem to be trying to pound the keyboard – or the English language – into submission. An evening with these two should be one not forgotten easily. Jazz and poetry may be a forgotten fad of the 1960s, but these two don't provide jazz 'n' poetry – they provide Tracey and Horovitz. Should be a good evening, if you've got the head for a powerful potion."

The William Blake Klezmatrix

Another poetry/music collaborative happy to serenade venues the world over is The William Blake Klezmatrix, formed in 2004 to fill a palpably glaring gap – i e, the widespread performance of William Blake's most lyrical texts. Blake himself is said to have delighted in singing, and presumably called his most celebrated publication Songs of Innocence and Experience because he meant them to be sung.

Two moments from the W B Klezmatrix set at the Albert Hall POT! Festival, depicting,
l to r: Madeline Solomon, Annie Whitehead, Peter Lemer and Michael Horovitz (Julian Roberts)