SWANSEA: Jazz festival takes a bow after ‘most successful ever’ run, closed by the man who started it all

Swansea International Jazz Festival has been hailed by the council as one of its most successful ever, after four days that filled venues from the Grand Theatre to the pubs of the maritime quarter.

Hundreds of music lovers came to the city between 3 and 6 September for a programme mixing world-class ticketed shows with more than 50 free gigs.

Cllr Andrew Williams, the council’s cabinet member for development, said: “The atmosphere across the city was fantastic from start to finish, with audiences embracing both the headline concerts and the free performances that filled venues across Swansea.”

The festival opened with Swiss guitarist Nicolas Meier, a Jeff Beck Group tourer, blending Turkish and Middle Eastern influences with flamenco and tango at the Grand Theatre.

Friday brought Claire Martin and Laurence Cottle’s new Bass to Face project to the Waterfront Museum’s Ocean Room, before Georgina Jackson’s velvet vocals and powerhouse trumpet filled Swansea Minster.

Saturday opened with Aidan Thorne and Jason Ball reimagining traditional Welsh folk melodies, before the Power of Gower Festival Big Band got feet moving with some fiery swing.

Award-winning saxophonist James Allsopp honoured the legendary Stan Getz, and Christian Garrick’s String Bag took bowed strings far beyond their classical roots.

Sunday closed with the Cottle Brothers and an all-star band revisiting their New Orleans and Dixieland roots, the Tango Jazz Quartet, and Hejira’s celebration of Joni Mitchell’s late-70s jazz period at the Minster.

There was half a century of Swansea history in that closing set. Dave Cottle founded the festival in 2014 and remains its artistic director, and it was the Cottle Brothers’ teenage Dixieland act that first brought him through the doors of Swansea Jazz Club in 1975.

Cottle was awarded the BEM in this summer’s King’s Birthday Honours for services to jazz, after nearly 30 years programming the city’s weekly jazz.

Laurence Cottle’s Friday set meant two of the three brothers played the festival’s final weekend, half a century after their teenage act reached the London Palladium.

Sir Karl Jenkins, the Gower-born composer, has been the festival’s patron since Cottle invited him at its founding, returning to Swansea for it every year.

Beyond the concert halls, festivalgoers cruised up the Tawe aboard the Copper Jack to live jazz, while the stroller programme filled pubs, bars and public spaces, with the free gigs supported by Days Geely Swansea.

Cllr Williams said the free programme “helps remove barriers to enjoying live music and ensures people of all ages and backgrounds can experience world-class jazz”.

The festival was delivered by Swansea Council in partnership with Swansea Jazz Club, billed as the UK’s longest-running weekly jazz club, now in its 76th year.

The club has presented jazz in the city since 1949 and now runs its weekly programme across venues including the Arts Wing at the Grand Theatre, The Swigg and The Observatory.