Friday 13th August

An evening double bill featuring Dean Stockdale and Strictly Smokin’ Big Band, plus free events at Flat Caps Coffee. A day of music made entirley of North East based musicians.

👉🏽  PETE TANTON & LLOYD WRIGHT
An exciting new pairing specially for NJF.  Pete Tanton and Lloyd Wright are two luminaries of the North East jazz scene running their own groups: Riviera Quartet and Legohead, respectivley.

⌚️ 1400 – 1445
📍 at  Flat Caps Coffee
🎟  £FREE, no reservations

👉🏽  RUTH LAMBERT & IAN PATERSON
A second new pairing featring long time friends and collegues Ian Paterson and Ruth Lambert. Both musicians steeped in the North East’s scene and presenting a new program of music. 

⌚️ 1500 – 1545
📍 at Flat Caps Coffee
🎟  £FREE, no reservations

👉🏽  DOUBLE BILL: Dean Stockdale Trio and Strictly Smokin’ Big Band & Alice Grace sing Ella Fitzgerald
Dean Stockdale is a highly regarded jazz pianist, arranger and composer based in the North of England. He is known for his sensitive, swinging style and regularly appears around the UK with his trio and with some of the best names in UK jazz. At this show, Dean apears with his trio of Abbie Finn and Mick Shoulder performing material form their new album.

Strictly Smokin’ return to the festival this year to play the music of one of their three new albums.  The band will be performing live their new album which paints a broad picture of Ella’s career, including her work with Duke Ellington, Marty Paich and, of course, Nelson Riddle. 

🔗 www.deanstockdalemusic.com |  strictly-smokin.co.uk
⌚ 1930 – 2130
📍 at Newcastle Civic Centre
🎟  £15 – this event only [click]
🎟  £35 – Festival pass for all NJF 2021 events (Fri, Sat & Sun) [click]

Saturday 14th August

Newcastle Jazz Festival returns once again to Tyne Bank Brewery.  This year, with the addition of Friday and Sunday events as well as our Saturday music featuring both regional and national artists.

We can’t wait to get this years festival underway – our Saturday line up takes from the absolute best of Northern Jazz and some musicians from further afield.

Either purchase a festival pass to gain access to all events between Friday and Sunday, or purcase tickets by the day –  set up and relax in Tyne Bank Brewery with our brilliant food vendors.

👉🏽 ALICE GRACE & PAWEL JEDRZEJEWSKI
Renowned for their work across many North East settings, Alice and Pawel perform music from their latest release: A Timeless Place.

🔗 alicegracejazz.co.uk
⌚ 1.30pm
📍 at Tyne Bank Brewery
🎟  £15 – Saturday all-day ticket [click]
🎟  £35 – Festival pass for all NJF 2021 events (Fri, Sat & Sun) [click]

👉🏽 FRANCIS TULIP QUARTET (Tuoyo Awala, John Pope & John Bradford)
Francis returns from his studies in Birmingham to play with his quartet at NJF.

Unfortunatly, due to overseas Covid-19 restrictions, Sogo Rock are no longer able to join us at NJF this year.

⌚ 2.40pm
🎟  £15 – Saturday all-day ticket [click]
🎟  £35 – Festival pass for all NJF 2021 events (Fri, Sat & Sun) [click]

👉🏽 SWING MANOUCHE
A hard swinging gypsy jazz outfit. Authentic originals are still very much a main ingredient but Swing Manouche are as likely to take from modern gypsy players as well as Django.

🔗 swingmanouche.org
🎥 YouTube: “Nuits Solitaire”
⌚ 3.50pm
🎟  £15 – Saturday all-day ticket [click]
🎟  £35 – Festival pass for all NJF 2021 events (Fri, Sat & Sun) [click]

👉🏽 JASMINE Quintet | Presented by Jazz North on the Northern Line
Saxophone-led quintet from Leeds, performing music composed by saxophonist Jasmine Whalley. Performing an interesting blend of Jazz and Hip-Hop which creates a unique and current sound.

🔗  jasminequintet.bandcamp.com
🎥  YouTube: Introducing JASMINE
⌚ 5.00pm
🎟  £15 – Saturday all-day ticket [click]
🎟  £35 – Festival pass for all NJF 2021 events (Fri, Sat & Sun) [click]

👉🏽 DENNIS ROLLINS VELOCITY TRIO
A rare instrumentation of the trombone-led trio with Hammond and drums, makes it unique. Dennis leads the trio with his powerful and inventive trombone with which he creates all the moods from funky and groovy to very melodic and lyrical. He takes the risk and pushes the envelope with his creative and edgy approach to music.

In 2006 his jazz/funk outfit Badbone & Co won the prestigious BBC Jazz Award for Best Band and the following year he picked up Trombonist of the Year at both the British Jazz Awards and the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Awards.  Dennis was nominated twice in the 2008 Parliamentary Jazz Awards – for Jazz Musician of the Year and the Jazz Education Award; he won the latter. His other awards include, British Trombone Society Player of the year 2013 and JazzYorkshire Award 2012 for his band Velocity Trio.

Being a sought after jazz educationalist Dennis has recently delivered a wide range of music workshops, working in collaboration with music departments of universities, colleges and schools, both throughout the UK and internationally.

Working as a solo artist, he’s currently recorded 5 critically acclaimed albums. Three with his award-winning band Badbone & Co and two with his progressive jazz organ-trio, Velocity Trio.

Dennis is currently composing music for his 6th album release with his brand new FUNKY-FUNK! groove ensemble.

🔗 dennisrollins.com
🎥 YouTube: Introducing Velocity Trio
⌚ 6.15pm
🎟  £15 – Saturday all-day ticket [click]
🎟  £35 – Festival pass for all NJF 2021 events (Fri, Sat & Sun) [click]

👉🏽 MO SCOTT BAND
A rare treat: Mo Scott and her band will be closing Saturday night at NJF.  Tyneside’s Empress of the Blues has few if any pretenders to her crown as she has demonstrated so many times on Tyneside. 

🎥  YouTube: Unchain My Heart
⌚ 7.45pm
🎟  £15 – Saturday all-day ticket [click]
🎟  £35 – Festival ticket for all NJF 2021 events (Fri, Sat & Sun) [click]

Sunday 15th August

Another packed day of music, this time with several bands heading our way from the brilliant Northern Line scheme operated by Jazz North.

👉🏽 ABBIE FINN TRIO
The Trio perform regularly around the North-East and further afield. They have featured at the Durham Jazz Festival, Middlesbrough Jazz Weekender and were due to attend Wigan Jazz Festival before lockdown. In July 2020 they recorded their first album, which was released in November 2020. The album comprises of a mix of brand new original music and also some of the band’s favourite songs. They have been described as ‘A masterclass in straight-ahead jazz’ by Russell Corbett for the Northern Echo after their performance at the 2019 Durham Jazz Festival. Lance Liddle from award winning blog BebopSpokenHere said that the band were ‘As good as it gets.’

🔗 abbiefinn.com
⌚ 1.30pm
📍 at Tyne Bank Brewery
🎟  £10 – Sunday all-day ticket [click]
🎟  £35 – Festival pass for all NJF 2021 events (Fri, Sat & Sun)

👉🏽  Gerry Richardson Quartet

Gerry Richardson has had a full and eventful career both as an accomplished musician and composer. He has a wealth of experience in all styles of music involving him with some of the biggest names in jazz & rock. In the 70s he and Sting formed the seminal North East Jazz Rock band ‘Last Exit’.

Gigs have included work with The Police and Eberhard Schoener, Billy Ocean, Guy Barker, John Miles, Alan Price, Ian Shaw and Elliott Randle (Steely Dan). Gerry played organ on Sting’s 1996 million selling album ‘Mercury Falling’. 

🔗 gerryrichardson.com
🎥 The Big Idea in lockdown
⌚ 2.40pm
🎟  £10 – Sunday all-day ticket [click]
🎟  £35 – Festival pass for all NJF 2021 events (Fri, Sat & Sun)

👉🏽 NOT NOW CHARLIE | Presented by Jazz North on the Northern LineThe roots of this Newcastle based band are set in the Jazz world but they draw on their mutual love of many other genres such as Rock, Neo Soul, Pop and R&B.  Expect the perfect mix of Jazz harmony with infectious grooves and memorable melodies, all topped off with the excitement of improvisation.  Taking their influence from the likes of Christian Scott, Manu Katche, Chris Potter, Roller Trio and Joshua Redman yet still managing to create their own individual sound. Their debut was made at the Gateshead International Jazz Festival 2014 to an enthusiastic audience and had a great reception when they supported The Slowlight Quartet in Jan 2015.  Their full length live album was release in 2016 on Jazz Sound Records.

🔗 notnowcharlie.com
🎥 YouTube: “Nostalgia Revisited”
⌚ 3.50pm
🎟  £10 – Sunday all-day ticket [click]
🎟  £35 – Festival pass for all NJF 2021 events (Fri, Sat & Sun)

👉🏽 SUE FERRIS QUARTET
Regular on the North East scene, Sue turns her quartet towards a tribute to bari sax legend Gerry Mulligan.

🎥 YouTube: Sue Ferris
⌚ 5.00pm
🎟  £10 – Sunday all-day ticket [click]
🎟  £35 – Festival pass for all NJF 2021 events (Fri, Sat & Sun)

👉🏽 JAY PHELPS
with house trio: James Peacock, Andy Champion & Dave McKeague

From his own quartet to his other projects NBOC and SoulEndvr, Phelps, who is never idle, remains fresh and full of new ideas and concepts. 

Jay went on to study at Trinity College of Music, gaining an honours in Jazz Theory and Performance. During this time at college, Phelps created and co-lead the UK jazz sensation, Empirical. They spent years touring major festivals with their self-titled debut album, produced by Courtney Pine, while garnering worldwide media attention that UK jazz musicians hadn’t enjoyed for years. Empirical is looked upon as one of the major influences that kick-started the current young British jazz movement and Jay is a big part of that due to his role as a band leader and an enabler for many of the scene’s top artists and groups.

Jay has performed and recorded with a veritable Who’s Who of international and famed jazz artists such as Courtney Pine, Andrew Hill, Wynton Marsalis, Ray Brown, John Hendricks, Nasheet Waits, George Benson, Jamie Cullum, Sir John Dankworth, Jean Toussaint, Dennis Rollins, Guy Barker, Amy Winehouse, Charlotte Church, Sam Moore, Hugh Masakela, Jazz Jamaica, Mighty Sparrow, Soweto Kinch, Skatroniks, Ska Cubano, Chineke Orchestra, David Murray and Liv Warfield.

🔗 jayphelps.band
🎥 YouTube: Jay Phelps
⌚ 6.15pm
🎟  £10 – Sunday all-day ticket [click]
🎟  £35 – Festival pass for all NJF 2021 events (Fri, Sat & Sun)