Peter Bacon reports:

Headlining this year’s Leeds Jazz Festival is saxophonist Andy Sheppard, who will be appearing with the Norwegian piano trio led by Espen Eriksen. Also on the bill is Sheppard’s ECM stable-mate, Israeli pianist Shai Maestro who brings his trio with sometime Lee Konitz drummer Ziv Ravitz and Peruvian bassist Jorge Roeder.

Other festival highlights include:

The Electric Lady Big Band. This 16-piece, star-studded ensemble includes Laura Jurd, Yazz Ahmed, Nathaniel Facey and Iain Ballamy and will be playing jazz arrangments by guitarist Denny Ilett inspired by Gil Evans’ reworkings of Jimi Hendrix tunes in the 1970s. The result? Electric Ladyland as you’ve never heard it before.

A Jazz Celebration of Windrush. Pianist Trevor Watkis‘s musical retrospective of the jazz trumpeter Dizzy Reece and the lasting impression of the Windrush generation on the UK jazz scene, with an Anglo-American band.

Young UK bandleaders in the form of pianist Sarah Tandy, saxophonist Leo Richardson and double bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado.

Leeds’ place in the music is celebrated with a 90th birthday party for drummer and bandleader Ronnie Bottomley; a film about the late trumpeter Richard Turner; the premiere of a new album by trombonist Kevin Holborough; and Simon Thackray’s Mrs Boyes Bingo which promises prize bingo with simultaneous drumming disruption from Mark Sanders and John Edwards…

Early Bird tickets are now on sale.

LINK: Leeds Jazz Festival website