As a Cheltenham girl born and bred, I am totally committed to my home town and to the wonderful local community who continue to support me on my ongoing ‘journey’ as a jazz musician. It has been a long time coming, following a dream to give local musicians an opportunity to be celebrated and to have a ‘voice’ alongside national and international artists in their home town festivals.
Seventeen years after my initial performance on the Cheltenham Jazz Festival Free Stage as part of the festival fringe back in 2008, I am incredibly proud and honoured to be part of the hugely respected main Cheltenham Jazz Festival this year.
Myself and my husband (drummer) Mike Cypher, have been keen supporters of the Cheltenham Jazz Festival since its inception in 1996. We attended the first ever festival and have seen a huge variety of our favourite artists there.
Our first performance on the festival Free Stage in 2008 was as semi-professional jazz musicians. We were playing part-time whilst also maintaining our professional careers, myself in teaching and Mike as a regional bank manager. To be a small part of such a respected jazz festival in our home town meant the world to us back then and we were delighted to be invited back to play the Free Stage again in 2011 and for a third time in 2012. At this point we had decided to launch ourselves entirely into following our joint dream of becoming full-time jazz musicians, giving up our financially secure careers which gave us pensions, private health, company car etc to embark on our lifelong musical dream.
Becoming more widely known on the jazz scene, we were invited to join the Jazz Festival Advisory Committee, where we attended meetings to put forward our ideas for the festival.
By 2016 I had released my debut album ‘Make Believe’ and we were firmly establishing ourselves on the London and UK jazz circuit. We played the festival Free Stage and in the ‘Around Town’ festival again in 2017 and 2018.
With two more album releases, regular sellout shows in the London clubs including world-renowned Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, as well as helping to keep the Cheltenham jazz scene alive and thriving throughout the year, including running two popular jazz clubs in Cheltenham – Smokey Joe’s and Dunkerton’s, bringing in highly respected jazz musicians to Cheltenham from all over the UK and overseas, we are finally set to fulfil our dream!
Last year we reached out to Cheltenham Festival’s Co-CEO Ian George to arrange a meeting to discuss our vision of allowing for progression for local musicians to be celebrated as part of the main jazz festival. We were subsequently offered a prime slot in the main Jazz Arena, our first performance in the main festival (17 years after our initial appearance on the Free Stage) and an opportunity to represent all local musicians who may have followed a similar path to us.
This is more than just a performance for us, it is a huge step forward in terms of local jazz musicians collaborating and having a ‘voice’ in their hugely respected home town jazz festival. It is also a dream come true for us to be celebrated in our home town.
We are performing in the main Jazz Arena on the closing night of the festival, Monday 5 May at 6.30pm, with my album tour band of top UK musicians and special guest Ashley Slater. Tickets are on sale now and we hope everyone will get behind us and celebrate local musicians.
