Lockerbie’s annual Jazz Festival has a programme packed with events and performances with an international flavour which can only be heard in Dumfries and Galloway.
The Festival, which runs from September 22nd – 26th of September, presents a raft of great jazz names including legendary New Orleans trumpeter Leroy Jones, founder member of the Average White Band Hamish Stuart and not one but three top American blues guitarists.
The Festival also offers a platform for top Scottish bands Rose Room, Brian Kellock, Paul Harrison Trio, Remembering Chet.
Take Five
The all-day jazz and blues extravaganza, Take Five, will enable visitors to hear more than one hundred different performers, all within the spacious and comfortable surroundings of The Lockerbie Town Hall.
Five hours, two stages, nine bands including young players and singers from all over Dumfries and Galloway.
Take Five tickets are only £5 and kids under 16 accompanied by an adult go free!
All types of jazz and blues will be showcased, and there will be lots of food and a licensed bar.
Boogalusa: Cajun Party
Scotland’s cajun and zydeco stars whip-up a dancefloor-filling gumbo of rootsy Cajun and zydeco swampland swing. Their infectious sound has graced T In The Park, Celtic Connections and Pebble Mill.
Saturday 24 September, 8.30pm, Queen’s Hotel, Lockerbie, £10
Cajun food available please call: 01576 202415
Jazz Café
New for this year is a series of concerts in top class surrounds at the Jazz Café in Lockerbie Town Hall, the Lesser Hall which will be set-up as an intimate listening venue with food on hand from Hullabaloo. Jazz stars Alan Barnes and Brian Kellock kick off the Jazz Café programme.
Alan Barnes and Brian Kellock – Thursday 22 September, 8pm, Jazz Café, Lockerbie Town Hall, £10
Leroy Jones with Paul Harrison Trio – Friday 23 September, 6.30pm, Jazz Café, Lockerbie Town Hall, £12
Graeme Stephen / David Milligan / Fraser Fifield – Saturday 24 September, 8pm, Jazz Café, Lockerbie Town Hall, £10
Remembering Chet – Sunday 25 September, 2pm, Somerton Hotel, Lockerbie, £10
New Orleans Legend Leroy Jones
Star of the Preservation Hall in New Orleans, trumpeter Leroy Jones leapt to fame playing with Harry Connick Junior. He is in residence for the Festival, playing with The Paul Harrison Trio, delivering a New Orleans Septet and guesting with a host of bands during Take Five.
Average White Band Members Create “360º”
Three founding members of the Average White Band have combined to create 360º and will be performing at Lockerbie Town Hall on Friday the 23rd.
Band members Hamish Stuart, Steve Ferrone and Molly Duncan are guaranteed to delight with soul/funk classics like “Pick Up The Pieces” “Person To Person” and “Work To Do”plus some new groove-laden songs.
Blues Night
In an exceptionally strong blues line-up, iconic Scottish blues band Blues ‘N’ Trouble plays on the same bill as three top-notch American blues musicians: Lisa Mills (from Mobile, Alabama), whose lazy southern drawl includes fiery passion, southern soul, blues and gospel.
There is also award winning slide guitarist Albert Castiglia. White–hot, full–throttle blues guitarist and singer Mike Zito (St Louis, Missouri), founder of The Royal Southern Brotherhood.
Rose Room Perform Two Striking Sets
Seonaid Aitken’s gypsy fiddle and sensational voice front the band Rose Room who deliver two striking sets for the Festival. First, they play in the newly refurbished Powfoot Hotel and then in Lockerbie Town Hall where they are joined by string quartet to the stars, The Capella Quartet and swinging jazz saxophonist Laura Macdonald
Derek Gorman, Festival Director, says “Thanks to Major Festivals and Events status from Dumfries and Galloway Council, the Festival has been able to deliver a programme with an international flavour and packed with musical excitement and delivering serious listening to party music – there truly is something for everyone.”
