Three days of fantastic jazz from Friday 19 June to Sunday 21 June, with 40 singers and bands playing popular jazz music at over 30 different venues across Bournemouth, from Southbourne in the east to Sandbanks in the west.
On the opening night, there will be 14 live events, ranging from 18 piece Jazz orchestras playing from 7.30pm on the Town Centre stage as part of the Food and Drink festival and at an opening night gala concert at 8pm at the Riviera Hotel with the Swing Unlimited Big Band. Local singer, Tony Adams will be paying a tribute to Frank Sinatra’s Jazz music at the Cottonwood Hotel and there will be special dinner jazz evenings at the Sandbanks Hotel and the Hallmark Hotel. In addition numerous jazz events have been scheduled at bars, cafes and restaurants around town. The ever popular, Harry Ramsden’s restaurant leads the way by offering old fashioned Trad jazz music to entertain diners and the public from the terrace on the sea front.
On Saturday, there will be a number of free concerts and events in town. Starting at 11am on the Bournemouth Triangle Piazza outside the town library and on the lower gardens Bandstand and the new Pier Approach. Later on, the Bournemouth University Big Band will be playing on the Food & Drink festival stage from 7.30pm and the local Swing Big Band, In the Pink, will be playing on the Bandstand. For true jazz connoisseurs, The Miramar Hotel is hosting a Jazz & Gin event at 5pm with the Ian Ellis quartet and jazz singer Zoe Schwarz with guitarist, Rob Koral will be playing Tea and Jazz at the East Cliff. More than a dozen jazz events take place on the Saturday evening, including a jazz trio playing in Bournemouth’s newest Hotel, Hampton by Hilton and a latin jazz sextet, fronted by international singer, Veronique Joly at the Hallmark Hotel. Other events include Musique a Trois at West Beach, Michelle Wright at La Piazza and the FB pocket Orchestra at Cuccinis.
On Sunday 21 June, the focus is on Father’s Day, with hotels and pubs offering a variety of jazz brunch sessions, including The Plantation Pub, Harbour Heights Hotel, and the Cottonwood, East Cliff and Hallmark Hotels. In addition, there will be special lunchtime jazz music at the Jazz Café in Sandbanks, Café Rouge, Plates & Co in Westbourne and afternoon tea & jazz in the gardens of the Russell-Cotes Museum.
Local car dealer, Horizon Honda is supporting the festival and will be sponsoring a competition to promote their new Honda Jazz. Winners will have the use of a Honda Jazz car for a day. And watch out for the new Jazz Festival tee shirt, based on a cool quirky design combining all the elements of sun, sea and jazz by talented local artist and illustrator, Mary Allen who also created the eye catching poster.
Gerry Clarke, Festival organizer, says: “I am delighted with the way Bournemouth’s first Jazz Festival has caught the imagination of our local musicians and hotels, bars and restaurants. We set out to make music accessible to everyone, to families and people of all ages and we want everyone to come, listen and appreciate jazz music.
Music plays a big role in our lives, with the music industry offering plenty of career opportunities and one of the aims of our festival is to give young people positive encouragement to learn to play a musical instrument and we’re organizing special workshops to encourage young musicians to learn to play jazz instruments such as the saxophone, trumpet, clarinet etc.
This is our first year and I’m really looking forward to making this a truly memorable occasion. I hope everyone will enjoy a weekend of sea, sunshine and smooth Jazz!”
