As Gateshead’s annual jazz festival this year rebrands itself from Gateshead International Jazz Festival to simply Gateshead Jazz it also embraces the local – that’s to say, UK – scene, after in some recent editions putting a special focus on European jazz. With emphasis on the “UK jazz explosion”, the festival, 20-22 March, will include informal bar-side discussions on the future of British jazz and what London-based DJ and commentator Tina Edwards calls its “increasingly genre-bending nature”.
British-based artists predominate at the event, among them Jamie Cullum, GoGo Penguin, SEED Ensemble, Ibibio Sound Machine plus House Gospel Choir, Jasper Høiby’s Planet B, Zoe Gilby’s Family Jazz All Stars, Nikki Yeoh & Zoe Rahman, Yazz Ahmed, Nikki Iles Jazz Orchestra, Binker Golding Quartet and Vula Viel.
But there will also be appearances by the multi-national Shri (Bugge Wesseltoft, Ben Castle & Asaf Sirkis), the American trumpeter Theo Croker, and the Dutch jazz-performance artists Tin Men & The Telephone.
Other UK talent will include Paul Edis’s Triptych with visual artist Lisa Delarny, musician and activist Sarah Nicolls with her “Inside Out” piano performing 12 Years (a response to the IPCC 2018 report on climate change), Virginia-born, now London-resident singer Judi Jackson and Sage Gateshead’s youth jazz ensemble Jambone.
Abigail Pogson, MD at Sage Gateshead said: “It’s a brilliant time for jazz right now, with a really exciting group of musicians coming through and new interest from audiences. We’re really looking forward to our festival, which sits within a year-round programme of gigs, our musician development programme and our work with young people in jazz”.
There will also be concerts specifically aimed at families, as well as a unique opportunity for non-musicians and musicians to perform as part of Chris Sharkey’s “Get In the Band” pop-up event.
More information and tickets can be found at Sage Gateshead’s website.
