After the success of last year’s inaugural Oxford Jazz Festival, Oxford is set to host the four day jazz spectacular once again, with over 40 performances taking place across the prestigious city’s most historic and exciting venues.
Taking place over Easter weekend (1st to 4th April), the Festival features performances from some of the lights from the world of jazz including Liane Carroll, Mornington Lockett, Pete Oxley’s Flight of Hand featuring O’Higgens, Kairos Quartet, Clara Sanabras, BD Lenz and Kate Williams Quartet, among many others.
To commemorate the 100th year since the birth of influential Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, the Festival will feature a handful of special performances from Gypsy Jazz artists – including Gypsy Fire and the Euro Gypsy Jazz trio Dunjaske Kapelye.
Performances will take place across the city, inside Oxford’s most spectacular venues, including the newly refurbished Ashmolean Museum, the Bodleian Library, St Michael at the North Gate (the oldest building in Oxford) and former prison turned boutique hotel, Malmaison Oxford.
The youth jazz competition, Jazz Factor, returns on a larger scale this year, taking place at SAE Oxford - the world headquarters of the sound and film engineering institute. School-aged youths from across Oxfordshire will compete for two stunning prizes – a paid gig at a prestigious local jazz club and a free recording session in state of the art recording studios at SAE.
The Oxford Jazz Festival will once again invite amateur musicians to jam alongside professionals at the ever-popular late night jazz jams at the Big Bang’s Jazz Cellar. These impromptu jams were a raucous success last year, starting at 11.00pm each night and lasting well into the wee small hours.
The Oxford Jazz Festival aims to fill the city with a magical musical energy over the long Easter weekend, being part of a cultural fortnight during which the city will also play host to the Sunday Times Literary Festival and Oxfringe.
For full details on the line-up, venues and to book tickets,
please visit: www.oxfordjazzfestival.com
