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BRIGHTON JAZZ FESTIVAL 2024
www.brightonjazzfestival.co.uk
September 26th - September 29th 2024
Horatios Bar Brighton Palace Pier
After the storming success of the 2021 relaunch Brighton Jazz Festival will be returning to Brighton’s iconic Palace Pier with four days of world class music with an amazing array of international jazz artists from the deep tradition to the cutting edge.
LINE UP
https://www.brightonjazzfestival.co.uk/lineup
Brighton Jazz Festival is supported by Arts Council England and is proud to partner with New Generation Jazz, Supreme Standards, Tomorrows Warriors and AudioActive.
New Generation Jazz are super stoked to announce that the JAZZ FUTURES band will be performing at this year's Love Supreme Festival.
You can catch them on the New Generation Jazz Stage at 12.30pm on Sunday 7th July..
They've been working hard on their set under the watchful guidance of our education lead Matt Ellis and we confidently expect them to smash it out of the park on the day!
Jazz Futures is a programme created by New Generation Jazz to encourage the wealth of young musical talent across the South East. It offers free weekly workshops and band classes at the Verdict Jazz Club in Brighton under the leadership of respected educators Matt Ellis and Claire Ellis, with a range of guest tutors including some of the UK’s most exciting rising stars offering their expertise, and specially commissioned works for the student ensembles to perform.
New Generation Jazz are proud to present Brighton Summer School
Come and join us for a fresh approach to learning jazz!
You’ll be taking part in a 1-day immersive experience playing alongside our team of tutors - some of the most exciting artists on the UK Jazz scene.
You’ll be developing your your theory, rhythm and improvisation skills through our interactive workshops then joining the tutors for an all-star evening gig.
You’ll take part in a series of specially designed group sessions under the expert guidance of our tutors, each one aimed at raising your skill levels in a specific area, then coming together for an evening performance.
All ages and abilities are welcome, as the event is tailored for maximum inclusiveness with plenty to encourage and support the beginners at one end, and to challenge the advanced players at the other!
We’re super excited to be able to bring it to you - if you are into playing jazz and want to take it to the next level, or just want to have an amazing day of music making in the company of like minded individuals, then this musical hang is for you!!
New Generation Jazz is back at the Love Supreme Jazz Festival!
New Generation have been partnering with Love Supreme since the festival’s inception and have been proud to be a part of its growth into the biggest greenfield jazz event in the UK
Every year we’ll be bringing you the best in local talent that deserves to take its place alongside Love Supreme’s international line-up, and mixing in our favourite up-and-coming artists from across the UK to present three days worth of stunning music.
The New Generation Jazz Stage has become everyone’s favourite hang at Love Supreme and we’re confident that this year it’ll be better than ever!
Sunday Jazz At The Con, a series of regular monthly events. Following the sell out first gig we now present
Alex Hitchcock & The Dream Band
Doors 2:00pm, Show 2:30 to 4:30pm
Tickets: www.wegottickets.com/event/542164
www.facebook.com/Sunday-Jazz-at-The-Con
Upcoming sax star, presented in association with New Generation Jazz
London-born saxophonist Alex Hitchcock is regarded as one of the UK’s most virtuosic young jazz musicians. His quintet’s critically acclaimed 2018 debut on Barcelona-based label Fresh Sound New Talent (home to debuts by artists including Ambrose Akinmusire and Avishai Cohen) was described by All About Jazz as ‘an exquisitely subtle collection of tunes… the clearest indicator to date of the stratospheric trajectory on which this super-talented quintet is indubitably heading’. Their increasingly burgeoning reputation on the international jazz stage was confirmed by a major prize at the 2018 Umbria Jazz Festival, as well as touring to Poland, Spain, Italy and Hungary and performances at legendary UK venues including Love Supreme Festival, the Royal Albert Hall and Ronnie Scott’s. He’ll be appearing with his new highly acclaimed seven-piece Dream Band project featuring vocalist Midori Jaeger and other special guests. Expect truly original, soul searing performances from world-class players.
With only a fortnight to go the final announcements for the New Generation Jazz Festival line-up are in place,
Alongside our phenomenal line-up of the freshest young UK talent we've got a full programme of workshops and free events in the foyer for Saturday and Sunday.
See the Festivals page for the full line-up!
NEW GENERATION JAZZ FORUM
Episode 1 - Mark Kavuma and Ruben Fox - Discuss the Blues
Episode 2 - SUDO - Tell us about using cross rhythms
Throughout the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 New Generation Jazz have been continually searching for ways to keep the flow of connection between our artists, their audiences, and the next generation of aspiring players who are taking their first steps on the pathway into jazz.
As part of our Cinematic Livestream series, we have invited some of the freshest rising UK talent into our bespoke studio to create some stunning live concert performances.
Each of our artists also contributed an episode to our Forum series: a set of educational video shorts, inspired by the Jazz At The Lincoln Centre youtube channel, where each artists explains a vital aspect of their own musical practice.
Now we’re releasing this series of educational gems from our chosen artistic partners. We hope that they inspire you as much as they have us!
All the videos are a maximum of five minutes long, and you can learn directly from the likes of Mark Kavuma, Reuben Fox, Quinn Oulton, Cherise Adams-Burnett and many others by going to our Youtube Channel and tuning in to the Forum series.
NEW GENERATION JAZZ FUTURES
Engaging the next generation of young players is at the heart of our mission at New Generation Jazz.
2021 has presented a unique series of challenges for the entire jazz community. Both artists and audiences have suffered as a result of the restrictions of lockdown and we are working to try and rebuild the bridges between them, creating playing opportunities for rising stars to connect with fans across our South East and beyond.
Creating a pathway into jazz for young aspiring players is vitally important to foster the sustainability and growth of the local scene. New Generation Jazz have partnered with a team of inspiring musical mentors and educators from across the entire region to launch the New Generation Jazz Futures programme - a fun, inclusive, comprehensive introduction to jazz, offered free of charge.
Led by experienced trumpeter and educator Matt Ellis, the Jazz Futures programme offers a 12 week course for players between the ages of 11 and 16 to explore all aspects of playing jazz. Each week Matt will lead a two-hour session at Brighton’s famous Verdict Jazz Club offering expert hands-on tuition in an aspect of playing jazz and making music as part of a group . Six of the sessions will also feature guest mentors drawn from the best local and London-based professionals.
The course will run throughout the Summer Term on Wednesdays after school. Full backline, drumkit and baby grand piano are provided in a COVID-safe environment. All tutors are DBS checked.
This is a unique opportunity to learn about jazz from the professionals in a friendly, fun and supportive environment.
The programme is free to any 11-16 year olds, but places are limited!
SIGN UP AT newgenerationjazz.co.uk/jazzfutures and take your place in the New Generation
Zeñel have been New Generation Jazz favourites since longer than seems possible for such young talents, so it was a real pleasure to welcome them back to The Verdict for the final gig of our 2019/2020 season. Noah Stoneman, Zoe Pascal and Laurence Wilkins dazzled and delighted with a forward-looking set mixing future jazz with heavy beats and deep synth textures, all spontaneously created live via the magic of Ableton. They played their entire new album, Extreme Sports, and much more besides, to a sell out crowd for a truly memorable send off to the season! Watch this space for more news!
Picture by Anya Arnold
Tickets sold out way in advance for Nye Banfield's first performance at the Verdict promoting his All Change release with a set of exciting original compositions. As well as New Generation favourite Rupert Cox on piano, and the superb rhythm team of Hamish Nockles-Moore on bass and Ewan Moore on drums, the audience had the extra treat of a guest appearance by Mark Kavuma on trumpet, last seen leading his own band for New Generation back in October. Everyone played to an extra level of inspiration to a delighted crowd.
Picture by Anya Arnold.
The Verdict were nominated for Best Live Venue for in this year's Parliamentary Jazz Awards!! Though the award went to the very deserving Watermill Jazz Club in Dorking, this is an amazing accolade for the Verdict as a relative newcomer to the UK jazz circuit and a wonderful acknowledgement of the hard work put in by everyone to keep this valuable asset to the jazz community thriving. Verdict owner Andy Lavender, Liz Lavender, venue manager and promoter Roxanne Checkley and New Generation Jazz director Eddie Myer joined the throng at Pizza Express Holborn to applaud the winners. Here's Roxanne congratulating Best New Artist winner and New Generation favourite Xhosa Cole.
Quinn Oulton took some time out from his busy schedule to visit the students at BIMM (accompanied by his faithful dog Piper) and deliver a workshop sharing his unique approach to music making, incorporating his skills on saxophone, vocals, guitar and loop pedals. Later Quinn and Piper were joined by his superb band at the Verdict - Peter Wilson (gtr) Rupert Cox (keys) Will Sach (bs) and Luca Caruso (drms) - and they delighted the packed house with two sets of Quinn's powerful original material...
New Generation Jazz are proud to present Howes3 as support for Taylor McFerrin at Hackney's Olso on the 19th of November. Our friends at Soundcrash are promoting the gig and after seeing Oli, Marcus and Luke smash it out of the park when we put them on the bill at this year's Funk And Soul Weekender on Brighton beach, they agreed that Howes3 would make the perfect warm up act for Mr McFerrin's only UK gig this year. Don't miss!
Mark Kavuma brought his Banger Factory crew for a re-visit.. the gang hosted an open workshop for twenty lucky musicians before the gig, then presented the sell-out crowd at the Verdict with a choice selection of cuts from their newly-minted second LP which sounds better, bigger and badder than ever! Artie Zaitz, Deschanel Gordon, Ferg Ireland and Luca Caruso joined the frontliners of Mark and Mussinghi Brian Edwards and the results were outstanding throughout!
Picture by Anya Arnold
Rosie Frater Taylor treated us to an evening of her unique blend of jazz and folk, backed by her superb band featuring a pair of stunning backing singers and New Generation 2019 regulars Hugo Piper on bass and Deschanel Gordon on piano. Rosie played a selection from her album debut 'On My Mind' and some previews for her upcoming new release and her intimate voice and unique guitar skills kept the crowd mesmerised.
Picture by Anya Arnold
Tireless, award-winning trombone supremo Rory Ingham took time out from is busy schedule as an in-demand sideman, co-leader of Bonsai and heading his own projects, and travelled from Yorkshire to deliver a workshop to the pupils at Steyning Grammar state school. Rory led the students in a fun and accessible approach to jazz improvisation ending with a final group performance that raised the roof!
Brothers Testament brought their own unique brand of freewheeling group improvisation to Brighton and rocked the sold-out house. Munashe-Caleb Manyumbu, Mark Mollison, Hugo Piper and Jack Robson turned up the fusion, with Munashe-Caleb delighting all comers with his vocoder stylings and the stuffed furry caterpillar around his neck as the rest of the gang served up a selection of forward-looking grooves. With their unique take on group improvisation and new album in the pipeline, this quartet are ones to watch!
Picture by Anya Arnold
We are completely stoked that Jazz Re:Fest is returning to Brighton Dome on the 27th with an amazing line-up of the freshest UK jazz artists. Theon Cross, Rosie Turton, Sarah Tandy and Camilla George have all appeared at New Generation Jazz promotions over the past few years and it's so good to see the scene progressing!
Buy tickets at https://brightondome.org/event/23407/jazz_refest/
We'll be representing New Generation Jazz at our stall in the foyer so come and say hi to the wonderful Kareena and find out more about what we're up to.
Thanks to the Jazz Re:Freshed crew for making this happen!
The first ever New Generation Jazz Summer School launched on July 20th.
Thirty-seven students aged from 8 to 82 came to Brighton Electric Studios at 9am and joined our line-up of star tutors; Binker Golding on tenor sax, Rob Luft on guitar, Ashley Henry on piano, and Peter Adam Hill on drums.
We started the day with rotating workshops on rhythm (Peter) improvisation (Binker) and harmony and melody (Ashley and Rob). After a break for lunch the students formed into bands and worked on a repertoire under the guidance of each of or tutors, before coming together for a final performance in the Brighton Electric studio that was captured on a 24-track recording by their house engineer. Finally facilitators Jack Kendon and Eddie Myer joined the tutors for a performance.
Feedback from the event has been great! We had such a diverse range of students of all ages and abilities, and thanks to the efforts of our superb tutors the atmosphere was super fun and inclusive, but really delivered some results for the final gig! Looking forward to next year!
Thanks to everyone who came, to our fabulous tutors, and to the Brighton Electric staff for making everything run so smoothly!
New Generation Jazz were proud to welcome back the Ingham brothers with their rebranded Bonsai project. Hot on the heels of their forward-looking latest release, Rory, Dom and bandmates Toby Comeau, Joe Lee and Jonny Mansfield came to delight the crowd with their own very individual post-jazz-rock blend! Superb playing from everyone involved, married to a willingness to take musical risks while simultaneously embracing the directness of songwriting. Thanks to the fabulous Roxanne at the Verdict for lending her skills as a compere!
Love Supreme 2019 felt like the biggest and best yet with a truly outstanding line-up on the Friday Arena and Bandstand stages programmed by New Generation Jazz. So much good music, sunny weather, record crowds and general amazing vibes! Thanks to everyone involved!
Picture by Lisa Wormsley.
Xhosa Cole and his quartet created a truly electrifying vibe in front of a packed club, showing how vital and exciting the straight ahead tradition can sound when players put every bit of their heart and soul into the performance. Xhosa's regular bandmates Shivraj Singh on bass and Nathan Jones on drums were joined by Elliott Sansom (Finalist, 2017 BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year) who added a thrillingly unpredictable dimension to the gig. Earlier Xhosa led a free workshop for a selection of lucky local players - his depth of musical knowledge combined with his relaxed personality made this a memorable session in every way!
Picture by Anya Arnold.
Kemp Town Carnival returned bigger and badder than ever and New Generation Jazz brought our biggest stage yet to the Bristol Bar and filled it with the best music. Sussex Jazz Orchestra kicked off proceedings, followed by up-and-coming local favourites Yadasofi, Mississippi Meltdown with an array of top Brighton talent, Afro-Cuban vibes from Son Guarachando, nu-jazz from Roella Oloro and her band of young geniuses, and finishing with the mighty Steam Down tearing it up! And the sun shone all day!
Picture by Anya Arnold.
Dave Storey brought his pals Conor Chaplin on bass and James Allsop on tenor sax and delighted a sold-out Verdict club with material from his recent 'Bosco' album release on Impossible Ark Records.
The trio dazzled on their selection of hard swinging bebop-inspired creative original material, Chaplin and Allsop gave their all and Dave was a calm collected and charismatic frontman throughout!
Picture by Anya Arnold
We got together with our friends at Soundcrash and they let us do a stage takeover on Sunday! New Generation were proud to present brass-heavy punk-jazzers YEOJA, super-slick fusioneers HOWES3 and nu-soul breakbeat merchants YAKUL to a tent full of happy punters...
Thanks Soundcrash! See you next year!
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Ife Ogunjobi played to a sold-out house with his band of outstanding young players - Deschanel Gordon on piano, Hugo Piper on bass and Zeñel Trio's Zoe Pascal on drums. Mixing up powerful afro-flavoured grooves with their own take on the tradition, including a heartfelt "I Remember Clifford", the band caught fire and Ife's big tone (and big personality) filled the room.
Earlier that day the band delivered a workshop to a lucky group of students at BHASVIC college, passing the message on to the new generation!
Picture by Anya Arnold
Duncan Eagles brought his Citizen project to debut their new album and kick off the 2019 New Generation Jazz season. Their high-level musicianship and Duncan's ingenious but accessible compositions kept the crowd spellbound. Max Luthert on bass, Dave Storey on drums and David Preston on guitar dazzled with their virtuosity and the leader soared above.
Earlier in the week Duncan brought his expertise to an enraptured class at Steyning Grammar School, leading a workshop on jazz improvisation.
Picture by Anya Arnold
Alex and his quintet are New Generation Jazz favourites and their outstanding musicianship and fresh take on the tradition never fail to delight. Alex Hitchcock (saxophone) James Copus (trumpet/flugelhorn) Will Barry (piano) Joe Downard (bass) and Jay Davis (drums) absolutely killed it and kicked off 2019 in fine style.
Picture by Lisa Wormsley
Moses came down to Brighton as New Generation Jazz’s latest guest, fresh from his triumph at this year’s MOBO.
First stop was the drum room at BIMM Brighton, where Moses gave a clinic, hosted by BIMM tutor Preston Prince and New Gen’s own Jack Kendon, to a packed room of BIMM degree students. Moses gave a rundown on his musical philosophy, some dazzling musical moves, and some practical tips for survival in the music biz, as well as fielding questions from the students.
The it was off to the Verdict for a gig with his genre-busting Exodus project. Tickets were sold out well in advance; Moses was joined by Artie Zaitz, Binker Golding and the awesome Theon Cross on tuba to deliver two spectacular sets of forward-looking musical mash-ups that dazzled and delighted and left the crowd yelling out for more.
Tom Green brought his whole septet down for this one – an amazing mix of tight arrangements and
inspired blowing that brought in influences from New Orleans right up to the hip edge of things.
Earlier in the day, the whole band took a trip up to Sussex University campus to meet up with the
Sussex University Big Band and put them through their paces! Plenty of input for everyone, from
the horns to the rhythm team, as Tom brought some arrangements for them to play and the band
ate them up!
Ashley Henry is a hotly tipped star in the making and we were lucky to book him for this exclusive
trio show. The two Sams – Vicari and Gardner on bass and drums respectively – also turned up for
a super-relaxed workshop session discussing all aspects of trio playing and jazz practice in
general, before the trio blew everyone away with their sheer intensity!
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Sumo Chief broke the mould with this one – Joe Armon Jones and Oscar Jerome led their band of
hip-hop/jazz fusioneers and brought the house down with their heavy heavy beats. The workshop
at the Verdict was a blast as well – the links from jazz to hip hop and back again are alive and well
in the hands of these monsters of groove! We were stoked to be able to feature them on the Arena
stage at Love Supreme Festival as well!
Local boy Dave Drake came back from his studies at the New School in Manhattan to bring us a
preview of some of his new compositions with an amazing trio performance, ably supported by
Tim Thornton on bass and fellow Brighton homeboy Peter Adam Hill on drums. Dave has quite a
reputation already around these parts, so a packed house was guaranteed. Earlier in the day,
Dave dropped into his old school, BHASVIC, to give a workshop on aspects of jazz theory and
practice to a room full of students – and his old music teacher!
We were honoured to welcome Trish Clowes’ new project as part of our summer season – her fresh
take on the classic organ trio-plus- horn, MY IRIS, was a standout gig and a great addition to the
rather jazz-free May Festival – Ross Stanley, Chris Montague and James Maddren make a real all-
star band, so the players who turned up for the workshop at the Verdict couldn’t believe their luck!
Ant Law brought his entire band down for the free masterclass workshop at the Verdict on April 29th – an amazing array of top-flight talent including Mike Chillingworth on reeds, Tom Hewson on piano, Matt Ridley on bass and Asaf Sirkis on drums offered the benefits of their collective expertise to some very lucky attendees. They spent their afternoon explaining the mysteries of time signatures, making it all seem very natural as only true masters can, and were having so much fun that they were only just left enough time to set up the Verdict Club for the evening’s gig. The show was a complete sell-out and the band sounded truly amazing – Thanks for Sara Oschlag for acting as facilitator, compere and all-round star!
New Generation Jazz were utterly stoked to present a show by the awesome Ezra Collective. The Ezras are the third band from the Tomorrow’s Warriors organisation a New Generation to play a show this year, following in the footsteps of Nerija and Moses Boyd’s Exodus. The bar was set high, but the band didn’t disappoint, thrilling the biggest sell-out crowd yet.
You can read the Jazzwise review here.
Thanks again, and good luck with the upcoming album release!
The New Generation experience kicked off on October 30th when Gary Crosby and Nathaniel Facey dropped into BIMM to deliver an amazing workshop to a crowd of BA students. They dazzled them with a sax/bass duet before Nathaniel gave an inspirational account of what playing jazz is all about, before getting everyone involved in a multi-layered jam session, while Gary shared his insights with the many bassists who’s turned out to see him.
Later they joined Shirley Tetteh and Moses Boyd for a killer sell-out show at the Verdict. You can read the Jazzwise review here;
Expect more from New Generation hook-ups from Tomorrow’s Warriors in 2016!
New Generation Jazz were delighted to kick off 2016 in fine style with the second of their collaborations with the Tomorrow’s Warriors group; the hotly-tipped Nerija.
In the afternoon, altoist Cassie Kinochi and bassist Inge Eichler, accompanied by piano star and Zara MacFarlane collaborator Peter Edwards, paid a visit to Dorothy Stringer Secondary School to present a workshop to 30 extremely excited students. Thanks are due to Mr Andy Barbour and Mr Pete Davison for co-ordinating this event so successfully with the Stringer music department – the gospel of jazz was spread to some very promising young players.
Expectations were high for the evening show and Nerija more than fulfilled them. Playing a selection of material from their upcoming EP release, the girls showed why they’re making waves across the jazz community with their free-flowing soulful sound, with Nubya Garcia especially impressing on tenor sax.
Jazz Futures will be performing at Make Music Day in Crawley as part of the fabulous line-up of emerging talent curated by our partners at AudioActive under the AudioActive Kustom Vibes banner!
See them onstage at 5.30pm at Crawley Leisure Park!
