The Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival 2024 will take place in the city from 12-21 July, at several venues including the re-opened Jazz Bar. UKJN writers and Edinburgh residents Patrick Hadfield and Mark McKergow pick some events they are looking forward to…
The summer is festival season in Edinburgh, and Edinburgh Jazz & Blues returns throughout the city for ten days in July with more than 120 events. For those who can’t make it to Edinburgh, some concerts will be livestreamed, and some specially recorded gigs will be available online.
The Festival has built a strong relationship with trumpeter Laura Jurd, who this year curates a programme of gigs under the banner “From Folk To Freedom”. She features in a premiere of her own music, accompanied by Martin Green, Ultan O’Brien, Ruth Goller, and Corrie Dick (Sunday 14 July, 16.30, St Bride’s Centre). Other highlights of “From Folk To Freedom” are a rare visit to the capital by Chris Batchelor’s Zoetic (Monday 15 July 2024, 18:00, St Bride’s Centre/ FEATURE BY JOHN FORDHAM) and Norman Willmore Sextet (Tuesday 16 July 2024, 18:00, St Bride’s Centre), which includes both Jurd and Dick.
An early highlight will be BBC Scotland Young Jazz Musician 2023, pianist Ben Shankland with his top-class trio (Ewan Hastie double bass and Chun-Wei Kang drums) who will be joined by Helena Kay on saxophone and guitarist Ben MacDonald. Friday 12 July, 18.00 at George Square Piccolo.
Fergus McCreadie Octet was the highlight of the 2022 Festival, and their return promises the same this year (Saturday 13 July 2024, 19:00, George Square Spiegeltent). The collaboration between Fergus McCreadie Trio and the Manchester Collective, which recently toured the UK to great acclaim (including an excellent broadcast on BBC Radio 3), The Unfurrowed Field, is on Tuesday 16 July 2024, 18:00 at George Square Spiegeltent.
EJBF has commissioned new music from Colin Steele Quartet. After recent projects exploring the songs of the Pearlfisher and Joni Mitchell, the trumpeter will be playing the music of Glasgow cult band The Blue Nile, whose sense of longing melancholy will likely be well matched to the trumpter’s muted horn (Sunday 14 July 2024, 20:30, St Bride’s Centre).
Grand master of the tenor sax Tommy Smith is back with his fusion-ish band Karma, playing a new suite. This quartet are all virtuosi, and the music will fizz with two hours of energy and invention. Friday 12 July, 21.00 St Brides Centre.
The recent announcement of the refurbishment of the Jazz Bar means EJBF can make full use of the venue, with two gigs and a jam session each night during the Festival. Three stand outs from the Jazz Bar programme are Fraser Fifield Secret Path (Sunday 14 July 2024, 18:00); Matthew Kilner, who was outstanding last year with Richard Glassby Quartet, bring his own quartet (Friday 19 July 2024, 20:00); and Helena Kay Quartet, who appear on the final day of the Festival (Sunday 21 July 2024, 20:00).
If you have yet to catch up with Glasgow singer kitti, this is your chance; she appears with a large band including Italian trumpeter Daniele Raimondi and tenor sax titan Harry Weir. Expect soulful sounds and bluey wails from this magnetic young performer. Tuesday 16 July, 20.30, George Square Speigeltent.
Perhaps the most exciting gig in the Festival to look forward to is Tim Garland Lighthouse Trio, with Gwilym Simcock and Asaf Sirkis, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year and recently released the highly acclaimed recording “Moment of Departure” (Thursday 18 July 2024, 20:30, St Bride’s Centre). (FEATURE BY JOHN FORDHAM)
Editor’s note: Jazz historian/UKJN contributor Francesco Martinelli will be doing a lecture with visual and sound illustrations on the origins and history of Italian jazz at St Bride’s on 15 July.
Patrick Hadfield lives in Edinburgh, occasionally takes photographs, and sometimes blogs at On the Beat.
Mark McKergow also lives in Edinburgh where he plays saxophone and has a 2024 Fringe show, A History of Jazz in Four Saxophones, coming up in August. He writes at markmckergow.substack.com.
