Residents are being invited to the fifth annual Bath Jazz Weekend, taking place from Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th January 2025, featuring a line up of bands and soloists of international standing.
Nani Vazana will be performing on Saturday 4th January | Photo courtesy of Bath Jazz Weekend
This year’s programme welcomes celebrated jazz artists from the Netherlands and France alongside some of the best British bands.
The 2025 event will be held at Bath’s Widcombe Social Club.
Beginning on Friday night, this year’s offering is director Robert Wise’s classic 1959 film noir Odds Against Tomorrow starring Harry Belafonte and Shelley Winters and featuring a soundtrack from the Modern Jazz Quartet with Bill Evans and Jim Hall.
Friday’s live programme kicks off with young generation artists in a quartet led by pianist Ky Osborne. Topping the bill is the celebrated trumpeter and composer Laura Jurd.
Saturday’s programme is split into afternoon and evening sessions.
Saxophonist Dee Byrne leads off on Saturday afternoon with her sextet Outlines, a new project playing original compositions and taking short musical sketches as springboards.
Another sextet – Kevin Figes’ You Are Here – is a tribute to much admired but now sadly departed friends, mentors and collaborators, featuring new arrangements of compositions by Keith Tippett, Elton Dean, Harry Miller, Dudu Pukwana and others.
In the evening, Scotland’s Secret Path Trio, fronted by the Highland pipes of Fraser Fifield, creates a unique and melodic repertoire that infuses jazz with Scottish traditions alongside the inspiration of leading Scots artists Paul Harrison on keyboard and drummer Tom Bancroft.
From the Netherlands, pianist, vocalist and composer Nani Vazana is one of the only artists in the world writing and playing songs in the ancient, matriarchal Ladino language, propelling it into the 21st century with socially pertinent lyrics, celebrating migration, gender and female empowerment.
The evening ends with a premiere of Molecatcher, a new trio built around the ever-inventive, fulsome creativity of saxophonist Iain Ballamy and the award-winning virtuosity of guitarist Rob Luft – jazz musicians from two generations who have both achieved the rare distinction of creating their own unmistakable and uniquely individual styles.
On Sunday the three-gig programme begins with the quartet Ribbons, jointly lead by pianist Rebecca Nash and vocalist Sara Colman whose repertoire includes original compositions as well as a celebration of the intimacy and delicacy of songs from jazz and their favourite singer-songwriters.
Following this is another premiere from a new trio of three improvisers: saxophonist Larry Stabbin, Paul Rogers, back from France, with the double bass, and drummer Mark Sanders.
Rounding off Sunday, pianist Huw Warren and vocalist and violinist Angharad Jenkins present their new interpretation of Calennig, the Welsh traditional music that celebrates and welcomes the New Year.
Based on the ancient Plygain carols symbolising hope and new beginnings, the duo’s collaboration draws inspiration from the traditions of their native Wales and steps gently and melodically between the worlds of jazz and folk.
Tickets are available to purchase online here, and by phone (01225 463362) and in person from Bath Box Office, here.
