Jazz Festival Returns To Keswick
It’s that time of year again when the streets of Keswick will be swinging to a vibrant mix of jazz and blues as the 26th Keswick Jazz and Blues Festival kicks off in the town.
Taking place between 11 and 14 May, the annual four day festival which each year attracts hundreds of visitors will feature more than 100 artists, and promises to be everything it always has, plus much more.
Unlike your usual field based festival, Keswick Jazz and Blues Festival takes place in various venues throughout the town meaning visitors can pick and choose whatever they are in the mood for. A dance floor will be laid in at least one venue where bands and musicians will play, while dance tutors will run morning classes for beginners and intermediates hoping to learn some new shapes.
Festival goers can expect to hear songs from many fields, including traditional country style, boogie-woogie, gospel, classic Memphis style, New Orleans, Rhythm and Blues and more.
Ever since the very first Keswick Jazz Festival back in 1992, the event has established a reputation as the UK’s most popular celebration of traditional, New Orleans, swing and mainstream jazz, and continues to attract international artists, top UK talent and a regular audience of jazz fans.
The very first Keswick Jazz Festival back in 1992 set out to celebrate the very best of British traditional jazz, a style which evolved in the 50s and 60s after British musicians realised what great music early jazz musicians of New Orleans had been playing.
Over the years, the festival’s scope broadened to include other styles of jazz (even edging into folk, blues and rock and roll), but at its heart was the idea that the music should be enlivening and fun to listen to. International musicians have been invited to the festivals over the years with some becoming a regular feature of the event.
In recent years audiences have enjoyed bands and musicians that are new to the festival, and in recognition of the fact that the history of jazz and blues are closely intertwined The 2017 Keswick Jazz and Blues Festival will include a few more musicians that err on the blues side of jazz.
Blues and jazz have always crossed paths and influenced each other: It is recognised that the best jazz is usually infused with the melancholic overtones of the blues, and likewise the apparently simple nature of blues songs are often decorated with improvisations and syncopations from the jazz vocabulary.
Tickets for the event are available in either 4 day strollers, 3 day strollers and for those who just want to see what all the fuss is about, single day strollers are also now available. For more information and to buy tickets visit: www.keswickjazzandbluesfestival.co.uk.
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Tried to contact the jazzandblues festival website but it says it has been deactivated.
Do you have further info re contact details please.