Visitors to this year’s Swanage jazz festival, 10-12 July, can expect to see what the festival calls (and what appears from the names clearly to be) the “purest” jazz festival lineup on the south coast (or, one might add, anywhere in England). Among the attractions are bands led by Alan Barnes, Nigel Price, Greg Abate, Ivo Neame, Olivia Cuthill, Joe Webb, Jo Harrop, Rob Luft, John Etheridge, Christian Garrick, Mark Lockheart, Marvin Muoneké, Clark Tracey, Tim Whitehead and Pete Allen.
The festival, essentially a grassroots operation, was founded in 1990 and was secured for 2026 by public donations of £25000. This will be the fifth festival staged by a team led by Paul Kelly, who took over the event in 2019. Since then the festival has promoted 324 concerts by 300 bands featuring 1,669 musicians before a total audiences of 41,600.
Concerts take place at the Mowlem Theatre, Shore Road, BH19 1DD, in marquees and open air at Sandpit Field, De Moulham Road, BH19 1NR, and at Swanage Methodist Church, 105 High St, BH19 2LZ. Full details of timings and locations are in a PDF that can be downloaded here. Swanage is located in Dorset at the eastern end of the Jurassic Coast – something else to sample during a visit for the jazz. The town lies 127 miles from London (or by rail from Charing Cross), 53 miles from Southampton, 82 miles from Bristol and 114 miles from Oxford. Tickets and more information can be found on the festival website, swanagejazzfestival.co.uk.
The full lineup is as follows:
Friday 10th July From 4pm
Alan Barnes’ and Robert Fowler’s Reed-a-Rama
Nigel Price Trio
Steely Jazz
The Kim Cypher Band
Andy Urquhart’s Electric Miles
Asa Martinson and The Outlet
Roger Marks Riveria 5
Saturday 11th July From 12pm
Originals – Laura Jurd and Rob Luft
The Ivo Neame Trio
The Pete Roth Trio with Bill Bruford
Greg Abate with the Craig Milverton Trio
The Alex Clarke Quartet
Yetii
The Bateman Brothers’ Tribute to Louis Armstrong
The Olivia Cuthill Quintet
Mambossa
Al Swainger’s Pointless Beauty
Jazz Knots
John Maddocks’ Jazzmen
The Riveria Ramblers
The Hothouse Combo
Sunday 12th July From 11.30am
The Steve Waterman Octet celebrates Miles Davis
The Joe Webb Trio
The Jo Harrop Quartet
The Rob Luft Quartet
The John Etheridge/Christian Garrick Duo
Coltrane and Hartman on Impulse! Featuring Mark Lockheart and Marvin Muoneké
The Clark Tracey Sextet – Under Milk Wood at 60 (includes two narrators)
The Tim Whitehead Quartet
Ray D’Inverno’s Quintessential Groove
Pete Allen’s Big Jazz Band
New Orleans Jazz Bandits
Tim Eyes Jazz
The Ragtime Revellers
