Best of the Rest - Jazz and Blues

• Edinburgh Festival Guide
• 13 July 2009

This article is from 2009.

Jazz on a Summer's Day

Highlights of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

Jazz on a Summer's Day

The biggest jazz event in Britain offers four and a half hours of outdoor fun including the Edinburgh Schools Jazz Orchestra, No Name Horses, the 80-strong Forth Valley Chorus and Tricia Boutté, with a blazing finale from The Squadronaires.
Ross Theatre, Princes Street Gardens, 0131 473 2000, 2 Aug, 1pm, free.

Eric Burdon and The Animals

You'll know the 1960s likes of 'House of the Rising Sun' and 'We've Gotta Get Out of this Place' like the back of your hand, but there's plenty more to come from this archetypal blues-rock outfit from Newcastle. Burdon recently made Rolling Stone mag's hot 100 list of finest singers in the world. Ever.
Queen's Hall, Clerk Street, 1 Aug, 0131 668 2019, 8.30pm, £22.50–£26.50.

The Hot Club of Cowtown

Naming themselves after Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt's pioneering 1930s collective, this US band fuses hot jazz, vintage pop and swing, a sound that romped home at the Glasgow Americana Festival in May and is likely to do the same here.
Voodoo Rooms, West Register Street, 0131 473 2000, 4 Aug, 9pm, £10.

Martin Taylor/Sylvain Luc

Martin Taylor is an Essex boy who was playing in his dad's band at the age of eight. Sylvain Luc hails from Bayonne and, as a nine-year-old, was recording an album of Basque folklore with his brothers aged nine. Together they'll tear up the place with their Django-inflected sound.
The Hub, Castlehill, 0131 473 2000, 5 Aug, 8.30pm, £17.50.

Niki King

The former Perrier Jazz Singer of the Year will bring us this tribute to the Lady Day songbook a couple of weeks after the 50th anniversary of her sad death. A bold move on behalf of the smoky-blues vocalist but one she should carry off with a fine and mellow style.
Bosco, George Square Gardens, 0131 473 2000, 6 Aug, 8pm, £12.50.

Baptiste Trotignon

As part of the French new wave, this Nantes artiste spent over a decade studying classical piano before moving into the jazz realm. Once there he established himself firmly, scooping a Golden Django for his debut album, Fluide, in 2001.
Rosslyn Chapel, Roslin, 0131 473 2000, 8 Aug, 8pm, £16.

Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra

The groovy feller ushers in a stirring finale to this year's Festival with a line-up to die for. Soul star Ruby Turner and Welsh singer, guitarist and producer Dave Edmunds pop on stage with the ex-Squeeze man.
Edinburgh Playhouse, Greenside Place, 0844 847 1660, 9 Aug, 8pm, £27.50–£32.50.