Reviews & features: Jazz & Blues Festival

Madrid vintage funk act The Sweet Vandals to play Four Corners

The soul night is joining forces with the Edinburgh Intl Jazz & Blues Fest

‘There’s been an explosion in the number of bands playing the same music we do over the last few years,’ says Simon Hodge, one of the promoters of the Bongo Club’s long-running funk and soul night Four Corners. ‘There are two reasons for that: one is…

Cécile McLorin Salvant leads Duke Ellington tribute at 2012 Edinburgh Jazz Festival

Showcase of legendary composer, bandleader and pianist's songbook

One of the absolute highlights of the 34th Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival is a performance of legendary jazz composer, bandleader and pianist Duke Ellington’s music. A selection from Ellington’s songbook, including his 1943 symphony ‘Black, Brown…

Unusual highlights from Edinburgh Festival 2012 programme

Barges, a spoken word section, free shows from big names and more

Dip in for some watery goings-on at the Art Festival as Tania Kovats invites you on a canal boat trip on 3 August. The vessel sets sail from behind Cargo on Fountainbridge at 9am, making the return voyage from Jupiter Artland at 3pm. Call 01506 889 900…

Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival 2012 highlights

Kyle Eastwood, Dr John, Jeremy Pelt, Joakim Milder and Floex

Kyle Eastwood. The rugged demeanour, surname and love of jazz surely give the game away as to this guy’s heritage. But if anyone is wrong-headed enough to think Kyle has simply been given a leg-up by his legendary dad, they might want to reflect on an…

Scotrail announce expanded Edinburgh Festival 2012 train timetable

Additional night services to Glasgow, Dundee, Perth and North Berwick

New late-night train services to and from Edinburgh will make it easier for those outside the city to visit the 2012 festival. In Glasgow, there will be a Fringe box office at Queen Street station from July 27. Tickets bought online in advance can be…

How to visit the Edinburgh Festival

A guide to getting the best from the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe

The phrase 'planned itinerary' might might be at odds with the spirit of chaos and wild abandon you associated with your visit to the Edinburgh Festival. The brutal truth is that shows do sell out, so book tickets to things you definitely want to see.

Leroy Jones Band - Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

The trumpeter visits Edinburgh after appearances in TV drama Treme

‘I was in an episode two weeks ago with my local quintet. I was performing one of my original compositions for about a minute and twenty seconds.’ Bandleader and trumpeter Leroy Jones is bubbling with pride over his recent appearance in an episode of…

Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival 2011 - highlights

Tommy Smith, Courtney Pine, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and more

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble A high energy blend of New Orleans horns and live hip hop beats, this Chicago nine-piece return to raise the Spiegeltent from its moorings. Barack Obama, Jay-Z and David Byrne are among the fans of this exciting block party…

Trombone Shorty profile - Edinburgh Jazz Festival 2011

Youthful jazz pioneer and composer set for Edinburgh date

'Oooooh! Trombone Shorty! My man!' This is how the 25-year-old jazz musician from New Orleans is greeted by fellow (and fictitious) horn player Antoine Batiste in David Simon's new HBO television show, Treme. Simon's follow-up to his hard-hitting cop…

Why Edinburgh remains unrivalled as a festival city

A huge number and variety of festivals take place each year

In 1961, a theatre director made a proposal. It was his opinion that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was getting too big. It would be much better, he said, ‘if only ten halls were licensed’. Nobody listened. Had the director been able to travel…

Eric Burdon & The Animals

Queens Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 7 Aug 2010

Contemporaries of The Rolling Stones and Rock’n’Roll Hall of Famers (they were inducted in 1994), The Animals have had a complex history marked by multiple line-up changes and trademark disputes. But it was always vocalist Eric Burdon who gave The…

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

Chicago fusion of jazz, hip hop and funk

This nine-piece comprising eight horns and a drummer are not what you might expect at the Jazz & Blues Festival.

NeWt play Led Zeppelin at the Jazz Bar

Hyper-imaginative and unconvential jazz trio

What Is It? A hyper-imaginative and unconventional jazz trio formed by Australian trombonist Chris Greive, Aberdonian guitarist Graeme Stephens and American drummer Chris Wallace, all Edinburgh residents. Who are these guys? Three of the best…

Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival 2010 - Curtis Stigers interview

The 'jazz warbler' on sex, lies and ballet recitals

In Edinburgh for the Jazz & Blues Festival, Curtis Stigers talks to The List about sex, lies and ballet recitals First record you ever bought ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’, by Elton John. First film you saw that really moved you I remember…

Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival 2010 begins

China Moses, Niki King and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble among highlights

The ten-day fest kicks off again, and among our recommendations, we would include China Moses, an American singer based in Paris, with a soul background and a near obsession for the troubled diva, Dinah Washington; Niki King, Scotland’s own smoky-voiced…

An overview of the 2010 Edinburgh Festivals and their directors

What to expect from Edinburgh in August

Nowhere does a festival quite like Edinburgh, and even with the film folk having long moved out of August, there is more than plenty going on for lovers of art, literature, comedy, theatre, kids entertainment, music, dance and military displays. The…

Baptiste Trotignon

Sometimes the setting is everything, and for one of the real Edinburgh Jazz Festival highlights this year, the programmers have taken the ingenious step of putting French pianist Trotignon in the hallowed environs of Rosslyn Chapel. Trotignon has shown…

5 questions: Melvin Brown Brown

Channelling the spirits of Ray Charles and Sammy Davis Jr in his singin’, dancin’ and joke-packed sh

5 words to describe your show Soulful, upbeat, entertaining, energetic, magic. 4 shows you’re looking forward to seeing in Edinburgh this August Soweto Gospel Choir, Flamenco Jazz Late Night, Stephen K Amos, Mervyn Stutter. 3 things you love…

Anderson/Smith/Cosker

Nordic cool meets Scottish heat

Saxophonist Tommy Smith’s current relationship with the Norwegian bass maestro Arild Andersen dates from 2005, when they got together as a duo at the Islay Jazz Festival. It was by no means their first encounter, however – Andersen was one of Tommy’s…

Stu Brown's Raymond Scott Project

Reviving a forgotten genius

Drummer Stu Brown regards American pianist Raymond Scott as one of the great unrecognised musical geniuses of the 20th century, and has dedicated this project to performing the unique and often zany music of the man whose compositions earned him a cult…

After the flood

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

Hurricane Katrina not only devastated a whole city, it nearly destroyed a legendary jazz culture. Malcolm Jack hears how Edinburgh has opened its arms to the top New Orleans players.

Up close and personal - Niki King

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

For Niki King, intimacy is something to be embraced rather than feared. Claire Sawers lends an ear as the local singer gently explains why she loves getting confessional on stage.

Omar Sosa

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

Diverse, dynamic and daring approach inspired by Afro-Cuban folklore. You never know what Omar Sosa will do next. The Cuban-born virtuoso musician has turned his hand to everything from composing and arranging records to producing them, leading bands…

Burt MacDonald with Lol Coxhill

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

A reunion with free jazz, lyrical flourishes and popcorn machines. One of Scotland’s most adventurous jazz groups, the Burt MacDonald Quintet are reuniting with Lol Coxhill. A legend of the soprano saxophone, Coxhill has worked with the band on five…

Best of the rest - Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

The Big Chris Barber Band. Blues standards, New Orleans classics and tunes from Duke Ellington and Miles Davis are all in the Barber repertoire as he and his band do early jazz like few others. Paul Towndrow Quartet ‘Better drowned than duffers…