Upton Jazz Festival

Upton Jazz Festival is an annual jazz festival based in Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, UK. We're currently looking forward to Upton Jazz 2011 - bigger and better than ever before! Check out our Facebook | Twitter | Website

[uptonjazz]

It's time!

Hey jazzers! We hope you're as excited as we are about the start of Upton Jazz 2011 this weekend! We've enjoyed blogging about the highlights of this year's festival in the run-up, and hopefully you have an idea about some of the amazing artists that you have appearing for you this weekend.

Thanks for joining us on the journey to this year's Upton Jazz, and we'll see you down by the riverside!

Team Upton Jazz

[uptonjazz]

Fat Sam's Band are Scotland's premier Jumpjive, Boogie, Swing, Dance, Swing Dance, Jazz, Blues, and R & B swing band. Back by popular demand, this versatile band offers a wide variety of musical sounds and styles in its performances.

Fat Sam's Swing Band occupies a niche in todays jazz world that is virtually unique. Formed by Hamish McGregor towards the end of 1984, the band went 'live' on St.Valentines Day - 14th of February 1985, and is the only professional standard 9-piece outfit working on a regular basis with a repertoire embracing, on the one hand, the highly commercial 'jump-jive' music of Louis Jordan, Cab Calloway and Louis Prima, and the swinging sounds of Glen Miller, to the small and big band music of the middle-period Ellington, Basie, etc. We can't wait for them to play this Saturday!

[uptonjazz]

Hot news!

We previously mentioned Amy Roberts, who has received very high marks for her final recital at the Royal Northern College of Music, making her four years hard work and study efforts worthwhile.

This is such a great achievement for a great young talent. No wonder she is acquiring such a following of fans - she will certainly be an asset to the saxophone section of The Big Chris Barber Band. Be sure to see her performance at Upton Jazz Festival with her own quintet on Friday and see her also playing as part of the church service on Sunday morning at 11 am.

[uptonjazz]

Alan Gresty / Brian White Ragtimers will be playing Upton Jazz this year on Saturday 25th June. This is a much in-demand band playing the small group Dixieland of the Condon era. The band was formed in 1985 initially to pay tribute to the great Muggsy Spanier. Since then they’ve included the music of Bob Crosby, Eddie Condon, Bud Freeman et al – in short, the golden age of Dixieland. Festival appearances include Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco and Palm Springs in the USA, and in Europe, Haugesund (Norway), Nice (France) and Torgau (Germany). They started their recording career with the New Orleans based company Jazzology and since have recorded with Lake Records. Five of the original seven musicians are still with the band. Led by Alan on trumpet and Brian on clarinet, the band combines exhilarating ensemble play with fine solo work.

[uptonjazz]

Richard Leach's 7 Stars of Jazz has a style reminiscent of the Alex Welsh Band, which, from the mid 1950s to the early 1980s was Britain's foremost Chicago/Dixieland-style jazz band. With the perfect eclectic mix of Chicago, Swing and Dixieland plus a hint of Vaudeville, the band doesn't just play jazz - it entertains the audience. It is impossible not to be swept along with the atmosphere!

[uptonjazz]

Upton Jazz is pleased to announce that Rebecca Grant, sultry siren of Holby City, will be appearing with The Jive Aces on Friday evening in Venue 1! This video provides a sneak peek of what to expect. Rebecca has sung at many prestigious events with the band including The Taste of London at Regent's Park, The Guildhall in London and The Royal Albert Hall. Find out more about Rebecca on her website.

[uptonjazz]

British Jazz Awards top five trumpeter Bruce Adams teams up with woodwind maestro Alan Barnes for what is shaping up to be a spectacular gig on Sunday. The affable Glaswegian has come a long way since winning Hughie Green’s Opportunity Knocks, aged 11, and is renowned for his dressing room gags and hilarious stories – and no wonder, he’s toured with Freddie Starr and Tony Hancock. He was bitten by the jazz bug aged seven, when he heard Django Reindhart’s gypsy jazz for the first time, but, being a terrible guitarist, his musician dad sensibly bought him a trumpet instead. Bruce plays gigs all across Europe, is regularly called up to the BBC Big Band, and did you know he plays the flugel too?

[uptonjazz]

Woodwind wizard Alan Barnes is the man of the moment, alright. He’s on the bill of every major jazz festival this year, and no wonder since he picked up a coveted 2011 British Jazz Award. He takes to the stage on Saturday with fellow award-winner and BBC favourite Guy Barker for what promises to be the gig of the festival. And on Sunday, his quartet picks up with another Jazz Awards star, Bruce Adams. He was once in the Pasadena Roof Orchestra – Robbie Williams’ favourite – and the acclaimed Humphrey Lyttleton Band, and has toured with the late jazz legend, John Dankworth. Alan has played on albums by Westlife, Jamie Cullum, Bryan Ferry, Bjork and Van Morrison, and even has his own label, Woodville Records. What you might not know is that he’s also appeared in the orchestra for Strictly Come Dancing and in the Tetley tea adverts!

[uptonjazz]

New Orleans Heat  are a very popular 7-piece band who play old style New Orleans jazz. Their motto is “helping to keep the real jazz alive”. They are playing on Friday and Saturday at this year’s festival. Enjoy the video!

[uptonjazz]

A class act, Karen Sharp is one of Britain’s leading mainstream jazz musicians and has been credited with a British Jazz Award in the tenor saxophone category more than once. She has toured and played with names like Sir John Dankworth, Cleo Lane and the Humphrey Lyttleton Band. Robert Fowler,  a star reeds man who is probably the busiest freelance jazz musician in Britain, will accompany her on Saturday at this year’s festival. 

[uptonjazz]

Sheila Fawkes & The Guys

Sheila is a vivacious singer who dances and moves as she sings and adds real charisma to the band she leads. She is very much a showgirl with a bubbly personality. Her striking voice and talent make for a lively performance on Saturday, ably backed by a fine band playing classic jazz of again the 1920s and '30s. See you there!

[uptonjazz]

Hotsy Totsy

A few years ago the all-female band, the Creole Belles, stole a few hearts at the Purcell Rooms in London, going on to perform to popular acclaim around the country at various clubs and festivals. This newly formed line-up came from that popular band, and reflects particularly what Debbie Arthurs, Gabriele Gad and Rachel Hayward have continued to do since with their trio. Debbie is well-known as the Charleston Chasers leader and drummer, and is in high demand as a brilliant vocalist, specialising in the songs made famous by Annette Hanshaw. Gabriele served her apprenticeship with the Frog Island Jazz Band, and is now with Brian Carrick’s Algiers Stompers, and Rachel plays with Harlem, Hootie and the Gang and Swing Street. The talented Zoe Lambeth of Art Deco Blue Five fame now heads this band, and Isabel Toner from Kaminski Connection, amongst others, completes the line-up.

The addition of Boswell Sisters type three-part harmonies are a superb feature of this band. Popular songs of the 1920s and 30s such as I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, It Don’t Mean a Thing, Cheek to Cheek and many more are given the Boswell Sisters treatment, along with a swinging duo sax front line in instrumental numbers such as Exactly Like You. This band generates plenty of energy and enthusiasm, and has proved highly popular at jazz clubs, festivals and social events throughout the country.

We're very excited to be able to have them at Upton Jazz this year!

[uptonjazz]

If you like your music to be accompanied by some good laughs, be sure to catch Bev Pegg and his Good Time Gang on Sunday at 9pm.

Bev rightly has a huge following of fans who return time after time to see some excellent music along with Bev's signature humour. He'll be playing songs from the early '90s up to present day. To find out more about Bev, check out his website.

[uptonjazz]

Pete Allen will feature at this year’s festival with Tom Kincaid’s Trio on Friday, Saturday and Sunday so there will be plenty of chances to see this exuberant and exciting master player of the clarinet and saxophones.

Pete has an immense stage presence and a huge following of jazz fans that enjoy his style of playing, both traditional jazz and happy music for listening and dancing. He has played all over the world with many of the jazz greats and has his own successful band and solo act.

Find out more about Pete on his website.

[uptonjazz]

We're pleased to welcome back Carl Sinclair to this year's Upton Jazz! Carl is a pianist and entertainer with a penchant for boogie piano. His showmanship and energy is second to none, and his incredible live performances have led to him being a resident pianist at Jools Holland's live music venue 'The Jam House' in Birmingham since 2007!

We're delighted that Carl will be performing at Upton Jazz on Friday and Saturday this year. To hear some of Carl's work or find out more, please visit carlsinclair.com.

[uptonjazz]

See James Evans (and a man licking his mouth in an odd fashion) in today's video. James is another huge talent not to be missed. He will feature with Ben Holder playing with Sir Alan’s Hot Groovers at this year’s festival but he can also be seen all over the UK playing with his own bands.

James has his own unique style and plays much of his own compositions as well as the jazz standards. His natural talent shines through whatever and whenever he plays and his clarinet has a style of its own too! Find out more about James on his website.

[uptonjazz]

Another act appearing on the Friday at this year's Upton Jazz is Ben Holder's "Djongology". Ben is a young but incredibly talented fiddle player (as you can see in today's video!) and he plays gypsy jazz with a real vitality and freshness, with his heroes cited as Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt. He will be joined by his wonderfully talented group, Djongology (featuring Jon Smith on guitar , Richard Smith on lead guitar, and Steve Peters on double bass). You can hear more from Ben on his MySpace page.