Following the success of last year’s Jazz Festival at Chipping Sodbury, plans are well underway for a second Jazz Festival in 2012.
Last year’s inaugural festival was a big hit with jazz fans and featured Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen as the main headline act.
“It was so well received by residents and supported by local businesses that the 2012 Festival will be a little more ambitious,”
commented Mark Lloyd, Chair of organisers Sodbury Chamber of Commerce.
The 2012 line up all ready includes jazz legend Acker Bilk, who will play with his Paramount Jazz Band; Jacqui Dankworth, considered to be one of the classiest acts in British jazz singing and daughter of Dame Cleo Lane, and the late Sir John Dankworth; and Terry Lightfoot, internationally acclaimed clarinettist, saxophonist and vocalist and prominent ever since the traditional jazz revival in Britain in the 1950s.
The Sodbury Jazz Festival will take place from 28th – 30th September, but jazz fans won’t have to wait until then to enjoy their favourite music.
“We are holding two concerts earlier in the year to raise awareness and support for the main Festival,”
explained Mark Lloyd.
Our 10th March concert will feature the celebrated dixieland clarinettist Pete Allen. Regarded as one of jazz’s most exciting masters of the clarinet, vocals and saxophones, Pete has starred in the USA and throughout Europe, plus numerous television broadcasts and jazz festivals.
Opening the concert will be an excellent young band, the South Gloucestershire Youth Jazz Orchestra (SOGY JO Big Band). Aged between 14 and 18 they are an inspiration to all young players.
The second concert, on May 7th, is another treat for jazz fans in the shape of Brian Carricks’s International New Orleans Band. Featuring special guests Patrick Tevlin (trumpet) from Canada and Frank Oxley (drums) from New Orleans, it is a rare opportunity for local fans to hear and meet international players on tour in the UK.
Tickets for these concerts, priced £10.50 and £12.50 respectively, will be on sale from early January 2012 and can be purchased from Swagger in Chipping Sodbury High Street and at Rounceval House in Rounceval Street.
