SPECIAL ISSUE. JAZZ AND BLUES IN THE RIBBLE VALLEY:
JAZZ AND BLUES IN THE RIBBLE VALLEY
by Norman Warwick
In a series of village events between now and the end of the years Ribble Valley Jazz & Blues are taking jazz on tour through some of the prettiest villages in The Ribble Valley. Having lived with that area as our Sunday afternoon drive for more than forty years, before coming here to Lanzarote, we can tell you those villages are Among the pretties in the world, and the jazz sounds pretty damned good too.
On Saturday 7th August (today) The Pancake Street Band (above) will be performing at the Market between 12.00 and 2.00 pm and bring a little Caribbean Sunshine to Clitheroe with their colourful interpretation of West Indian and Latin standards.
The following Saturday 14th August sees Channel 2 playing from 12 to 2 pm in Longridge (right) on Bury Lane. This is an exciting acoustic duo featuring former Swing Commander, Simon Brady, on guitar mandolin and vocals and multi-instrumentalist Jan Holena, formerly of Western valley Hot Club, on saxophone and piano.
Those following the tour will then witness The Mighty Revelators, one of the best blues bands playing on the circuit playing at Salvage House, Whalley on Saturday 21st August, performing from 3 to 5pm.
The tour will then resume later in the year, on Saturday 3rd October when Red Hot Drop (left) will be at The Social Club in Waddington from 3.30 to 5.30 pm. This is a funky jazz-rock band with offerings for all tastes. There will probably be interpretations of the likes of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Janis Joplin, The Doobie Brothers, Talking Heads, Roxy Music and Amy Winehouse and that is definitely my kind of playlist.
We have advised you to take a Bleep Of Faith in previous messages, and now the time is nigh. From tonight, Friday 6th August to Sunday 8th August, you will be able to listen to jazz improve and electronic music in the beautiful setting of Gisburn Forest. Check out RVB&T website to see whether last minute tickets are still available.
On Friday 3 September, 19:00 to 22:00pm you can celebratethe resumption of live club events in 2021 with a double header featuring, from Slovakia, the Lukáš Oravec Quintet and from Manchester, courtesy of Jazz North; the Nishla Smith Quintet.
Lukáš Oravec (right) first appeared in Clitheroe in 2014 and is a recognised trumpet improviser throughout Central Europe where he has won numerous awards and appears regularly on the festival circuits. He collaborates with leading jazz luminaries including: Bob Mintzer, Vincent Herring and Andy Schofield to name but a few. This time their English tour includes Alex Garnett on tenor sax, Jamil Sherif on piano, Jake Garside on double bass and Marek Dorcik (Spercasa) on drums. Expect straight acoustic jazz of the highest quality.
Nishla Smith, (left) by way of contrast, is a (Manchester) City Music Foundation artist currently on the Jazz North roster. Her quintet are due to release a debut album in the Autumn on Whirlwind Records. Fundamentally Nishla is a singer and writer who likes to tell original stories through the medium of jazz and is aided by Richard Jones on piano, trumpeter Aaron Woods (Artephis) Josh Cavanagh-Brierley on bass, plus drummer TBC.
This quintet narrowly missed out at the on-line festival streaming in May due to an unavoidable covid delay in Australia. So, it is with great pleasure and anticipation we at last can welcome them to Clitheroe!
The Spread Eagle Inn (left) at Sawley, near Clitheroe, is loudly proclaiming that Jazz Is Back and has announced dates taking fans through to December. Their next event is on Sunday 22nd August from 2 to 4pm and features The Mark Lewis Trio and further gigs include
On Sunday 26th September from 2 until 4pm., popular singer Arthur Geldard and his quartet will deliver well known tunes from The Great American Songbook.
On Sunday 24th October there will be The Eric Ainsworth Trio playing classic jazz tunes.
The Staccatos, (left) on Sunday 21st November, are also playing from 2 through to 4pm, playing and singing both jazz standards and original compositions.
The series of concert will close 2012 on December 19th when Shades Of Django will be at this beautiful venue of The Spread Eagle Inn at Sawley, near Clitheroe.
These events invariably finish up fully booked so phone The Spread Eagle on 01200 441202 to reserve a place.
And finally, check out the RVJ&B web site for details
of gigs at The Grand by Nubiyan Twist, on 3rd October and by Gwilym Simcock, Mike Walker and Hermine Deurloo on Friday 29 October
There is also news on the web site Low Moor Jammin´ on 14th September. It seems as if even Boris Johnson might have entered that one into his diary.
The above information was supplied by Ribble Valley Jazz And Blues Festival, and you should check out their web site rvjazzandblues.co.uk for further details.
This article was assembled by Norman Warwick, song-writer, journalist and broadcaster. He was a founding member, with Colin Lever, of Lendanear in 1976, Just Poets with Pam McKee in 2001 and all across the arts in 2002 for the Rochdale Observer with Robin Parker and all across the arts community radio programme with Steve Bewick in 2005.
Norman ´retired´ to lanzarote in 2015 but in January 2016 began writing a weekly artscolumn for Lanzarote Information on-line. in 2019 he launched his won daily blog at Sidetracks & Detorus and formed the Joined Up Jazz Journalists (JUJJ) in 2020 with Steve Bewick, his former colleague on the all across the arts radio broadcasters, who now continues to ruin his own Hot Biscuits programme at
Steve´s researcher and production assistant at Hot Biscuits, Gary Heywood-Everett was another founding member of JUJJ and now also serves as an occasional jazz detectiove for Sidetrracks & Detours. The fourth and final member of JUJJ was Susana Fondon, a colleague of Norman´s from Lanzarote Information on-line for which she delivers news, previews, interviews and reviews from the island´s jazz scene.
Sidetracks And Detours
The purpose of forming JUJJ was to enable us to better share and grow our individual and collective jazz knowledge to help us better serve the jazz world in synergy with already outstanding listing agencies such as Music That´s Going Places and Jazz In Reading and Ribble Valley Jazz And Blues festival
Norman´s aim is to provide an eclectic mix of art forms via his daily blog but is aware too that Sidetracks And Detours must also provide clear signals and signposts that send non-traditional audiences to the already excellent and far reaching media press that includes titles like Jazz IN Europe, Jazz Times, Jazziz and JazzED.
Sidetracks is, and will always be a not-for-profit organisation, but although that means we cannot pay for any written contributions we publish, we are always happy to accept submissions for consideration. Any that we subsequently publish will be fully attributed. Therefore, if you do wish to send a story to us, please do so on a word document attached to an e mail addressed to
normanwarwick55@gmail.com
You should feel free to include a brief autobiography if you wish.
if you would like to submit a self portrait photograph and/or any photographs to complement your articles please submiot them ina jpeg format in a zipped folder attached to the same e mail.
We look forward to hearing from you but meanwhile we thank you so much for reading Sidetracks And Detours.
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