Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2008

[A Lark Ascending]

Nice line-up again - 29th April to 5th May. I'm doing the highlighted ones:

• Eartha Kitt
  
• Carol Brewster
  
• Van Morrison
  
• Sara Colman
  
• Courtney Pine
  
• Maceo Parker with his band, featuring Dennis Rollins
  
• TG Collective
  
• Gwyneth Herbert
  
• BBC Radio 2: Tribute to Billie Holiday
  
• Colin Salmon
  
• Jerry Dammers' Spatial AKA Orchestra
  
• Han Bennink
  
• Gilles Peterson with Jose James, Elan Mehler and Tawiah
  
• Enrico Rava and Stefano Bollani
  
• Jazz on 3
  
• Zoe Rahman Piano Masterclass
  
• Phil Robson's Six Strings and The Beat
  
• Outhouse Ruhabi
  
• Making Sense of Sound
  
• The Jerwood Interview with Soweto Kinch and Iain Ballamy
  
• Tim Berne's Science Friction
  
• BBC Big Band with Nicola Conte
  
• Dave Stapleton Quintet
  
• Imelda May
  
• Alias / The Jerwood Commission
  
• Gloucestershire Jazz Live Big Band
  
• Heritage Orchestra with Bonobo
  
• Soweto Kinch's Basement Fables
  
• The Breakfast Show / The Destroyers
  
• Family Fun Day
  
• Dan Nicholls Band
  
• Jack DeJohnette
  
• Bobby Previte's New Bump
  
• Ralph Alessi with This Against That featuring Ravi Coltrane
  
• BBC Radio 3 Jazz Library
  
• Pete Wareham: The Final Terror
  
• Ruby Turner
  
• Bill Frisell
  
• Mr Scruff
  
• Roberto Fonseca
  
• Jack DeJohnette Drum Masterclass
  
• Dave Holland Prize Competition Winners
  
• Andy Sheppard and The Lunatics featuring James Morton
  
• Blink
  
• Cleo Lane and John Dankworth
  

[Aggie87]

Nice lineup! I'd also be interested in seeing the Bennink, Berne, and Previte shows.

Any relationship to Dave Stapleton?

[A Lark Ascending]

Nice lineup! I'd also be interested in seeing the Bennink, Berne, and Previte shows.

Any relationship to Dave Stapleton?

There's always more than you can fit in. As it is I'll be doing a couple of 'Cheltenham Sprints' in the 15 mins between the end of one gig in one venue and the start of the next a couple of streets away.

No relation to Dave Stapleton at all (we might share a Norman ancestor!) - saw him at Cheltenham 2 or 3 years back and his band were great. His record of last year is marvellous - with a fabulous Julie Tippetts vocal on one track.

[kh1958]

The Bobby Previte show would be on the top of my list. He's been a long-time favorite on records, and I got to see him at the 55 Bar a couple of years ago, with Jamie Saft, Skerik and a Russian guitarist whose name escapes me--it was up there with the best live music I've heard in the last few years.

[A Lark Ascending]

The Bobby Previte show would be on the top of my list. He's been a long-time favorite on records, and I got to see him at the 55 Bar a couple of years ago, with Jamie Saft, Skerik and a Russian guitarist whose name escapes me--it was up there with the best live music I've heard in the last few years.

It may have been that band (Saft was in it) who played this festival a couple of years back - all a bit heavy-metalish for me. I think I left early, which is rare for me.

I know Previte has a huge range of contexts, but that one wasn't up my street. So I skipped this time.

[sidewinder]

I'm afraid I find the lineup a bit disappointing after last year's great lineup but hope to get to the Cleo/John Dankworth and maybe also the Enrico Rava/Stefano Bollani. As the weather improves, I may change my opinion. The Previtte and Allessi shows look tempting.

I'm more fired up this time round with the proposed lineup at Bath (Tyner quartet, Tony Kofi etc).

Edited March 5, 2008 by sidewinder

[kh1958]

The Bobby Previte show would be on the top of my list. He's been a long-time favorite on records, and I got to see him at the 55 Bar a couple of years ago, with Jamie Saft, Skerik and a Russian guitarist whose name escapes me--it was up there with the best live music I've heard in the last few years.

It may have been that band (Saft was in it) who played this festival a couple of years back - all a bit heavy-metalish for me. I think I left early, which is rare for me.

I know Previte has a huge range of contexts, but that one wasn't up my street. So I skipped this time.

I think "New Bump" is a successor to Bump the Renaissance and is one of his acoustic groups.

May 2008

European Tour

BUMP THE RENAISSANCE: Ellery Eskelin, Bill Ware, Brad Jones, Bobby Previte

[JohnS]

I'm afraid I find the lineup a bit disappointing after last year's great lineup but hope to get to the Cleo/John Dankworth and maybe also the Enrico Rava/Stefano Bollani. As the weather improves, I may change my opinion. The Previtte and Allessi shows look tempting.

I'm more fired up this time round with the proposed lineup at Bath (Tyner quartet, Tony Kofi etc).

Ditto, not worth me making the trip.

More interesting is a tour by Jason Moran in May. He'll be augmenting his trio with some local players and taking Monk's Town Hall Concert as a taking off point.

[A Lark Ascending]

I'm afraid I find the lineup a bit disappointing after last year's great lineup...I'm more fired up this time round with the proposed lineup at Bath (Tyner quartet, Tony Kofi etc).

That was my initial reaction - but when I looked more closely I found more than enough to satisfy my curiosity. The Jerry Dammers one could either be thrilling or a non-starter. I've no Two-Tone past and hardly know the chap but with people like Denys Baptiste, Jason Yarde, Larry Stabbins, Zoe Rahman and Finn Peters on board it has potential.

I'm really interested in contemporary UK jazz so there are a number there of both new kids and established names, all performing music I'll not have heard. I've never heard of Roberto Fonesca but that one will provide a nice contrast with its Cuban focus.

Cheltenham clearly has ambitions to draw in from beyond the hard core audience - this might explain it's less concentrated programming this year.

Bath does look interesting - I was a little disappointed with last year's. Much as I applaud their to-the-border-and-beyond programming of European artists, I found myself craving more straight blowing. Rather too much Scandinavian mysticism - it was the relatively mainstream Mingus Big Band which gave me the biggest buzz.

[sidewinder]

[Rather too much Scandinavian mysticism

That was my impression too. That - and Swiss jazz alpenhorn (no - to be fare - I did enjoy the alpenhorn stuff that year).

The lineup at Bath seems to have a better mix this year of the straight-ahead more US-based styles in addition to contemporary European. Nod Knowles must have been doing a bit of market research.

And Bath has the better beer selection ("Bath Ales" ).

[A Lark Ascending]

And Bath has the better beer selection ("Bath Ales" ).

I have to be careful there - or I sleep through late afternoon concerts!

[sidewinder]

And Bath has the better beer selection ("Bath Ales" ).

I have to be careful there - or I sleep through late afternoon concerts!

The 'Barnstormer' usually does me in..

[A Lark Ascending]

Bath programme arrived tonight - they seem to have scaled the jazz right back.

Nothing on Friday night or Sunday afternoon in the Pavillion; Sylvie Courvosier, Jason Moran, and Richard Galliano/Gilad Atzmon are the only three concerts there. Ernst Reijseger and Eveyn Petrova in the Guildhall events. And Toni Kofi late afternoon on Monday with McCoy Tyner/Joe Lovano later on.

I'd be interested to hear Moran; Atzmon and Kofi can be heard regularly closer to home. The rest doesn't grab me.

I think I'll be gardening that weekend! The Bath Ales will have to come in a bottle!

Edited March 6, 2008 by Bev Stapleton

[sidewinder]

Bath programme arrived tonight - they seem to have scaled the jazz right back.

Nothing on Friday night or Sunday afternoon in the Pavillion; Sylvie Courvosier, Jason Moran, and Richard Galliano/Gilad Atzmon are the only three concerts there. Ernst Reijseger and Eveyn Petrova in the Guildhall events. And Toni Kofi late afternoon on Monday with McCoy Tyner/Joe Lovano later on.

I think I'll be gardening that weekend! The Bath Ales will have to come in a bottle!

Oh dear !

Looks like I'll be there on the Monday but not for much else. End of an era?

(I always thought the Bath Fest was at its best in the mid 1980s when many of the events were in the evenings at the Assembly Rooms and Guildhall. Helped by the fact that I lived in the city at that time for some years. They served wine by the glass and not by the plastic cup too !)

[A Lark Ascending]

Bath programme arrived tonight - they seem to have scaled the jazz right back.

Nothing on Friday night or Sunday afternoon in the Pavillion; Sylvie Courvosier, Jason Moran, and Richard Galliano/Gilad Atzmon are the only three concerts there. Ernst Reijseger and Eveyn Petrova in the Guildhall events. And Toni Kofi late afternoon on Monday with McCoy Tyner/Joe Lovano later on.

I think I'll be gardening that weekend! The Bath Ales will have to come in a bottle!

Oh dear !

Looks like I'll be there on the Monday but not for much else. End of an era?

(I always thought the Bath Fest was at its best in the mid 1980s when many of the events were in the evenings at the Assembly Rooms and Guildhall. Helped by the fact that I lived in the city at that time for some years. They served wine by the glass and not by the plastic cup too !)

I only started going about 5 or 6 years back so don't recall the hey-day.

With Appleby also ceasing trading it's all a bit sad.

I'll have to see what Coventry offers for Bank Holiday weekend.

[sidewinder]

I'll have to see what Coventry offers for Bank Holiday weekend.

Car boot sales?

Is there a festival on there? Wasn't aware of that one.

[A Lark Ascending]

I'll have to see what Coventry offers for Bank Holiday weekend.

Car boot sales?

Is there a festival on there? Wasn't aware of that one.

http://www.coventryjazzfestival.com/2008/index.html

Have a look at the past programmes - some of the people who play Bath also seem to do Coventry the same weekend. Mingus BB and Henri Texier last year.

That one is close enough for me to just go for the day. I'm not sure hanging round Coventry has the appeal of ambling around Bath!

[sidewinder]

Thanks - I'll keep an eye on that one.

[A Lark Ascending]

Sidewinder,

Or anyone else.

Are you attending any of the Cheltenham concerts? Thought it might be nice to say hello at one of the gaps if we're in the same vicinity.

I've also relented and booked the Courvosier, Moran and Galliano/Atzmon concerts at Bath.

[sidewinder]

Bev - nothing booked as yet but there's a chance I'll be up for a day at Cheltenham. Bigger chance that I'll be there some of the time at Bath.

Still recovering from Wayne Shorter !

[BillF]

Sidewinder,

Or anyone else.

Are you attending any of the Cheltenham concerts? Thought it might be nice to say hello at one of the gaps if we're in the same vicinity.

I've also relented and booked the Courvosier, Moran and Galliano/Atzmon concerts at Bath.

Much handier for me is the Wigan International Jazz Festival in July. The program is at www.wiganjazzclub.co.uk/WIJF.htm.