USHAW JAZZ FESTIVAL, AUGUST 26-28
Ushaw College, Durham DH7 9RH
Introduction – From Paul Edis the Ushaw Festival Director
It’s been a great privilege to be involved in organising the very first Ushaw Jazz Festival. Along with the Jazz Festival Team, we’ve put together a program that promotes the very best in regional and UK jazz talent, with music from the dawn of Ragtime right up to the present day.
Featuring the amazing talents of Alan Barnes, Bruce Adams, Nigel Price, Alyn Shipton, Zoe Gilby, Northern Monkey Brass Band, Square One, the Durham Alumni Big Band and Al Wood, Mark Williams and Joel Byrne-McCullough, Peter Gilligan and many more, there’s a talk, a workshop and a jam session, we have an artist in residence in Dave Barden, there’s food and drink, and a weekend packed full of great music!
A huge debt of gratitude must be acknowledged to Roger Kelly, Jonathan Ward, Anne Timothy, Sean Smith, Peter Seed and all the team at Ushaw and of course to Russell Corbett, Tony Eales and Brian Ebbatson who helped make the festival a reality.
2 comments :
I hate him even more than ever. The first time I bought Kind of Blue he wasn't even born. And Russel's even younger. I comfort myself that, if Lance bought it on release, I wasn't even born.
Ushaw generally allows me a pint or 3 and some time ago, following one of the gigs there, I said to Paul it would be a brilliant location for a Jazz festival. Natch, he already had it in hand; he's Lord Paul.
Whenever I tell people about forthcoming gigs at Crook, Darlo, Toon or wherever they always make excuses, but Ushaw never fails in getting ears pricked up. The building is immense, the theatre splendid, and the lounge where the smaller bands play is the most relaxing you'll ever find.
For anybody who can't stretch to a full weekend but fancies a bloody good night, Fridays ideal. Northern Monkey Brass Band are terrifically entertaining, led by the inimitable Graham Hardy, and Zoe Gilby is the most esoteric of the North East Jazz Divas, playing it straight and playing it edgy and backed by that North East powerhouse, her husband, and featuring that famous North East lass charisma.
For anybody who's up for the weekend or prefers a Saturday, there's something for everybody. Kicking things off, the regions rising teenage stars, followed by a great big-band featuring a string of the best horn players around, a workshop and a lecture - essential at any festival for sad music/art/culture/philosophy nerds like yours truly - a standard quintet (yes-sir) fronted by two of the finest horn players in the land and backed by a Lord and his trio featuring Adam Sinclair and Zoes' husband, and a jam session with the master of the jam session, proving that no man is an island.
Sunday features the New Century Ragtime Orchestra and I'm intrigued and there's nothing Jazz and I like more than intrigue.
Am I the only person who's noticed the prominence of guitarists on sat and sun. A duo on Saturday evening and I apologise I don't know of Joel McCulloch but, when you need a guitar, for a north east gig, who you gonna call? Mark Williams!
Square One are one of the New Wave of Heavy British Jazz with a new name in Jazz Guitar - Joe Williamson - and they're definitely one to watch. Oh, and I'm told the Early Birds have a promising young gun.
Drawing the festival to a close, one of the established stars on the national scene. Nigel Price makes no bones that his mission is to keep the legacy of Wes Montgomery alive. Last time he played Ushaw I said to Hammond genius Ross Stanley that this must be about as close to paradise as number one son gets.
Wes still enjoys god-like status amongst guitarists of any persuasion and this should appeal to the guitar community as well as the Jazz fraternity in the same way that McLaughlin and Metheny do, so tell your guitarist friends about it or they may not forgive you.
I've been looking forward to this festival for as long as my failing short-term memory goes, and it's nearly upon us.
Zoes' husband jokes by kind permission of John Faddis (and let's hope he doesn't batter me with his bass until after the festival).
Don't forget the grounds surrounding the college, well worth a walk round and, if the weather holds out, some lovely areas to relax between bands.
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