Lancaster Jazz Festival Binge, September 15th

The Lancaster Jazz Festival kicks off next weekend and the jazz community of Lancaster are celebrating the launch with a huge evening of music featuring almost every jazz group in the area.

On September 15th, The Gregson Centre will have performances in three rooms from 7pm until midnight and all for the bargain entry price of £5. An incredible 16 groups will perform, showcasing the burgeoning scene in Lancaster and setting the tone for a wonderful weekend of music during the festival.

To find out more about what the festival has in store, visit the Lancaster Jazz Festival website. Visit the facebook event page to find out more about the Festival Binge event.

Schedule:

Main Hall - OTR (7pm), Orbit (8pm), Ponyland (9pm), The Intiative (10pm), Meter Men (11pm)

Olive Bar - Luca Brasi 4 (7pm), Muskrat Ramble (7.45pm), Deep Cabaret (8.30pm), LJQ (9.15pm), Stephen Grew (10pm), Some Some Unicorn (10.45pm), Elephant in the Room (11.30pm)

Cinema - Bill Roberts Billionaire Trio (7pm), Howard Haigh (8pm), Sue Parish Jon Moore (9pm), Atomic Brass (10pm).

Wandering Monster announced as latest Jazz North Introduces recipients

Leeds based ensemble Wandering Monster have been announced today as the latest beneficiaries of the Jazz North Introduces scheme to support emerging jazz talent in the region.

The group, led by double bassist Sam Quintana, will perform at a number of high profile jazz festivals as part of the Introduces initiative, as well as receiving mentoring from one of the UK's leading jazz musicians and help with developing strong promotional materials like photographs and video footage.

Sam Quintana says

“I am thrilled that Wandering Monster have been awarded this opportunity. Since the band's formation two years ago we have developed a set of original material which I am really excited to showcase at some of the UK's best jazz festivals. Thanks to the scheme we will be performing to audiences who would otherwise never get to hear about Wandering Monster or listen to our music”.

Jazz North's Nigel Slee says

“We believe it is vital to help and support the next generation of jazz artists. Wandering Monster are an example of the exciting and diverse music that is being created by young musicians in the UK today. Thanks to our festival partners we can make sure their music is shared with audiences across the North”.

A junor award was also given to Muskrat Ramble. Aged between 12 and 16, Muskrat Ramble were the youngest applicants and impressed the panel with their enthusiasm and potential. They will be given mentoring sessions to develop their music.

Wandering Monster will appear first at Lancaster Jazz Festival on September 17th, followed by Marsden Jazz Festival on October 8th as well as performances at Liverpool Jazz Festival, Scarborough Jazz Festival and more later in the year.

To find out more about Wandering Monster and the JNI scheme, visit the Jazz North website.

Lancaster Jazz Festival 2016

The full line up for this year's Lancaster Jazz Festival has been announced so it's time to take a look at the programme and plan who you're going to see between 16th and 18th September.

This year, the headline artist & artist in residence is the extraordinary saxophonist, Cath Roberts. On Saturday 17th, Cath will perform a specially commissioned, one-off performance in The Round. She will be joined by a core ensemble of close musical collaborators (Anton Hunter, Sam Andreae, Johnny Hunter and Seth Bennett AKA Sloth Racket) and augmenting with a number of exciting improvisers from around Europe.

The rest of the programme is as diverse and exciting as ever, cementing Lancaster Jazz Festival's reputation as a true supporter of original and improvised music. On Friday, Dee Byrne's Entropi performs and saxophonist Phil Meadows makes two appearances; first as a guest soloist with the LRGS Big Band and then with his own trio, SKINT.

As well as Cath Roberts commission, Saturday sees a number of performances - Craig Scott's Lobotomy, Let Spin, Nodha and ensemble selected to be part of this year's Jazz North Introduces scheme (to be announced soon!).

Sunday sees internationally renowned trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard perform with the brand new Inner City Music ensemble as part of Band on the Wall's Jazz Director Series. You can also hear solo cellist and Jazz North Northern Line artist Maja Bugge, Archipelago and Cath Roberts' duo with Anton Hunter, Ripsaw Catfish.

There's much more on offer than what we've listed above; check out Lancaster Jazz Festival website to find out more and to book tickets.

Lancaster Jazz Festival - Submissions Open

2016 marks the 6th Lancaster Jazz Festival and under the watchful eye of festival director Matt Robinson and his team, it continues to grow year on year.

They have opened the floodgates for artist submissions to take part in this year's festival and will be accepting submission until the 20th March at 5pm.

When programming we look for exciting artists that we feel might bring more to the festival than just a performance. This could be something very tangible, such as a workshop or a seminar (like Seth Bennett or A Dread Supreme from last year for example) or the hosting of a jam session or a new collaboration (like Word of Moth). Or, it could be something else, a buzz from peers about being on the same bill (Trevor Watts or Richard Illes), a truly amazing performance that is talked about for months (Thunkfish or Dakhla Brass), or a million other things that we haven't thought of yet.
We aim to promote the best in contemporary music and jazz from around the UK as well as locally. We are especially interested in promoting a diverse programme of events, including new works, emerging artists and underrepresented groups.

The application process is simple and is done through an online portal. Applicants are required to provide two tracks to be listened to (linked to directly so that the panel can listen online) and answer questions to describe their project. The festival open useful advice on their guidance page (like staying away from stock phrases like 'a new take on jazz standards' which incidentally was used over 30 times in applications last year...!)

Those under 25 can also apply to the Festival Commission fund. Each year, one group or artist is selected to develop a new piece of work to be premiered at the festival. These artists receive support from the festival and mentorship from the artist in residence throughout their project.

All the information you need can be found on the Lancaster Jazz Festival website. Good luck!

NJ Advent Calendar - Summer Jazz Festival part 2 (December 22nd)

Here's part two of our look at summer jazz festivals in the North...

Hull Jazz Festival (late July)

J-Night, the organisation behind jazz in Hull, programmes a summer jazz festival at the end of July each year. It takes place at the Hull Truck Theatre and the programme is mixture of established UK acts and emerging artists. The line up for the festival in 2016 has already been announced with YolanDa Brown's reggae love songs, Helen Watson, Jean Toussaint and Northern Line's Manjula.

Manchester Jazz Festival (late July - early August)

2016 marks the 21st year of Manchester's Jazz Festival. MJF is one of the biggest in the country and pulls in thousands of people annually to the North. There's a huge programme with a mixture of local, national and international artists at venues across the North. There is a commission fund each year, lots of support for emerging artists and a specially brewed beer!

Chapel Allerton Jazz Sunday (early September)

The Chapel Allerton Arts Festival takes place each year and is a local festival which contains arts, theatre and community projects. At the end of each festival, Steve Crocker and his team at Seven Jazz programme a full day festival of live jazz. There's a focus on Northern artists and audiences can attend for the whole day for £3 - what a bargain!

Lancaster Jazz Festival (early September)

Lancaster Jazz Festival is growing year on year and is run by LCoM graduate Matt Robinson. This festival is populated by emerging artists playing original music. They programme at venues across in Lancaster and almost every gig is sold out at each festival!

Scarborough Jazz Festival (late September)

This highly popular festival just sneaks into the summer list in late September. Tickets are already on sale for the 2016 edition and ticket holders will be treated to performances by Nathaniel Facey, Trish Clowes and The Abstract Big Band.

How To Run A Jazz Club with NORVOL

It's the Lancaster Jazz Festival this weekend and if previous years are anything to go by, expect a lot of high quality music and lots of sold out performances. We reported on the festival a while back and listed our highlights, but check out the Lancaster Jazz Festival website to see what's going on.

NORVOL Jazz are going to be holding an event on Saturday September 19th as part of the festival entitled How To Run A Jazz Club. It's a free seminar event aimed at encouraging new people to become jazz promoters. (It's fitting that the event should be held at Lancaster Festival as the director Matt Robinson is a prime example of an ambitious young promoter really making a difference to the scene).

This event is aimed at people who want to become jazz promoters, or who may already do some jazz promotion and want to do it better. You may be a musician wanting to develop venue for people to play, a volunteer with an interest in jazz, or a promoter in other areas of the arts wanting to include more jazz in your festival or programme. This event will help you achieve that.

The seminar will focus on: finding a venue, developing an audience, planning a programme, developing the local jazz community through workshops, masterclasses, jam session and paying for it all! It also provides a prime opportunity to network with successful Northern Jazz promoters.

Find out more on the festival website. 

Want to help the Lancaster Jazz Festival?

Only one month remains before the 2015 Lancaster Jazz Festival kicks off. This festival has gone from strength to strength thanks to the hard work of the festival team and with last year's festival selling out almost every event, this year is sure to be a huge success. (The programme includes Emprical, Tori Freestone, A Dread Supreme and a commission premiere by Calum Mcleod.)

As with many jazz festivals, they couldn't run without the help of volunteers and festival director Matt Robinson has put a call out to those who would like to be part of their team during the festival.

Behind the scenes during LJF it's a mad three days of running around, meeting people, troubleshooting and caffeine with the entire festival team mucking in from dawn to well into the early hours. The wonderful volunteers are the people that make it all happen and make sure that artists and audiences feel comfortable and that everything is running smoothy.

We need volunteers to help with audience management, to meet and greet artists, to help sell merchandise, to support our tech crews, to stop the festival team falling asleep and a million other things. There's no limit to how much or how little time you can volunteer and it doesn't matter if you have loads of experience or none at all.

There are a range of positions available including stage manager, stage tech, front of house and more. Volunteers are able to give as much or as little of their time as they are able.

Those interested should fill out the online form on the Lancaster Jazz Festival website and someone from the team will be in touch.

How To Run A Jazz Venue. 19th September

NORVOL Jazz, an organisation set up by and for jazz promoters in the North of England, are hosting an event during the Lancaster Jazz Festival in September called How To Run A Jazz Venue.

The panel discussion will feature a number of successful promoters from across the North - Neil Hughes (owner of the Cinnamon Club, Altringham), Jez Matthews (musician and promoter of jazz at the Lescar, Sheffield), Gill Wilde (promoter of Grimsby Jazz and director of Cleethorpes Jazz Festival) and John Marley (musician and promoter of live jazz in York).

This event is aimed at people who want to become jazz promoters, or who may already do some jazz promotion and want to do it better. You may be a musician wanting to develop venue for people to play, a volunteer with an interest in jazz, or a promoter in other areas of the arts wanting to include more jazz in your festival or programme. This event will help you achieve that.
The seminar will focus on: finding a venue, developing an audience, planning a programme, developing the local jazz community through workshops, masterclasses, jam session and paying for it all! It also provides a prime opportunity to network with successful Northern Jazz promoters.

 The event takes place at the Sun Hotel (Sun Street, Lancaster, LA1 1EW) from 2.30pm until 5pm on 19th September. It's free to attend but sign-up is necessary. You can sign up on Norvol Jazz's website.

Last Call for Submissions - Lancaster Jazz Festival

The final week of submissions for this year's Lancaster Jazz Festival is now upon us, with submissions from artists being accepted until March 27th at 5pm.

Ensembles and artists are invited to apply to be part of the festival, which this year runs from 17th - 20th September 2015. The festival presents a wide variety of music in its festival, equally supporting classic and straight ahead jazz alongside left-field and experimental music. They aim to support both local and national acts and last year their programme included acts like Courtney Pine, Elliot Galvin Trio, The Initiative and Zeitgeist.

Their artist submission guidelines are very clear and the online application portal is designed to be easy to use, so interested parties should visit the Lancaster Jazz Festival 2015 page for full details.

Jazz North at Lancaster Jazz Festival, Friday 19th September

Jazz North is to hold an event as part of Lancaster Jazz Festival on Friday 19th September aimed at providing advice and guidance to professional musicians on self-promotion, funding applications, building tours and more.

The afternoon will include a panel discussion called How Do We Get More Gigs featuring guest speakers including musicians and industry professionals and a session focused on funding opportunities for jazz musicians where musicians will get the chance to talk through their ideas with people in the know.

The event is part of the CPD strand of the organisation's work and aimed at professional (and young professional) jazz musicians. It is free to attend but sign-up is essential. Interested musicians can visit the Lancaster Jazz Festival website to sign-up for their place.

Preview: Lancaster Jazz Festival

                                                  The Initiative (photo credit: Abi Williams)

The 2014 Lancaster Jazz Festival takes place between 18th - 21st September and will feature a range of top UK, regional and young musicians, including Lancaster's own The Initiative (pictured above).

The festival will take place at three main locations in Lancaster - The Dukes Theatre, The Hall cafe and Sun Square, an outdoor stage.

Rising Northern Jazz Talent to get Festival Showcase

Jam Experiment, a young band from Manchester, have been announced as the first group to take part in Jazz North's new Introducing scheme.

The group, compromised of musicians aged between 16 and 18, impressed a panel of festival directors, musicians and educators, who heard a wide range of applications for the scheme.

Lancaster Youth Jazz Commission 2014

Lancaster Jazz have announced the launch of their Youth Jazz Commission 2014 scheme, open to musicians under 25, to support the creation of a new work to be premiered at their 2014 festival in September. The deadline for submissions is 5pm on July 1st 2014.

Full submission details can be found on the Lancaster Jazz website but a brief outline of criteria is outlined below.

The commission is a fixed amount that will develop the work and profile of an emerging artist in collaboration with established musicians and with support from Lancaster Jazz Festival.

The fee will be budgeted by the applicant and can be used to pay for creation time, relevant research, performance fees, rehearsal time etc.

Lancaster Jazz Festival will provide support by helping the composer to -

•  put together an ensemble of established musicians
•  produce, manage and deliver a project plan
• manage a budget
• find relevant resources
• gain insight into promotion and marketing

The work will be premiered on September 19th on the Brewery Stage as part of the festival.