All that jazz

BEATS: MANCHESTER Jazz Festival is celebrating its 15th birthday with its best ever line-up.

More than 80 bands will play across eight city centre venues for a week from Friday.

This year’s event includes musical firsts from Britain and abroad including Surroundings, a new antiphonal suite for jazz orchestra composed by Manchester trumpeter Neil Yates.

International debuts come from Spanish pianist Baldo Martinez and Franco-German duo Frances Le Bras and Daniel Erdmann.

Other highlights include jazz supergroup Simcock/Walker/Swallow/Nussbaum, which features Salford-born guitarist Mike Walker.

Refurbished music venue Band on the Wall will host the majority of performances, including Mancunian clarinettist Arun Ghosh and revered DJ Mr Scruff.

1980s icon Kid Creole will stage a comeback and the BBC’s jazz show will be broadcast live from the Swan Street venue.

Other venues hosting events are Bridgewater Hall; the mjf Festival Pavilion in Albert Square; Matt & Phred’s Jazz Club; Midland Hotel; Royal Northern College of Music; St Ann’s Church and the mjf Open Air Stage in St Ann’s Square.

A multitude of jazz vocalists feature in the festival, from the bluesy Terri Shaltiel to Irish Rodina. Monika Lidke is famed for her Polish folk songs, Alice Zawadzki her Jewish ditties and An Jacobs her French chanson.

At the other end of the spectrum, there is music for the jazz aficionado too. The Golden Age of Steam features an unusual line-up of bass clarinet, organ and drums.

Jim Hart, who studied the vibraphone at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, has joined forces with Ralph Alessi, the innovative New York-based trumpeter.

Sunday will be devoted to Afro-Caribbean music, with percussion and dance workshops and performances from 11-piece orchestra Diaspora and vocal/percussion group Mojito.

Steve Mead, mjf’s artistic director, said: “There’s an incredible amount of wonderful music this year. There’s such a wide mixture of sounds and styles, from twice BBC Jazz Award-winner and singer/songwriter Liane Carroll, bringing her relaxed pop and blues influences into the mix, to the most challenging of artists at the cutting-edge of jazz, like punky Trio VD.”

Visit www.manchesterjazz.com/ or call 0161-228 0662.

Register for tickets at bbc.co.uk/tickets.