Alan Barnes at Burton Jazz Festival 2013 Photo Credit: © Ruth Butler. All Rights Reserved

Burton Jazz Festival
(National Brewery Centre. 24-25th August 2013. Roundup Report by Ruth Butler)

The first Burton Jazz Festival at the National Brewery Centre celebrated the broad range of jazz styles, trad to contemporary, voice to accordion, from A(dderley) to Z(awinul), with headline performances from Clare Teal (Sunday) and Alan Barnes (Monday).

This festival brought people from far and wide, young and old, expert to novice and a wide-ranging mix of new and classic Jazz within the intimate setting of the Brewery. You could walk from the Brewery Tap, to the Wellington Suite through to The Marquee surrounded by the sounds of tradition and fusion.

Chris Gumbley’s Latin Experience saw Chris join forces with the Richard Morris Trio to create a feast of music with a distinctly Latin feel giving the lunchtime diners a real treat in the Brewery Tap. Guitarist Jamie McCredie performed both days. Jamie treated audiences to a mix of standards and original material, taking a break from touring with Kid Creole Jamie is a guitarist with one foot planted firmly in the Jazz standards repertoire and other kicking around the edges of modern original music.

Clare Teal is a consummate performer who shared her vocal talents with humour and style to close Burton’s first day of the festival. The sold out marquee was treated to classic standards and soulful sounds. Grant Windsor on keys gave the audience assured and fluent solos as a delightful counterpoint to Teal.

Josephone Arthur at Burton Jazz Festival 2013 Photo Credit: © Ruth Butler. All Rights Reserved

Sunday saw Josephine Arthur’s chocolaty smooth vocals stretch the boundaries from Gershwin to Sting. She delivered a stand out performance to her lunchtime audience. A singer of subtlety and immense style she sits comfortably somewhere between Blossom Dearie and Peggy Lee and radiates a magical sense of poise and glamour.

Bassist Paul Jefferies, the director of the Burton Festival, found time to perform with several groups, most notably with the Rob Terry Trio and the Ben Holder Quartet who supported Alan Barnes & Ben Holder who brought the festival to a close with a high energy, entertaining performance. Birthday boy Ben added piano and voice to his virtuoso violin, treating the audience to jazzed-up Beatles alongside frenetic duels with Barnes who blew us away in particular with some wonderful bass saxophone solos, giving a whole new meaning to deep profundity. Between the many reeds, violin, piano and singing, the audience were treated to a range of standards and originals that were a fitting finale to a weekend telling the story of Jazz in this hidden gem in Burton.

The festival also housed the first joint exhibition of artists Joe and Ruth Butler. The exhibition ‘Brushes with the Blues’ used a range of mediums (from oil to photography) to capture Jazz artists through the ages. Ruth Butler Fine Art & Photography