LIKE the Dickens classic itself, Alan Barnes’s Jazz Christmas Carol, coming to Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts on December 9, has something for everyone.

This new suite of pieces, touring for the first time this year, takes the audience through the characters and scenes of A Christmas Carol. Readings from the original Dickens tell the story and after each scene eight virtuoso musicians bring the characters and scenes to life, switching the audience from hilarity to pathos with a skill that would have done credit to Charles Dickens himself.

The line-up features Alan Barnes on saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet, Bruce Adams on trumpet, Mark Nightingale on trombone, Robert Fowler and Karen Sharp on saxophones and clarinet, David Newton on piano, Simon Thorpe on bass and Clark Tracey on drums.

Barnes is a true Dickensian and a serious reader of the novels. It is a clear blunder of providence that he was born too late to appear in their pages!

* The performance is at 8pm on December 9. Contact the box office for tickets.