Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

Leroy Jones Band - Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

The trumpeter visits Edinburgh after appearances in TV drama Treme

21 Jul 2011

‘I was in an episode two weeks ago with my local quintet. I was performing one of my original compositions for about a minute and twenty seconds.’ Bandleader and trumpeter Leroy Jones is bubbling with pride over his recent appearance in an episode of…

Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival 2011 - highlights

Tommy Smith, Courtney Pine, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and more

8 Jul 2011

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble A high energy blend of New Orleans horns and live hip hop beats, this Chicago nine-piece return to raise the Spiegeltent from its moorings. Barack Obama, Jay-Z and David Byrne are among the fans of this exciting block party…

Trombone Shorty profile - Edinburgh Jazz Festival 2011

Youthful jazz pioneer and composer set for Edinburgh date

8 Jul 2011

'Oooooh! Trombone Shorty! My man!' This is how the 25-year-old jazz musician from New Orleans is greeted by fellow (and fictitious) horn player Antoine Batiste in David Simon's new HBO television show, Treme. Simon's follow-up to his hard-hitting cop…

Timeline - Summer music festivals 2011 from Scotland and beyond

A chronological list of the best festivals in Scotland and beyond

27 May 2011

A chronological list of the most significant festivals happening in Scotland this summer, along with the biggest and best from the rest of the UK and beyond.

Why Edinburgh remains unrivalled as a festival city

A huge number and variety of festivals take place each year

16 Feb 2011

In 1961, a theatre director made a proposal. It was his opinion that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was getting too big. It would be much better, he said, ‘if only ten halls were licensed’. Nobody listened. Had the director been able to travel…

Eric Burdon & The Animals

Queens Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 7 Aug 2010

16 Aug 2010

Contemporaries of The Rolling Stones and Rock’n’Roll Hall of Famers (they were inducted in 1994), The Animals have had a complex history marked by multiple line-up changes and trademark disputes. But it was always vocalist Eric Burdon who gave The…

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

Chicago fusion of jazz, hip hop and funk

8 Aug 2010

This nine-piece comprising eight horns and a drummer are not what you might expect at the Jazz & Blues Festival.

NeWt play Led Zeppelin at the Jazz Bar

Hyper-imaginative and unconvential jazz trio

30 Jul 2010

What Is It? A hyper-imaginative and unconventional jazz trio formed by Australian trombonist Chris Greive, Aberdonian guitarist Graeme Stephens and American drummer Chris Wallace, all Edinburgh residents. Who are these guys? Three of the best…

Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival 2010 - Curtis Stigers interview

The 'jazz warbler' on sex, lies and ballet recitals

23 Jul 2010

In Edinburgh for the Jazz & Blues Festival, Curtis Stigers talks to The List about sex, lies and ballet recitals First record you ever bought ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’, by Elton John. First film you saw that really moved you I remember…

Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival 2010 begins

China Moses, Niki King and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble among highlights

22 Jul 2010

The ten-day fest kicks off again, and among our recommendations, we would include China Moses, an American singer based in Paris, with a soul background and a near obsession for the troubled diva, Dinah Washington; Niki King, Scotland’s own smoky-voiced…

An overview of the 2010 Edinburgh Festivals and their directors

What to expect from Edinburgh in August

15 Jul 2010

Nowhere does a festival quite like Edinburgh, and even with the film folk having long moved out of August, there is more than plenty going on for lovers of art, literature, comedy, theatre, kids entertainment, music, dance and military displays. The…

Music festivals 2010: Festivals timeline

28 May 2010

From Rock Ness to Roskilde, Glastonbury to Glasgow Jazz Festival, we list the best of the many great fests happening throughout the summer. Which one(s) will you choose?

Edinburgh festivals line-ups announced

28 May 2010

Whatever your cultural poison, Edinburgh’s festival circuit has it covered

Baptiste Trotignon

3 Aug 2009

Sometimes the setting is everything, and for one of the real Edinburgh Jazz Festival highlights this year, the programmers have taken the ingenious step of putting French pianist Trotignon in the hallowed environs of Rosslyn Chapel. Trotignon has shown…

5 questions: Melvin Brown Brown

Channelling the spirits of Ray Charles and Sammy Davis Jr in his singin’, dancin’ and joke-packed sh

3 Aug 2009

5 words to describe your show Soulful, upbeat, entertaining, energetic, magic. 4 shows you’re looking forward to seeing in Edinburgh this August Soweto Gospel Choir, Flamenco Jazz Late Night, Stephen K Amos, Mervyn Stutter. 3 things you love…

Barbara Morrison

Ebullient and expressive jazz singer

29 Jul 2009

Los Angeles-based singer Barbara Morrison has been a popular visitor to Scotland in recent years, and settles in to a Fringe residency via a couple of outings within the Jazz Festival programme. Raised in Michigan, she has an ebullient, wise-cracking…

Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra

Burns meets big band jazz

29 Jul 2009

The second of the Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra’s two concerts turns from familiar ground with Duke Ellington into rather more uncharted waters. Robert Burns has been even more ubiquitous than usual in the course of this 250th anniversary year, but…

Fest foot forward

Whatever your taste, Edinburgh has an August event to match

13 Jul 2009

Nowhere does a festival quite like Edinburgh. Spend a year in the city and you can clock up more than a dozen, from horror film weekend Dead by Dawn to the internationally renowned winter Hogmanay event. And that’s before you take daytrips to catch the…

Continental shift at the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

This year sees a fresh influx of New European Jazz

13 Jul 2009

While American jazz remains a central plank of the Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival programme, its European counterpart is still well-represented. The Festival is an opportunity to both welcome back seasoned artists (or in the case of…

Edinburgh festival highlights: The top 30 shows

August’s finest entertainment at a glance

13 Jul 2009

We bring you a selection of the best shows at Edinburgh this year across all the festivals, including barnstorming retelling of the Goethe story Faust, former Talking Head David Byrne in experimental mood, The Wire's creator David Simon and theatre…

Lost boy - a tribute to Chet Baker

A play, talk, film documentary and recital commemorate the jazz pin-up

13 Jul 2009

On 16 June 1952, Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker and Chet Baker played together in a small restaurant club in Inglewood, California. Baker was fresh out of the army and played trumpet to both Parker and Sonny Criss’ mercurial, blues-drenched alto sax. Within…

Best of the Rest - Jazz and Blues

Highlights of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

13 Jul 2009

Jazz on a Summer's Day, Eric Burdon and The Animals, The Hot Club of Cowtown, Martin Taylor/Sylvain Luc, Niki King, Baptiste Trotignon and Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra

Jazz pianist Dick Hyman in concert

The consummate musician who scored a dozen Woody Allen soundtracks

13 Jul 2009

You may not know it, but you’re probably already familiar with the music of pianist Dick Hyman. A composer, arranger, conductor and music director as well as a consummate player, Hyman’s long and diverse career includes scoring the soundtracks for a…

Courtney Pine - Tradition in Transition

The pioneering saxophonist plays a one-night concert

13 Jul 2009

Putting the meat onto the bones of jazz saxophone traditions

Scottish Jazz Expo at the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

A showcase of new bands and fresh collaborations

13 Jul 2009

Like the Homegrown weekend at the Glasgow Jazz Festival, the Scottish Jazz Expo is aimed at raising the profile of our country's musicians. This year’s programme includes an impressive range of the most exciting developments here, alongside projects…

Edinburgh Festivals

1 Jun 2009

There’s a pretty big chance you’ll already have heard of the Edinburgh Festival and if you happen to be in Edinburgh over the month of August, you sure as hell aren’t going to miss it. For a whole month the city becomes a colourful jamboree of theatre…

In the swing of it - Jazz, Blues and Folk venues

15 Sep 2008

Boasting some of the finest new names and most exciting stalwarts of the jazz, blues and folks scene, Edinburgh and Glasgow have long set an impressive stall with some of the most diverse festivals and year round line-ups.

Barb Jungr sings Nina Simone

Barb’s hymn to Nina

31 Jul 2008

Barb Jungr has turned to the music of Nina Simone for her latest project, following the release of her Just Like a Woman album (a title that also neatly evokes her earlier Dylan project) with this live show dedicated to the woman whose voice and musical…

Anderson/Smith/Cosker

Nordic cool meets Scottish heat

31 Jul 2008

Saxophonist Tommy Smith’s current relationship with the Norwegian bass maestro Arild Andersen dates from 2005, when they got together as a duo at the Islay Jazz Festival. It was by no means their first encounter, however – Andersen was one of Tommy’s…

Stu Brown's Raymond Scott Project

Reviving a forgotten genius

31 Jul 2008

Drummer Stu Brown regards American pianist Raymond Scott as one of the great unrecognised musical geniuses of the 20th century, and has dedicated this project to performing the unique and often zany music of the man whose compositions earned him a cult…

After the flood

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

22 Jul 2008

Hurricane Katrina not only devastated a whole city, it nearly destroyed a legendary jazz culture. Malcolm Jack hears how Edinburgh has opened its arms to the top New Orleans players.

Up close and personal - Niki King

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

22 Jul 2008

For Niki King, intimacy is something to be embraced rather than feared. Claire Sawers lends an ear as the local singer gently explains why she loves getting confessional on stage.

Omar Sosa

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

22 Jul 2008

Diverse, dynamic and daring approach inspired by Afro-Cuban folklore. You never know what Omar Sosa will do next. The Cuban-born virtuoso musician has turned his hand to everything from composing and arranging records to producing them, leading bands…

Burt MacDonald with Lol Coxhill

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

22 Jul 2008

A reunion with free jazz, lyrical flourishes and popcorn machines. One of Scotland’s most adventurous jazz groups, the Burt MacDonald Quintet are reuniting with Lol Coxhill. A legend of the soprano saxophone, Coxhill has worked with the band on five…

Best of the rest - Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

22 Jul 2008

The Big Chris Barber Band. Blues standards, New Orleans classics and tunes from Duke Ellington and Miles Davis are all in the Barber repertoire as he and his band do early jazz like few others. Paul Towndrow Quartet ‘Better drowned than duffers…

Little Feat

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

22 Jul 2008

Formed in 1969 by Lowell George, one of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, Little Feat were always going to be different from the blues bands of the period. Small in stature, guitarist and lead singer George was a talented firebrand of R&B, country…

Festivals - Capital Gains

5 Jun 2008

Kicking off the capital’s world famous summer festivals in late July, it’s the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival (25 Jul–3 Aug) which is the longest running jazz festival in the UK. Following hot on its heels is relative newbie to Edinburgh’s festival…

Festivals

5 Jun 2008

Until 8 June Leith Festival Various venues, Leith, Edinburgh, prices vary www.leithfestival.com Leith Festival showcases its trademark brew of home-grown talent and big name headliners with over 100 musical acts, 50 comedians and a dozen visual…

Scottish Arts Council funding shift causes controversy

1 May 2008

A redistribution of Scottish Arts Council funding, announced today, has readjusted the balance of financial power within the Scottish arts. Among those to benefit under the new plans are: Arika, who run experimental music festivals Instal and Kill…