The first acts are announced for the 2021 Glasgow Jazz Festival. It will be a three-day digital festival from Friday 18 and Sunday 20 June, based at Saint Luke’s near the Gallowgate. Some acts are announced today, and the full programme will be unveiled next month.
Pianist Fergus McCreadie’s trio, alto saxophonist (and Masterchef 2021 finalist) Laura Macdonald and “double” winners at the Scottish Jazz Awards 2020, Glasgow collective corto.alto are among the first artists to be announced for this year’s Glasgow Jazz Festival.
The festival, which will take place online, will run over the weekend of Friday 18 to Sunday 20 June, with performances and DJ sets showcasing the breadth of the Scottish jazz scene.
McCreadie, Macdonald and corto-alto will each premiere a specially commissioned piece of music and the Sunday programme, filmed at arts venue St Luke’s, will feature a new musical collaboration between Scottish keyboardist, composer and producer Marco Cafolla and the award-winning saxophonist from New Focus, Konrad Wiszniewski.
Singer Georgia Cecile will also appear from St Luke’s, and popular Sauchiehall Street venue the Blue Arrow will host a programme of performances still to be announced. Surprise pop-up bonus tracks from a selection of performers, a Women in Jazz interview series and a London session will complete the line-up
Early Bird online festival passes are on sale now at www.jazzfest.co.uk. This all-access ticket will give access to the full weekend of entertainment for £25 and is available for a limited time before the price increases. Performances will be available to view on demand for seven days following broadcast.
This year’s festival follows the event’s success in 2019, when audience figures rose by almost a third, and a successful online edition in 2020. A series of winter and spring livestreams has kept the festival in touch with its audience and provided a link between summer events.
The festival’s director, Jill Rodger said: “The 2021 festival will see us bring an array of exciting talent from the local jazz scene to global audiences with our programme of digital events. Going online allows us to continue supporting the rich and diverse jazz ecosystem in the city, including musicians, local venues and an array of industry specialists, such as production, sound and lighting, who work tirelessly to bring audiences the best live music.”
