Jazz festival expands its repertoire to add new venues

Published on Thursday 4 June 2009 22:03

THE capital's showpiece jazz and blues festival will expand to new venues, as organisers attempt to attract bigger audiences to the long-running event.

Atmospheric landmarks such as the Signet Library and Rosslyn Chapel and fashionable nightspots including the Outhouse and Voodoo Rooms feature in the ten-day programme.

Theatre, poetry and film will all be embraced by the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival for the first time in a programme boasting more than 90 events.

Highlights include celebrated saxophonist Courtney Pine, the pianist Jacques Loussier, leading American trumpeter Roy Hargrove and Eric Burdon, former singer with The Animals.

Other hot tickets expected in town include English guitarist Martin Taylor, 17-year-old Seattle swing sensation Carl Majeau, Louisiana zydeco star Dwayne Dopsie, Stanton Moore's celebrated New Orleans funk band and veteran American pianist Dick Hyman, the festival's honorary president, making his first visit in more than a decade.

Already announced to headline the event is a visit to the Playhouse for Jools Holland and his band.

Other major blues stars include the legendary bass guitarist Jack Bruce, the former Cream star, and a rare live appearance in Scotland by the Glaswegian exile Maggie Bell.

Scots singers Tam White, Edith Budge, Todd Gordon, Niki King and Carol Kidd are all given major showcases.

The Scottish Government has funded the creation of a new Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra, which will be staging two shows of new material.

The festival is reviving its two major free outdoor events, a colourful Mardi Gras in the Grassmarket, which heralds the start of the city's festivals season on 1 August, and an open-air concert in West Princes Street Gardens the following day.

Organisers said there had been a deliberate decision taken to seek out new venues as part of an effort to broaden the appeal of the event, which has been running for more than 30 years, and last week The Scotsman revealed a high-profile "friends" funding initiative.

The festival director Fiona Alexander said: "The festival has a new business plan for this year, part of which is to involve more people with the event, and that's partly why we've brought in new venues and embraced things like theatre, film and poetry.

"The festival has a new look, but the values that have brought success over 30 years remain firmly in place."

Tickets for all events go on sale at noon today.