SCAM ALERT: Fake Jazz Festival gig offers

There is currently a scam offering bookings to overseas artists at EFG London Jazz Festival and Edinburgh Jazz Festival. They are copy and pasting information from the festival websites and offering gigs, complete with contracts. They ask artists to arrange their own work permits at a cost of $400 and direct them to their 'Work Permit Agent' Evelyn Scott to arrange this. If artists make this payment, they lose the money but also give their information to the scammers to use in identity theft.

The emails are coming from infojazzfestival@musician.org, purportedly from a Gerry Clarke.

Serious have spoken to the British Police about this but their position is that no crime has taken place so they won't pursue it.

The gig offers look legitimate enough that overseas musicians without working knowledge of the festival teams could be easily convinced of their authenticity.

We don't know how far-reaching this and there may be other festivals affected by this scam, too.

Please share this far and wide to make sure no-one else is caught up and if you have had an email from infojazzfestival@musician.org, send us a message to let us know!

Jazz North's Northern Online Festival

Jazz North are this week taking to the internet to host a virtual jazz festival, streaming full gigs of their last Northern Line ensembles throughout the week. People can tune in live on youtube and a full schedule is listed on the Jazz North website but you can also check out the full gigs after they've been streamed on the Jazz North youtube channel.

This innovative festival is the brainchild of Nigel Slee and he officially launched it at JazzAhead in Bremen last weekend.

You'll be able to see performances from all of the Northern Line ensembles who performed at the Manchester Jazz Festival in summer 2016, as well as a set by this year's Jazz North Introduces ensemble Wandering Monster.

Live streams will be going on today and tomorrow so head to Jazz North's website to find the full schedule then head to their youtube channel, subscribe and watch!

Ushaw Jazz Festival, August 26th - 28th

Pianist Paul Edis is working as hard as ever in the North East, this time turning his hand to festival directing as the first ever Ushaw Durham Jazz Festival takes place in Durham between August 26th and 28th.

A weekend of events that celebrate the vibrant North East scene and beyond, the festival will feature discussions, workshops and jam sessions alongside the performances.

Day tickets are available for each day (Firday - £8, Saturday - £25, Sunday - £20) as well as tickets for individual events.

The schedule is listed below but for more information on all the acts involved, visit the Ushaw College website.

Ushaw Durham Jazz Festival Programme

Friday 26th  -  6.00pm -  Northern Monkey Brass Band - in the theatre - £5
Friday 26th - 8.15pm - Zoe Gilby - £5

Saturday 27th - Early Bird Band - in the bar - FREE
Saturday 27th - 1.00pm - 2.15pm - Durham Alumni Big Band  - £7
Saturday 27th - 2.30-3.30pm - Workshop / Talk led by Paul Edis
Saturday 27th - 4.00 - 5.30pm - Alyn Shipton & Alan Barnes - "What is Jazz?" - £5
Saturday 27th  - 6.00 - 7.00pm - Mark Williams and Joel McCulloch Duo - £5
Saturday 27th - 8.00 - 10.00pm - Alan Barnes & Bruce Adams with the Paul Edis Trio - £10
Saturday 27th - 10.00pm - Jam session in the Francis Thompson Room with the Peter Gilligan Trio

Sunday 28th - 1.00 - 2.00pm Square One - £5
Sunday 28th - 4pm - New Century Ragtime Orchestra - £10
Sunday 28th - 8pm - Nigel Price Trio - £7

Hull Jazz Festival Summer Edition

The Summer Edition of Hull Jazz Festival kicks off today, opened by festival favourites New York Brass Band. Hosted at Hull Truck Theatre, there is a weekend of jazz featuring beloved vocalists and a celebration of A Love Supreme.

Singer Clare Teal brings her trio to celebrate the works of Doris Day on Friday and North East's finest Zoe Gilby closes the festival on Sunday with a Jazz Brunch with her quartet. There is a hip-hop double bill on Friday with the Abstract Orchestra and Akala and Gary Crosby pays tribute to the great Coltrane album A Love Supreme (which is 50 years old this year!) with his quartet featuring Denys Baptiste.

There are a couple of ticket offers available over the weekend; book three gigs in advance and see the cheapest for free and see all three Northern Line shows on Saturday for only £21.

To see the full details of the gigs happening at the festival, visit the Hull Jazz Festival website.

Burton Agnes Jazz Festival, 3rd-5th July

The annual Burton Agnes Jazz Festival takes place this year from 3rd until the 5th July. Set in the beautiful surroundings of Burton Agnes Hall, this indoor and outdoor festival features a wide range of jazz from the UK. You can check out their full programme on the website, but we've selected a few highlights across the weekend.

Friday 3rd July

A Dread Supreme - This 10 piece group have built up a strong following with their unique Roots take on jazz from the 60s and protest folk. One for those with their dancing shoes.

Saturday 4th July

The Mahakasyapa Ensemble - Led by bassist Paul Baxter, this ensemble will premiere a new suite commissioned by the festival. Featuring Neil Yates, Stuart McDonald and Olivia Moore.

Sunday 5th July

Nicola Farnon - Sheffield-based Nicola Farnon was selected to take part in the Jazz North Northern Line scheme and for good reason; arranged standards mixed with original works.

BBC Introducing Showcase at Montreal Jazz Festival - apply to play!

As part of the 2015 Montreal Jazz Festival, Jamie Cullum will host the first BBC Introducing & PRS for Music Foundation showcase on July 1st.

Cullum, who hosts a jazz radio programme on BBC Radio 2, says he regularly finds music to play on his show through the BBC Introducing uploader, where unsigned groups and musicians can upload their music to heard. Following on from this, he will now be selecting groups to perform live at the Montreal showcase in the same way and is inviting groups to upload their tracks to be in with a chance.

It's expected that more information will be released soon, but for now this article on the BBC website contains links to the uploader and some information on the showcase.

Artists' Submissions for MJF 2015 Now Open

                                                            Young Pilgrims at MJF 2014

Manchester Jazz Festival is preparing to celebrate its' 20th year next year and submissions are now open for musicians to take part in what is set to be their biggest and best yet.

From MJF...

Every summer, we present what we believe to be one of the most vibrant, exciting and surprising festival programmes, and the contribution of the constantly-evolving north west music scene is vital to this success. We also take pride in our open approach to making it easy for musicians and bands to get their ideas to us.

We are now accepting proposals for:
•       mjf introduces: mjf’s unique platform for talented emerging regional bands aged 16 – 25.
•       The general festival programme

If you’re a musician or band and you’d like to be considered to appear as part of the mjf 2015 festival programme, then get your details to us now. Applying is simple and it’s all online. The deadline to submit proposals is 10am Monday 12th January 2015.

Remember, mjf’s programming policy gives priority to:
•       Contemporary jazz
•       NW-based artists
•       New and/or original work

Although artists working outside of these fields are still welcome to apply. We especially like to hear from musicians wishing to present work which creates an unusual or unique event for the mjf festival programme.

mjf 2015 takes place 31 July – 9 August. 2015 will celebrate our 20th year and we welcome any ideas that reflect this milestone. Bands that performed at mjf 2014 – or subtle variants of them – are ineligible for the 2015 festival. Musicians who appeared at 2014 are, however, welcome to submit other projects for consideration.

Want to Volunteer at MJF 2014?

Manchester Jazz Festival are looking for volunteers to help run this years festival, 18-27 July.

There is no limit to the amount of time you can offer, and there a number of different roles available to volunteers:

Box Office/Information Desk
Front of House
Audience Research & Monitoring
Backstage
Runner
Flyering
Selling Raffle Tickets
Driving
Administration
Photography
Pre-Production
Post-Production
Team Leader

Interested parties can apply online using the Volunteer Application Form.

You can also read one volunteer's account of her experience on the MJF Website.

Manchester Jazz Festival 2014 Programme announced

Manchester Jazz Festival have announced the full line-up for their 2014 festival, which will be take place between July 18th - 27th. Among the many acts to be perform will be the premiere of Anton Hunter's Article XI, the MJF commission for this year's festival.

MJF have received an unprecedented level of sponsorship from regional businesses this year as it approaches its 20th year in 2015, including law firm Irwin Mitchell, bewery Thwaites and Manchester Arndale. Thwaites have also announced that they are to release a special edition festival beer in association with one of MJF's internationally recognised musicians to be announced in May.

Full line-up can be viewed on the MJF website and artistic director Steve Mead recently appeared on The Jazz Show on FuseFM, which can be heard HERE.

At first glance, our recommendations for shows not to be missed include Soft Machine Legacy & Keith Tippett (Sun 20th), Young Pilgrims (Sun 20th), Space F!ght & Silence Blossoms (Wed 23rd), Tori Freestone trio (Thurs 24th) and the Brian Molley quartet (Fri 25th).

Ribble Valley Jazz Festival, May 1st-5th

The 2014 Ribble Valley Jazz Festival will take place over May bank holiday weekend, from May 1st to May 5th. The festival will feature over 35 bands as well as a street festival.

The festival will kick off with a performance by Camerata Ritmata, a Scottish group featuring Mario Caribe, Stuart Brown, Simon Thacker and Paul Harrison and playing original music inspired by folk music from around the world. Across the weekend, bands including NYJO, JJ Wheeler quintet, Dennis Rollins Velocity trio (Dennis pictured above) and more, ending on May 5th with the ever-popular Soweto Kinch trio.

For full information on the line-up and details on venues and tickets, see the Ribble Valley Jazz Festival website.

Jazz in Darlington - Award winners, festivals and more

Darlington has been on the lips of the jazz community recently, with their upcoming jazz festival featuring nationally renowned musicians and the best in local jazz. Add to that the recent inaugural winner of BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year being a Darlington native (Alex Bone) and it's clear that Darlington is a major hub for jazz in the North.

Liverpool Jazz Festival: February 27th - March 2nd

The second annual Liverpool International Jazz Festival takes place between February 27th and March 2nd this year at the Capstone Theatre. This year's programme features a varied line-up of groups featuring some of the UK's most well-known musicians, free workshops and an after-party.

Festival passes are available at £70 full price, £54 concession and tickets for individual concerts are available too, from £12 to £17.50.

For more information on the festival and links to purchase tickets online, see the Liverpool International Jazz Festival website.