THE next week or so is shaping up into a particularly noteworthy one, with a number of special gigs on offer for local jazz enthusiasts.

The Steve Oakes Quartet returns to the Sparrow Hawk Hotel, in Church Street, Burnley, on Sunday lunchtime and fans will no doubt ensure that this popular band gets a warm welcome.

On Tuesday, the Rhythm Station in Rawtenstall will feature the excellent American saxophonist Rickey Woodard, one of the most versatile and accomplished reed players on the international jazz scene.

Rickey was born in Nashville, the epicentre of country music. However, Rickey had a distinctive preference for jazz and was very much influenced by the great Ben Webster, though he was inducted into the Ray Charles Orchestra in 1980, a move which brought financial stability and exposure to the movers and shakers in contemporary music.

He later performed worldwide with such legends as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Horace Silver and Ernestine Anderson.

Rickey has evolved into a driving yet lyrical saxophonist, equally at home on alto, soprano and tenor, as well as clarinet and flute. He will be backed at The Rhythm Station by the resident Tommy Melville Quartet. On Friday next, March 21, the Bolton-based bebop and mainstream band Jeriatric Jazz play a special date at The Rosins, in Pickup Bank, Hoddlesden.

The venue's relatively new, young management team are hosting a number of special events during the year and hope next week's Jazz Dinner will be the first of many.

On the same night, March 21, traditional and mainstream jazz trumpeter Digby Fairweather will be guesting with The Pendle Jazzmen at their regular venue, The Whitchaff, in Rawtenstall.

Digby was a great friend of the East Lancashire jazz pianist Stan Barker, one of the best to emerge from the area in my lifetime. He will no doubt be given a warm and enthusiastic welcome at The Whitchaff. Finally, another reminder that on Monday, March 24, Blakey's Bar in King George's Hall, Blackburn, will thunder to the great music of Sounds 18, the East Lancashire outfit which has been playing the music of the masters for more than 30 years.

This will be the third memorial concert in the name of the band's former trumpeter and "booker" Jack Smith, a hugely popular man, sadly missed by his many friends, in and out of the music profession.

Forthcoming gigs...

RICKEY WOODARD (saxes) with The Tommy Melville Quartet: The Rhythm Station, Rawtenstall. Tuesday, March 18. 8.30-11.00pm. £6.

STEVE OAKES QUARTET: The Sparrow Hawk Hotel, Church Street, Burnley. Sunday, March 16. From 1.00pm. Free.

I took a call from Mrs Bilsborough (01254 208202). She has two £20 tickets for the Kenny Ball/Chris Barber/ Acker Bilk concert on Tuesday, April 1, at Blackpool's Grand Theatre and can't use them. No reasonable offer refused.