Southport Jazz Festival 2023: the 10 gigs you’ll love at spectacular music celebration

Southport will come alive to the sound of jazz this weekend when the 2023 Southport Jazz Festival takes place.

Music lovers can enjoy the three-day spectacle at The Grand on Lord Street from Friday 3rd February to Sunday 5th February 2023.

Southport Jazz Festival is being organised for the first time by acclaimed local musicians Jez Murphy and Emma Holcroft, who have taken over from Neil Hughes.

Emma will be among the performers, starring with the Swingtime Big Band featuring herself and Liane Carroll on the opening night.

The new venue is among some welcome changes that audiences will enjoy seeing although some of the event’s much-loved traditions will remain.

There are 10 performances in total across the three days with people able to attend the show of their choice, or to buy a day pass, or to buy a Weekender Ticket with all 10 shows for just £150.

You can buy tickets and see more details at the southportjazz.co.uk website.

Emma and Jez said: “It’s all change at Festival central, a new team and a new venue, but don’t worry we will still have the same top class jazz music in stunning new surroundings. 

Here are the 10 shows you can enjoy: 

1 – The Brownfield-Byrne Quintet

Friday 3rd February 2023, 1pm, £18

The Brownfield-Byrne Quintet, or BBQ, was conceived back in 2009 by two young North Wales musicians, tenor saxophonist Liam Byrne and trumpeter Jamie Brownfield, and while initially inspired by the trumpet and tenor tradition of 1950’s bebop, the band’s sound has broadened considerably to incorporate earlier forms of jazz, drawing inspiration from the small groups of the 1930s, New Orleans rhythms and classic Duke Ellington, giving the quintet a wide appeal and a sound all of its own.

Trumpeter Jamie Brownfield, winner of the Rising Star category at the 2012 British Jazz Awards whose influences include Clifford Brown and Wynton Marsalis, has a prodigiously broad playing style running the gamut of jazz trumpet.

Liam Byrne on tenor sax, a postgraduate of London’s Guildhall School of Music, can often be heard playing in the Andy Prior Big Band, and has a deeply resonant tone and a growing reputation as a torchbearer of the jazz tenor saxophone tradition, inspired by the likes of Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and Sonny Rollins.

Completing the line-up of the Brownfield / Byrne Quintet are three more fine young musicians, North West based Andy Hulme (guitar), Ed Harrison (double bass) and Jack Cotterill (drums).

Buy tickets here. 

2 – Djanco – Hot club jazz – with a twist

Friday 3rd February 2023, 4pm, £15

Thom Whitworth – guitar Andy Aitchison – violin Rich Whitworth – bass fiddle Robbie Caswell-Jones – guitar

SJF welcomes the incredible Djanco – this show is sure to be a highlight of the weekend showcasing amazing musicianship blended into a highly entertaining show.

Buy tickets here. 

3 – Swingtime Big Band feat. Liane Carroll & Emma Holcroft

Friday 3rd February 2023, 8.30pm, £25

Emma Holcroft and Jez Murphy said: “Swingtime Big Band became synonymous with Friday evening sold out shows to a packed audience at Southport Jazz Festival. And who are we to change such a popular and successful formula?”

Led by Musical Director Jez Murphy the band is made up of 17 North West based freelance musicians who are the finest exponents of Big Band swing around. Based around a superb rhythm section the band shows off tight ensemble playing and excellent soloists throughout each section.

Most importantly the band always deliver a varied and highly entertaining programme of music.

Joining the band and stealing the show are vocalists Liane Carroll and Emma Holcroft. Emma has a very successful solo and small band career as one of the UK’s leading vocalists, who sings a wide repertoire of classic jazz standards and has received superb reviews from past festivals.

London-born and Hastings-raised, multi award winning singer/pianist Liane Carroll is one of the UK’s greatest musical treasures. A soulful, emotive singer, she is capable of moving an audience to tears with her heart-breaking ability to inhabit a lyric or to have them jumping for joy with her breath-taking vocal virtuosity. Her latest album Seaside was released to great critical acclaim last autumn. An homage to her life by the coast, it won a ‘British Jazz Award’ for ‘Best New Album’, appeared on several ‘Best Jazz Album’ lists at the end of the year and was nominated for a 2016 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.

Buy tickets here. 

4 – Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra in Concert

Saturday 4th February 2023, 12.30pm, £10

Organisers are delighted to welcome the superb WYJO to join the 2023 Southport Jazz Festival. Formed in 1976 by Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, this multi-award winning band aims to train and develop the musical skills of its members through the performance of big band music from 1930’s to the present day.

Over the years, WYJO has received many national and international honours, most notably from the BBC Radio Big Band Competition, the Daily Telegraph Young Jazz Competition and the National Festival of Music for Youth. 

The band is three times winner of the Great North Big Band Festival winning the top prize in 2014, 2015 and 2019 and they have been invited to perform at the prestigious National Festival of Music for Youth on many occasions.

As a result of their high standards, the orchestra has worked with a number of the world’s top musicians including Maynard Ferguson, Bobby Shew, Bill Watrous, Phil Woods, Conti and Pete Condoli, Eric Marienthal, James Morrison and many more.

Since 1985 the Orchestra has released eleven albums. These albums have sold to over twenty-five countries and are broadcast regularly on radio stations throughout the world. The most recent recordings feature guest soloists Eric Marienthal (2016) and James Morrison (2018) and were recorded live at Wigan International Jazz Festival.

WYJO has clocked up an impressive list of touring destinations including the USA, Russia, Israel, Kuala Lumpur, Australia and South Africa as well as throughout Europe. The most recent venture abroad was in summer 2018 when WYJO joined with Wigan Youth Symphony Orchestra to tour Poland.

Every year brings personnel changes in the orchestra. Many members go on to study at Music Conservatoire and forge careers in the professional music world. Drawing on the work of its training ensembles Wigan Schools Swing Band and Wigan Youth Big Band, there are always new and eager young players waiting in the wings to fill vacancies.

Buy tickets here. 

5 – Alex Clarke Quartet presents Only A Year

Saturday 4th February 2023, 3pm, £18

Alex Clarke – alto & tenor saxophones David Newton – piano Dave Green – bass Clark Tracey – drums

Alex is known to be one of the most in-demand and versatile young saxophonists emerging on the British jazz scene.

She was a finalist in the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year 2020, winner of the Rising Star category in the 2019 British Jazz Awards and nominee in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards 2021 & ‘22, and she is here with her quartet to present music from her latest album Only A Year.

Released in summer 2022, Alex’s latest recording features some of the finest names in British Jazz. A mixture of innovative arrangements of standards, original compositions and music by the likes of Phil Woods and Paquito D’Rivera, Alex’s melodic sound showcases an authentic homage to the art of straight-ahead bebop.

Buy tickets here. 

6 – Pete Long & Georgina Jackson present A Tribute to Peggy, Benny & Duke

Saturday 4th February 2023, 7pm, £25

Georgina Jackson – vocals/trumpet Pete Long – clarinet Nick Dawson – piano Dave Chamberlain – bass Richard Pite – drums

SJF are delighted to welcome two of the biggest names of the UK jazz scene to present this high energy and hugely entertaining show highlighting the music of Peggy Lee, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. 

Delivered with expert musicianship and of course Pete’s own inimitable style and humour this will certainly be a major highlight of the weekend’s events.

This show came about, as most good things do, largely by accident! Pete had been organising for the last few years the music for the summer Jazz concert at the RAC country club in Epsom. They do like to have a theme with their jazz concerts, and we’d organised for them concerts of, amongst others, Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong.

Last year, they were trying to come up with something. Pete had been going around the theatres with his Benny Goodman show, and Georgina had been broadcasting the Peggy Lee songbook with the BBC big band. Having always fancied the idea doing a dedicated Benny Goodman small band show, and as Peggy’s first job was with Benny in the 1940’s, there was a link there to easily include Georgina and to take advantage of all the work she’d put in for the Beeb!

During Pete’s Business Studies A-Level back in the 1980’s, and Mr. Griffiths, his teacher, said that for marketing purposes, things were always easier to sell in threes – (Frank Dean & Sammy- Good, Assault and Battery-Bad, Sodom & Gomorrah-Bad) so I figured we’d need another big name on the poster. In the 1960’s, Peggy worked with the Great Duke Ellington on the movie “Anatomy Of A Murder”, and even co-wrote the dark but intensely groovy “I’m Gonna Go Fishin’. As one of my great heroes is Duke Ellington, it felt natural to include his big songs in the set and so the show was born.

Buy tickets here. 

7 – Wendy Kirkland Quartet feat. Dennis Rollins MBE – Get Carter Reimagined

Saturday 4th February 2023, 10pm, £15

An exciting and diverse reboot of Roy Budd’s iconic film score, featuring the haunting melancholy theme. Wendy Kirkland (piano and Hammond organ) and Pat Sprakes (double and electric bass) were commissioned in 2020 by the Ted Lewis Society to arrange the film music in chronological order, telling the story of Jack Carter, played by Michael Caine in the 1970 film as he returns home to avenge his brother Frank’s death at the hands of Newcastle gangsters, the bloody tale of revenge and inevitable brutal ending. 

The set also contains original music written by Wendy Kirkland which complements the existing score, and other incidental music from the film, including the night club scene featuring the Jack Hawkins Orchestra, filmed performing live in the club.

Featuring incendiary and evocative playing from Wendy, Pat and superstar trombonist Dennis Rollins MBE, the set encompasses a panoramic range of styles and includes funk, 1970s pop and reggae styles blended with swing and soul jazz. The band is completed by the superb, creative drummer Steve Wyndham (Stan Sulzmann, Trudy Kerr, Herb Miller, Brandon Allen).

Buy tickets here. 

8 – O’Higgins & Luft Tour 2023 – Pluto

Sunday 5th February 2023, 1pm, £25

Saxophonist Dave O’Higgins & guitarist Rob Luft now present their 2nd co-led recording three years after “Play Monk & Trane”. Where the first album clearly did what it says on the tin, “Pluto”, as the title suggests, comes from another place. Seven of the 9 songs are originals, and the remaining two are Monk & Trane hits from the 40-plus date tour in 2019 that evolved on the road.

The sonority has changed a little, too, with the Hammond organ of before replaced with piano and bass. This is straight-ahead modern jazz in the African-American tradition, clearly coming from the Monk and Trane lineage, but not bound to emulating it. You will hear Luft easily morphing Wes Montgomery with Bill Frisell, his own trademark soundscapes and worldly influences, while O’Higgins’ emotive melodies evoke Dexter, Trane, Joe Henderson and Brecker, with a melodic logic of his own.

Ross Stanley began playing with the band on organ when the logistics of Scott Flanigan travelling from Northern Ireland were unsustainable. Equally adept on piano, this instrument was chosen for “Pluto”. This opened up a place for the exciting sound of Misha Mullov-Abbado on bass. American drummer, Rod Youngs, so integral to the vibe of the band on the 2019 tour, completes the line-up.

Saxophonist Dave O’Higgins has 24 albums as leader to his credit. The last Ubuntu release “That’s the Way to Live” (2021) has had great reviews in the Observer, Jazzwise, BBC Magazine & many online jazz sites. In 2017 “It’s Always 9:30 in Zog” was nominated for best CD (British Jazz Awards) & Dave for best tenor saxophonist. O’Higgins & Luft were nominated for best band in 2020 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Dave serves on the faculty at the London College of Contemporary Media. He currently performs with the Harvey / O’Higgins Project, O’Higgins & Luft, Darius Brubeck Quartet, and the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra. Dave also wrote and produced the 2017 Matt Bianco album, “Gravity” and tours with the band as saxophonist & musical director. Rob Luft is an award-winning 28-year-old jazz guitarist from London whose virtuosity has been compared to that of six-string legends John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola & Paco De Lucia. He was the recipient of the 2016 Kenny Wheeler Prize from the Royal Academy of Music, and he also received 2nd Prize in the 2016 Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition at Montreux Jazz Festival. His debut album, “Riser”, was released on Edition Records in 2017 to widespread acclaim from the European media. John Fordham wrote in The Guardian that it’s a “very sophisticated debut, but given Luft’s old-soul achievements since his early teens, we should have heard it coming”. In May 2019, Rob was selected as a BBC New Generation Jazz Artist in conjunction with BBC Radio 3. 

Buy tickets here. 

9 – Jeremy Sassoon’s MOJO – Musicians Of Jewish Origin

Sunday 5th February 2023, 4pm, £25

Jeremy Sassoon – Piano & Vocals

Nicola Farnon – Bass and vocals

Phil Johnson – Drums

A foot-stomping, barn-storming celebration of some of the most iconic and best-loved Musicians Of Jewish Origin. Internationally renowned singer-pianist Jeremy Sassoon and his superb band will take you on a journey from the golden era of Gershwin, the Great American Songbook, through to the 21st century, honouring artists such as Carole King, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Randy Newman and Amy Winehouse. Full of surprising and hilarious anecdotes and some of the most unforgettable songs you’ve ever sung along and danced to, MOJO is illuminating, uplifting and joyous entertainment.

Jeremy has headlined Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. He plays regularly at Pizza Express Jazz Club and 606 Club in London and Berlin’s A-Trane Jazz Club. His 11-piece Ray Charles Project delighted the main stage at the Love Supreme Jazz Festival 2019 in a line up including Jamie Cullum and Ms Lauryn Hill. Following its selection on Desert Island Discs, his recording of The Things We’ve Handed Down hit number 1 on the iTunes vocal download chart.

Buy tickets here. 

10 – Alan Barnes presents Copperfield – A Dickensian Jazz Suite

Sunday 5th February 2023, 8pm, £25

An amazing New Jazz suite composed by Alan Barnes, played by an ALL STAR OCTET!

Alan Barnes : Saxophone, Clarinet and Bass Clarinet Bruce Adams : Trumpet Mark Nightingale : Trombone Robert Fowler : Saxophones and Clarinet Karen Sharp : Saxophones and Clarinet David Newton : Piano Simon Thorpe : Bass Clark Tracey : Drums

Like the Dickens classic itself, Alan Barnes’s “Copperfield” has something for everyone. A great night out that is also a treat for the jazz connoisseur; it will delight anyone who loves music or literature – or just being entertained!

This new suite of pieces, touring for the first time this year, takes the audience through the characters and scenes of ‘David Copperfield”. Readings from the original Dickens tell the story, and after each scene eight virtuoso musicians bring the characters and scenes to life, switching audiences from hilarity to pathos with a skill that would have done credit to Dickens himself!

A cheery clarinet plays Copperfield, the lost orphan Little Em’ly is a lyrical tenor, Mr Dick flies his kite in the personage of a soaring flugelhorn and trombone, Mr Micawber expresses “Something will turn up!”on the piano and Uriah Heep writhes around on the bass clarinet. Just as we see David progress through the trials of his life, so the movements of this suite seem to develop along with him.

The music and readings inspire the full range of Dickens’s imagination and emotion: from loneliness and remorse through to love and then irresistible joy.

“Barnes is a true Dickensian. He is a serious reader of the novels. It is a clear blunder of providence that he was born too late to appear in their pages!” Hot News.

Buy tickets here.  

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