Jazz breaking news: Gateshead Jazz Festival Unveils Strong Line-Up
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Courtney Pine and his Europa band, jazz funk alto great Pee Wee Ellis and Pork Chop, the extraordinary Cuban montuno specialist Roberto Fonseca, and elegant UK bop legend Peter King with his quartet are just some of the eyecatching main headliners of the Gateshead Jazz Festival which has just announced its line-up, the first major UK jazz festival of 2012.
The three-day festival held on Tyneside at various spaces within the Sage at Gateshead Quays, is also to feature the great Jacksonville 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 this year; and Trio Libero – Andy Sheppard, Michel Benita, Sebastian Rochford – the supertrio set to make its label debut for ECM in 2012. Black Top, with Oxford pianist Pat Thomas, saxophone hero Steve Williamson and Jazz Warriors vibes player Orphy Robinson, is also confirmed for the fest, which takes place from Friday 23 March to Sunday 25 March.
BBC broadcaster Alyn Shipton’s new Peggy Lee-inspired project Life Is For Living featuring singer Gwyneth Herbert, a live band plus film and audio clips of Lee in action makes its Gateshead debut; while the new wave of top Brit Jazz talent is also well represented including the Neil Cowley Trio plus strings, and Zoe Rahman whose latest album Kindred Spirits is released on 23 January. A third pianist, Norwegian heavyweight Tord Gustavsen (The Ground) is also to appear at Gateshead, while other features of the festival, which in 2012 marks its eighth 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 work perform with 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.”
– Stephen Graham
(photo: Tim Dickeson)
Tickets go on sale on Friday. For more go to www.thesagegateshead.org
Courtney Pine (pictured above); and the Sage, Gateshead (above, right).