Skip to main content

Jazz Festivals to watch out for in 2024

The UK will be buzzing in 2024, with local venues continuing to offer great artists and some great jazz festivals already announcing their artists.


Rich Mix's Brick Lane Jazz Festival will be one of the first, in April, swiftly followed by  Cheltenham Jazz Festival and both Watford and Manchester Jazz Festival in May, July's Love Supreme and right through to next November's EFG London Jazz Festival.

We'll have to wait a few weeks into the New Year for the real announcements, but Cheltenham has released an exciting programme, with tickets just going on sale for some great acts. Snarky Puppy, Courtney Pine, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Afro-Jazz innovators Nubiyan Twist, UB40, Jack Savoretti and Morcheeba are all available.

“This first release of tickets for our exciting 2024 programme offers in miniature the breadth and depth that Cheltenham Jazz Festival aims for every year,” says Ian George, Head of Programming for the Jazz Festival and co-CEO of parent charity Cheltenham Festivals. “We celebrate all the genres that have jazz in their DNA by bringing the best of contemporary UK, US and European jazz to our Big Top and other venues,” he added.

Announcements from Love Supreme include Chaka Khan, Kool & The Gang, Jordan Rakei, Christian McBride and Cécile McLorin Salvant,
 
Watch this space as more announcements are made and we start packing for the various festivals of jazz around the country.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Big Wade - 'Piano Man' out now

Big Wade and Black Swan Theory collectively blends funk, soul, jazz and everything that fills the cracks between those genres: his new album -  Piano Man - on all major streaming platforms ahead of the Piano Man Tour 2024 , which has dates across the US. Piano Man  brings a selection of original and covers, including a stunning version of Autumn Leaves , which reinvents the song as the funky, electronic Autumn . Big Wade's voice takes the song's melody and improvises around and around, with backing vocals and a deliberately sparse arrangement underpinning the song. Similarly, on Children of the Ghetto , the lead and backing vocals blend in with the soulful musicians of Black Swan Theory. Electronics are used with dexterity, often expanding the vocal lines, as in the ethereal and ghostly opening of Don't Let Me Go . However, the tools never dominate - simply adding depth and layers to the funk. Never more than when Big Wade enters a new world in Interludes , including vocals...

Playtime: 'Morse Code Through The Lights'

Every once in a while, an album drops into your inbox and isn't going anywhere. Morse Code Through The Lights is just such an album. Incontrovertibly controversial, this won't be everyone's cup of tea, but this one has absolutely, instantly, made it onto my list of top albums of 2024. Drummer Tom Bancroft and his band Playtime, which began in Edinburgh as Adventures in New Music ten years ago as a weekly session, have produced something delightfully experimental and brilliantly creative. Four of Scotland's most-established jazz musicians - Martin Kershaw (sax), Graeme Stephen (guitar), Mario Caribe (bass) and Tom Bancroft (drums) - tried out new music and new ideas together. Once lockdown struck in 2020, they decided to explore the possibilities of improvising music together online, partly for something to do, and partly because it was something they could do for their audience. Most of us discovered - or thought we had - that improvising online was difficult or impossi...

Remembering season 20 of Harmonious World

In June 2020, I released the first episode of my podcast -   Harmonious World  - and I had no idea how much delight it would bring me to share conversations with musicians from around the world. Whether you're a guest, a listener or one of the collaborators who have helped me find my guests, thank you! I now have listeners in 2, 475 cities across 129 countries, so wherever you are, welcome to our collective musical attempts to make the world more harmonious. Season 20 guests were: Chris Gall Sultan Stevenson Fotina Naumenko Quinn Sternberg Tara Minton for International Jazz Day Nicole Zuraitis Dave Keech Ute Lemper Vonn Vanier Iain Farrington Cecilie Strange Becca Wilkins Dave Handler