All that jazz and more on offer at seaside festival
TAKE a pretty seaside town with individual shops, galleries and small businesses, an enthusiastic following for all things musical and an outstanding photogenic seafront.
Shake them up together, add a weekend of quality jazz and blues, a need to dance... and what have you got? Porthcawl Jazz & Blues Festival 2018.
It starts today and runs until Sunday and it certainly has an eclectic line-up for the 18th annual event.
The line-up is the culmination of the festival’s commitment to bringing a diverse and unique group of jazz and blues musicians to Porthcawl to deliver a collection of top class performances, exciting new artists and student groups all connected around special custom-made programming.
This all creates a unique musical experience and an atmosphere that cannot be beaten.
Robert Lee, mayor of Porthcawl in 2017, said: “Porthcawl is a place filled with music, culture and creativity, and we have a great legacy of jazz and blues here.
“Our festival – one of the longest running jazz and blues festivals in Wales – truly showcases what makes our town special.”
This year the festival is proud to have Darius Brubeck Quarter featuring Dave O’Higgins on sax headlining the Jazz Day on Saturday – a world-class act with an undisputed heritage in jazz.
There are also Fringe events, a Jazz Day parade through John Street and the Jazz Day Market in the grounds of the Pavilion.
WHO WILL BE PERFORMING?
■ Today
■ Bossa Nova Quartet Ocaso: This Portuguese/Brazilian and Welsh lineup perform the wonderful rhythms of bossa nova – music that makes you want to dance, telling the stories of love and experience.
■ Tomorrow
■ Jazz Day – Stage Door
■ Rumblestrutters: They will bring you feel-good blues, jazz and ragtime of the Prohibition era.
Songs of bootleg liquor, all-night parties and bacchanalia abound, tapped from a rich musical source.
■ Liberty Street Jazz Band: Liberty Street Jazz Band was formed in 1993 and has been a very popular band since the very beginning.
They have appeared several times at St David’s Hall, Cardiff and at BBC Wales.
Their musical style can be described as Chicago Trad Jazz which is the officionardo’s way of saying that it’s a little more developed than the original New Orleans Dixieland-style of jazz.
■ Afternoon in Paris: Fronted by an unusual combination of clarinet, bass clarinet and vocals in several European languages, the unique, eclectic and widely appealing sound of Afternoon in Paris is delivered with a heartfelt and irresistible joie de vivre that will transport you through the smokey jazz clubs of 1930s Paris and Hamburg to the grand cafés of Europe and South America.
■ Donnie Joes American Swing: Music with a beat that will surely put a smile on your face, get your toes tapping, and make you feel like dancing.
■ Steve Doolan Quartet: Bringing to you the very best in Baritone Vocals….think Gregory Porter, Al Jarreau, Michael McDonald, Bill Withers, Nat King Cole.