Jazz breaking news: Courtney Pine, Roberto Fonseca, Andy Sheppard and Neil Cowley Light Up Gateshead Jazz Festival This Weekend
Friday, March 23, 2012
Gateshead Jazz Festival – the first major UK jazz festival of 2012 – kicks off today with an impressive and eclectic line up that includes UK sax legend Courtney Pine and his Europa band, jazz funk alto great Pee Wee Ellis with Bristol-based funk unit Pork Chop, extraordinary Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca, and elegant UK bop legend Peter King with his quartet are among a vibrant selection of headliners.
The three-day festival which begins today (23 March) and runs until to Sunday 25 March, is held on Tyneside at various spaces within the Sage at Gateshead Quays, also features great Florida-born pianist Marcus Roberts; Gene Harris-inspired US singer and saxophone star Curtis Stigers; Blue Note trumpet hotshot Ambrose Akinmusire whose debut for the label When The Heart Emerges Glistening made a splash last year; and Trio Libero – Andy Sheppard, Michel Benita, Sebastian Rochford – the super-trio which has just made its label debut for ECM. Improv heavy trio Black Top, with Oxford-based pianist Pat Thomas, renowned saxophonist Steve Williamson and Jazz Warriors vibes player Orphy Robinson, also appear.
The Buck Clayton Legacy Band’s new Peggy Lee-inspired project Life Is For Living featuring singer Gwyneth Herbert, makes its Gateshead debut; while the new wave of top Brit Jazz talent is also well represented including the Neil Cowley Trio with the Mount Molehill strings, and Mercury-nominated pianist Zoe Rahman, whose latest album Kindred Spirits marks her return to form, appears in a double bill with award-winning pianist Robert Mitchell. While the hugely exciting Manchester-based Beats & Pieces Big Band also perform playing music from their barnstorming debut album Big Ideas. Highly rated Norwegian saxophonist Marius Neset blows into town as well with his Golden Xplosion band.
Fellow Norwegian jazz heavyweight Tord Gustavsen also appears while other features of the festival, which in 2012 marks its eighth year running, include a jazz choir who are to workshop material over the course of the weekend for a performance on the last day. ECM saxophone star Andy Sheppard will also perform with the youth ensemble Jambone.
Gateshead, says performance programme director Ros Rigby, “has now become established on the UK jazz calendar as an opportunity to see the very best in UK and international jazz in an action packed weekend all under one roof.”
For more info: www.thesagegateshead.org
– Mike Flynn
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