17th Scarborough Jazz Festival

The 17th Scarborough Jazz Festival will take place between 20th-22nd September 2019 at Scarborough Spa with another three exciting days of jazz for you to enjoy with a tremendous finale to each evening!

There are lots of new performers amongst the line-up, however one constant face since the festival started in 2003 has been the compere and multi award-winning reeds player Alan Barnes.

Alan will be celebrating his 60th birthday this year by bringing together twelve amazing UK musicians. He has commissioned world class trombonist Mark Nightingale to write 13 charts for the 12 piece big band of tunes written in 1959 (60 years ago!) by, for example, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Horace Silver and Duke Ellington. That should bring Friday to a stirring climax!

Saturday night’s finale should get everyone on their feet-Jeremy Sassoon’s Ray Charles Project. Jeremy sings and plays piano – has seventeen instrumentalists and singers, a great spectacle on the Grand Hall stage.

Sunday night sees what promises to be a perfect finish to the festival: Legendary ‘musician’s musician’ guitarist Jim Mullen has brought together the ‘Volunteers’ an All Star nine piece band who play jazz with hints of blues, soul, funk and rock. Jim has played and recorded with, among others, Mose Allison, Claire Martin, Jimmy Witherspoon, Dave O'Higgins and Georgie Fame.