NEWS: Scarborough Jazz Festival line-up announced (20-22 Sept 2019)

By ljazzn on 7 February 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

Peter Bacon reports:

The strongly mainstream Scarborough Jazz Festival might seem a long way off – in this Brexit Britain world I’m finding it hard to conceive of what life will look like next month, never mind the Autumn – but here are some names we can all rely on.

The press release says it all:

“This year’s festival takes place at Scarborough Spa over the weekend of 20-22 September 2019 and there’s going to be a tremendous finale to each evening.

“There are lots of new performers amongst the line-up, however one constant face since the festival started in 2003 has been the compere and multi award-winning reeds player Alan Barnes.

“Alan has performed at every Scarborough Jazz Festival and will be celebrating his 60th birthday this year by bringing together twelve amazing UK musicians.

“He has commissioned world class trombonist Mark Nightingale to write 13 charts for the 12 piece big band of tunes written in 1959 by, for example, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Horace Silver and Duke Ellington. That should bring Friday to a stirring climax.

“Saturday night’s finale should get everyone on their feet. Jeremy Sassoon’s Ray Charles Project – Jeremy sings and plays piano – has seventeen instrumentalists and singers, a great spectacle on the Grand Hall stage…”

The release continues:

“Sunday night sees what promises to be a perfect finish to the festival. Legendary ‘musician’s musician’ guitarist Jim Mullen has brought together the ‘Volunteers’: an All Star nine piece band who play jazz with hints of blues, soul, funk and rock.”

Names so far announced with more to come:

Alan Barnes + 11
Alec Dankworth’s ‘Spanish Accents
Clark Tracey Quintet
Dave Newton
Freddie Gavita Quartet
Jam Experiment
Jasmine
Jeremy Sassoon’s Ray Charles Project
Jim Mullen’s Volunteers
John Law Quartet
Kate Peters’ Big Band
Liane Carroll
New Jazz Extempore
Partisans
Sam Rapley’s Fabled
Tony Kofi Quartet.