Northern Line Showcase at Manchester Jazz Festival, Monday 25th July

This summer's Manchester Jazz Festival is almost upon us and as part of their programme, there will be a day long showcase featuring the new crop of Northern Line artists.

This free to attend day of gigs has become traditional at MJF and festival goers can experience a huge range of jazz and improvised music from midday until 10pm. The bands will be split between three venues - the Hobgoblin Pavilion, Central Library and St Ann's Church.

Below is a full timetable of the day, but be sure to visit the Manchester Jazz Festival website to find out more and check out the full programme for the festival.

Monday 25th July - MJF Northern Line Showcase Day

12.00 - Jamie Brownfield Quartet
1.00  - HTrio
1.50  - Pat McCarthy ft. Shannon Reilly
2.40 - Inclusion Principle
3.30 - Maja Bugge
4.20 - Family Band
5.20 - Taupe
7.00 - Firebird Quartet
8.00 - Johnny Hunter Quartet
9.15 - Portmanteau

MJF Announces first round of artist featured in 2016 programe

Manchester Jazz Festival has announced details of some of the acts scheduled to perform at their 2016 festival.

Beats & Pieces leader Ben Cottrell has been announced as the recipient of the Irwin Mitchell Comission this year and his new piece will be premiered at the festival on July 27th .The work is called New Seeing and features trumpet, rhythm section and 12 piece string section.

Giving their only UK performance, Thomas de Pourquery & Supersonic play the music of Sun Ra on July 23rd. Following that, everyone's favourite Anglo-American jazz supergroup The Impossible Gentlemen give their headlining performance on July 26th.

In collaboration with HOME, MJF will show films during the festival that give a snapshot of the connection between jazz and film. Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud and the Tubby Haye's film Man in a Hurry are highlights this year.

For full information and to book tickets (these events are sure to sell out so be quick!), visit the Manchester Jazz Festival website.

BBC Introducing at Manchester Jazz Festival

As part of the Manchester Jazz Festival this year, Kevin Le Gendre and the Jazz on 3 team will be hosting a showcase event at Band on the Wall on Friday 31st July featuring four emerging groups from across the country.

Submissions through the BBC Music Uploader were invited from bands and were sifted through by a panel which include Kevin Le Gendre, Jez Nelson and Gilles Peterson to select the four who would take part -

Ashley Henry Trio - Ashley is a graduate of LCoM currently studying under Gwilym Simcock at the Royal Academy in London.

Nerija - Emerging from the Tomorrow Warriors project, this all-female septet cite Joe Henderson and Kurt Rosenwinkel among their influences.

Phaze Theory - London-based group with an interesting line-up that includes tuba, vocals, guitar and drums.

Cameron Vale - Hailing from Leeds, this quartet is currently part of Jazz North's Northern Line scheme and features four recent LCoM graduates.

The audience for this event is chosen through ballot but those not lucky enough to attend will be able to hear the show when it is broadcast on August 10th.

Manchester Jazz Festival Launches Full Programme

                                                         Orquesta Timbala - Daniel Parker

Manchester Jazz Festival launched their full programme this week, detailing the many acts that will perform in Manchester from July 31st to 9 August.

Celebrating their 20th festival, MJF have invited a number of international acts including Robert Glasper, Airelle Besson and Pepe Rivero, festival favourites like New York Brass Band and Buffalo Brothers, a day-long Northern Line showcase presented by Jazz North and the premiere of the Irwin Mitchell 2015 MJF Originals commission, Seeds and Streams by John Ellis.

Check out the Manchester Jazz Festival website for details on the programme, buying tickets and being an MJF volunteer. 

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.

Manchester Jazz Festival so far...

The 2014 Manchester Jazz Festival is full swing and those not able to attend in person can stay up to date through the series of gig reviews written by singer and music journalist Rachel Maby.

A diverse programme (aided perhaps by the glorious sunshine) has meant that many gigs have sold out already, including the premiere of Anton Hunter's Article XI - this year's MJF Commission and US trio The Bad Plus. Monday's Jazz North showcase, 12 hours of music from their Northern Line groups, saw 7,000 people attend throughout the day.

Rachel's reviews can be seen on the MJF website.

Manchester Jazz Festival 2014 Launch Event

Helliwell Bone Blues from jazznorth on Vimeo.
On Thursday 19 July the launch event for mjf 2014 took place at the Central Library, Manchester. The festival takes place in July in the heart of Manchester over 10 days with 88 bands in 8 venues. Two groups played at the launch event. The evening started with The Amazing Twisted Tubes playing outside the Library. The reception finished with an impromptu blues from a trio brought together for the event - Geth Griffith - bass, Alex Bone - alto sax and John Helliwell on tenor sax.

http://www.manchesterjazz.com

Jazz Promotion Network Conference

The first Jazz Promotion Network Conference takes place in Manchester on July 23rd and 24th, during the Manchester Jazz Festival.

Over the course of two days there will a number of sessions led by influential speakers and presentations on topics including international opportunities, discussions on audiences, touring, education and proposal of ideas for future collaborations between venues and promoters.

The conference is open to individuals and organisations and delegates will also receive free entry to selected festival performances.

Prices for attendance are listed on the Jazz Promotion Network website and members receive one free place and two further discounted places.

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).

MJF Originals commission announced

                                                    Anton Hunter (photo by Mark Whitaker)

Manchester Jazz Festival has announced that the recipient of this year's MJF Originals commission is guitarist and composer Anton Hunter.

The scheme, which is the UK's only open jazz commissioning scheme for musician-composers, supports one recipient per year to create a new work to be premiered during the festival (which this year takes place between 18-27 July). Last year saw the premiere of Felonious Monks, a fusion of jazz and renaissance music by Mike Hall and Debbie Rogers.

Anton said: “This commission is amazing news for me and I’m tremendously excited to be given the mjf originals commission for 2014. It’s come at just the right time to boost my career as a writer and player. mjf is a fantastic supporter of Manchester music and of new ideas. I can’t wait to get started!”

(taken from MJF website)