Marsden Jazz Festival

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Festival Story:

Marsden is a village at the head of the Colne Valley, in West Yorkshire. It is about 8 miles west of Huddersfield, and lies in the hilly moorland and pastures of the south Pennines. Marsden Jazz Festival was established in 1992 by local resident, Mike Lucas, who wanted to involve the village community with a music festival. From humble beginnings it has gown into a respected and recognized festival on the national jazz calendar and has a reputation for headliners like Georgie Fame, Clare Teal, Humphrey Littleton, Jools Holland and Chris Barber. In addition to ticketed events, Marsden Jazz Festival features many free concerts, giving festival goers the chance to experience jazz from traditional to contemporary to experimental. This year, in 48 hours, Marsden expects to host over 7,500 visitors in more than 20 indoor and outdoor venues. Tickets are predicted to be in high demand for the 18 ticketed events and 53 free concerts will be packed to capacity.

Festival Events:

Headliners 2012:

• King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys
• Dennis Rollins
• Barb Jungr
• Gilad Atzmon
• Julian Siegel
• Kairos stet
• Riot Jazz

Additional programming 2012:

• Additional to the festival is this year’s commissioned piece — an international collaboration piece, an international collaboration of artists working in different art forms.
• German multi-instrumentalist, Martin Kälberer is also one of the world’s few virtuosic players of the “hang”; a tuned percussion instrument from Switzerland. He’ll be collaborating with Yorkshire-based musician James Squire on “Mills and Moors”, a piece inspired by the industrial heritage and geographical beauty of the area surrounding Marsden. Joining Kälberer and Squire will be visual artist, Rachel Ellis, film maker Peter Schmidbauer and photographer Till Jenninger. The piece will be given its world premiere on October 20th in the imposing mill in the centre of the village.
• This year’s festival also features the ground-breaking “New Stream”, a programme of young, up-and-coming and cutting edge music. The line-up includes Shabaka Hutchings, Chris Sharkey, Roller Trio, Tom Challenger’s Ma Trio, and Collider. Tickets for the New Stream are heavily subsidised by the festival, to support these emerging projects and to encourage audiences to try something new. Over the years the New Stream has grown in its importance and influence and these gigs regularly sell out.

Workshops and Activities 2012:

• There will be workshops and hands-on activities for all ages at this renowned festival this Saturday (October 6th), Marsden Jazz Festival will be running free drop-in workshops.
  
  • You can drop in and make their own “New Orleans Parasol” which they can then bring along to the festival the following week and join in the festival’s traditional centre piece; the street parade. Rachel Ellis of Marsden-based creative arts company, “Square Peg Arts” will be on hand to provide materials and inspiration at the workshops which run from 10:00am - 1:00pm and 2:00pm - 5:00pm on Saturday 6th October at the Marsden Socialist Club, Manchester Road, Marsden.
• “Jazzimation” workshops
  
  • At the festival itself there will also be “Jazzimation” workshops, where you can make your own Jazz-inspired animations, a masterclass with Dennis Rollins and the Huddersfield University Big Band, a family hands-on music making session, open-mic poetry, and The (Jazz) Platter That Matters; a sort of personal Desert Island Discs.
• Parade
  
  • Festival Coordinator, Taru Sinclair says, “Over the years the festival parade has been a real draw for the crowds and it’s getting bigger and bigger; this year it’s being led by the very funky New York Brass Band, and will also feature dozens of dancers from the Bernadette Heys School of Dance. We thought it would be great to brighten up the streets even more with parade followers carrying their decorated parasols. Audiences from last year might remember seeing the New York Brass Band, as they were real heroes, playing through the streets, despite the torrential rain and with big grins on their faces as if they didn’t even notice the weather!” And what about the weather, after all, it is Marsden, in October? “Despite the rain last year, people still came out in their thousands, and it really didn’t dampen spirits. Of course, there is loads to see and do inside, but I was amazed at how large the audiences were outdoors as well. We’re a tough lot in Yorkshire! Anyway, we’ve been certain to order the sunshine for this year, so it definitely won’t rain our our parade!”
• For more information visit
  http://www.marsdenjazzfestival.com or call 0845 519 4415

Other Sources:

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Practical Info:

Slideshow Photo Credits:

• In order of appearance
  
  • Iain Ballamy, photo by Mike Bode
  • The kids, band leader and the sousaphone, photo by Alan Burnett
  • Marsden Hills
  • Festival outdoor stage, photo ©Chris Turner, www.enjoyphotography.co.uk/
  • Festival outdoor stage, photo ©Chris Turner, www.enjoyphotography.co.uk/
  • Festival indoors stage, photo ©Chris Turner, www.enjoyphotography.co.uk/
  • Mountain View, photo by Mark Kelly
  • Nicolas Meier
  • Marsden Jazz Festival Shop

Tickets:

• Fans are urged to buy tickets early.
• Contact LBT box office on +44 01484 430528 or visit http://www.marsdenjazzfestival.com

Awards:

• “Jazz Festival of the Year 2010” — Awarded by Jazz Yorkshire
  http://www.jazzyorkshire.org/

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