Linley Hamilton awarded a PhD

Linley Hamilton is the latest jazz musician from the Northern Ireland jazz community to be awarded a doctorate.

University of Ulster department of music tweet, above

Hamilton joins drummers Steve Davis and David Lyttle and pianist singer/songwriter Neil Burns, three of the local leading jazz stars to also achieve this advanced academic distinction in recent years.

The trumpeter, who lives in Belfast and presents the weekly Friday jazz show on BBC Radio Ulster, has been a major figure on the local and broader Irish jazz scene for many years, performing with among others Snow Patrol, Van Morrison, Paul Brady, Jean Toussaint, and Jacqui Dankworth as well as leading his own bands. His most recent album, released in 2014, was ballads album In Transition.
Stephen Graham

And Linley Hamilton, above, plays at Bennigans in Derry tonight with the John Leighton trio.