About the festival
'For The Love of Jazz' is a completely FREE festival taking place in Leicester's Jubilee Square on Saturday 23rd July 2022. It has been created to develop jazz music audiences in Leicester, the East Midlands and beyond.
Leicester has a wealth of high-quality jazz musicians, who will be showcased alongside some of the finest jazz musicians in the UK and abroad.
The magnificent Grammy award-winning Blue Lab Beats are headlining this event and Jazz FM's Tony Minvielle will be hosting the event on the day. We have some of the most incredible professional jazz dancers from across the country and the awesome DJ Psykhomantus will be spinning the decks throughout the day. There will also be a fantastic immersive digital arts exhibition which explores UK jazz.
Line-up
11.40am
Cosmopolitan Arts Youth Music Group
The event will open with this talented bunch of youngsters, showcasing work created with our fantastic music tutors and NYJO.
12.00
Alex Clarke Quartet
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 leads a trio of the finest UK jazz instrumentalists: Dave Newton (piano), James Owston (bass) & Clark Tracey (drums).
13.00
Status Trio
The Status Trio are known for their monthly Jazz jam sessions at The Donkey in Leicester. The band is led by Mike Sole (keys), with Dave Anderson (drums), Wayne Matthews (bass) and for festival the line up features long time collaborator, Chris Lee on tenor saxophone. Their innovative blend of styles, using improvising as the core, weave their way around the flavours of the musical world. Find out more here.
14.00
Jean Toussaint Sextet
Grammy-winning US saxophonist Jean Toussaint got his big break by joining Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in New York in 1982 and in his years there also collaborated with the likes of Wynton Marsalis, McCoy Tyner and Gil Evans. An amazing saxophonist and composer, Jean (saxophone) brings his latest, all-star project to Leicester with Freddie Gavita (trumpet), Dave Sear – (trombone), Emile Hinton (piano), Conor Murray (bass), Ben Brown (drums).
15.00
Unspeakable Echo
“Unspeakable Echo represents the best way we as musicians come closest to speaking the unspeakable through music…. “. Playing original compositions this line up of talented musicians brought together for the festival comprises Matt Ratcliffe - Electric Piano and electronics, Wayne Matthews (Electric and fretless acoustic basses), Chris Bowden (Alto Sax), Tymek Jozwiak (Drums), Nic Svarc (Electric guitar), Helen Gayle (guest vocals).
16.00
Randolph Matthews
Randolph Matthews brings his jazz quartet to the ‘For the Love of Jazz’ Festival. His compositions and vocal artistry span two decades, with solo and collaborative performances and writings. A hugely charismatic performer, winning accolades including a Best Live Performance nomination at the 2018 Jazz FM Awards along the way. His live shows are testaments to the power and potential of the voice.
17.00
Major Ruse
Major Ruse are a hip hop influenced jazz trio with a rocky, punk edge. Armed with just a sax (Marcus Joseph), a guitar (Joe Egan) and a drums (Jamie Sykes), Major Ruse makes music that takes risks, pulls on heartstrings and makes you want to shake a leg! They take in everything from math rock to hip-hop, blend it up in jazz and fire it back out with groove and feeling.
18.00
Gary Crosby Sextet
Bassist, band leader and co-founder of Tomorrow’s Warriors, Gary Crosby OBE brings together his sextet to celebrate the legendary jazz innovator and composer Charles Mingus, marking what would have been Mingus’ centenary year. Crosby will lead his sextet through Mingus Moves, his personal favourite Mingus album, plus more classic compositions.
19.00
Blue Lab Beats
Grammy award winning duo Blue Lab Beats are producer NK-OK and multi-instrumentalist Mr DM, a London duo who combine jazz, hip-hop, soul, funk and R&B influences into a heady electronic fusion. Read more about Blue Lab Beats here