What's On

Kick off your Winter Blues weekend in style with Eclectic Jazz. Enjoy a sparkling set of jazz favourites as this talented ensemble takes the stage featuring Stuart Henderson (trumpet), Joe Carey (sax), Pete Whitehouse (trombone), Nick Hill (piano), Howard King (double bass), and Mike Goff (drums).

Expect a vibrant mix of styles including Swing, Bossa, Rock, and Calypso featuring tunes by Henry Mancini, Thelonious Monk, Jobim, Joe Zawinul, Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, and more. It's the perfect taster of the music you'll be hearing throughout the Winter Blues Weekend.

One night - three incredible bands!

Matt Edwards Band
This Charming Lounge
Maff Potts late night FUNK PIT

Matt is a great songwriter/vocalist/guitarist who's soulful passionate band play original music influenced by the likes of funky masters The Meters and all the great bluesmen.

Late Capitalist lounge pop with Paul Whitty, Maff Potts, Drew Milloy and Colin Guilford. Listen as TCL hurl commodity pop favourites from Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Beck, Dua Lipa, The Smiths and Ariana Grande into their whirl-o-matic global-capitalist-death-spiral-launderette of pop. Late night fast-food fracas and Cumbrian folktales included as standard.

Maff Potts' Funk Pitt features some of the best musicians around for an evening of ranging funk!

From Disney to Bond and beyond, Jazz had been a part of all our cinema going lives. Hear some of your favourite movie songs performed by one of Britain's finest jazz singers and guitarists, Denny Ilett and an all star band of his friends.

An exciting Organ quartet with some of the finet musicians in the land. Ollie Weston on saxophone, Pete Oxley on Guitar, Martin Pickett on Hammond Organ and drummer to be confirmed!. The plays the music of Michael Brecker, Steely Dan, Wes Montgomery and Eddie Harris.

A drum circle style activity aimed at young people (4-10yrs) and parents. Participants sit on chairs in a circle, and everyone has a hand drum. There is a free style jam, then you'll learn simple rhythms that unite us as a group. The group sing some familiar songs whilst drumming, and learn some new ones too. There are some drumming rhythm games that require actions & dancing. It’s a lot of fun and inclusive; everyone gets a chance to shine.

All drums will be provided, but feel free to bring your own along too. Little drummers may have to share with their parents.

This workshop is lead by local professional drummer/ educator Paul Glover (https://www.godynamite.com/). Places are limited so please book for your free place. All under 18s must be accompanied by an adult. The workshop lasts approx 45 mins.

Big surdo drums, agogos, cowbells, shakers, tamborims and group participation combine in this high-energy and multilayered performance spectacle. Participants will be lead through a series of rhythmical exercises and challenges, teaching them the rhythms and sounds of Brazil. Subgroups take ownership of different Latin percussion instruments, combining as a whole to make up the full sound of a Brazilian Samba band. The session is closed with a final performance. It's loud, impressive and high energy. It's a carnival and everyone has an important role to play.

After the workshop we there will be a grand finale performance in the Town Centre at 12.30pm.

This workshop is led by local professional drummer Paul Glover (https://www.godynamite.com/). All drums will be provided, but feel free to bring your own along too.

Places are limited so please book for your free place. The workshop is suitable for those aged 10yrs and above. All under 18s must be accompanied by an adult. The workshop lasts approx 1 hour.

Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley, along with his brother Nathaniel Adderley, were key figures in the soul jazz movement, a subgenre that blends hard bop with elements of soul and gospel music. Playing alto saxophone and cornet respectively, they had significant success with their own band, which featured Joe Zawinul on piano, and also with major jazz musicians such as Miles Davis and John Coltrane. While living in Florida in the 1940s, they played with Ray Charles who also lived in the area at the time. Their sound, characterized by simple harmonies, bluesy feel, catchy riffs, and church-influenced rhythms, helped establish soul jazz as a distinct style in the 1960s.

Stuart Henderson From 1983 - 2005, Stuart Henderson was principal trumpet of The Scots Guards Band, in Her Majesty’s Household Division, and is now one of the country's finest jazzers. He’s played at many jazz festivals including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Brecon and is musical director of the Remix Jazz Orchestra. Recordings include dance labels “Nanny Tango”, “Soul Purpose” and “Greenfly”, collaborations with Tongues of Fire, Macnas and Mark Anderson “Dark Spark”. His commercial work includes the Rebecca Poole quartet, the String of Pearls and Joe Loss.

Michael Wilkins Trained at Birmingham Conservatoire and Leeds College Of Music. Michael is a regular soloist at The Rose And Crown in Oxford, Goring Community Jazz Club, Ma Bessie’s Pig Foot Band, as well as guest soloist at Windsor’s Jazz Vanguard. He plays with Big Colors and Blake’s Heaven big bands, and recently on the revivals of two Stan Tracey jazz suites, ‘A Child’s Christmas In Wales’ and ‘Under Milk Wood’.

This deeply funky quintet from Nottingham play gorgeous grooves to get your Saturday night going. The George is laying on Street Food treats for you to buy alongside the tunes!

Chris Cobbson is from Ghanian heritage and his wonderful show has songs from Ethiopia, South African, Senegal and all across Africa. The quintet includes Chris on guitar and the wonderful 21 stringed Kora instrument which orginates in West Africa.

The 20th Century Songbook offers fresh, beautifully crafted jazz arrangements of songs by Billy Joel, Randy Crawford, Elvis Presley, King Crimson and others, alongside beloved jazz standards by the likes of Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Hoagy Carmichael.

Created by long-time musical collaborators Pete Billington (piano) and Fleur Stevenson (vocals), this special evening will unfold in magical, candlelit surroundings, joined by the exceptional Stuart Barker (bass) and local drumming legend Simon Price.

Expect a spellbinding night of artistry, atmosphere, and stunning re-imaginations of iconic songs.

Fiery festival dance band. Horn-driven pulsing ska-pop, funky reggae, Afrobeat and more. Genre-fluid grooves always burning up the dance floor!

"Brilliant Saxophone player Toliy Vyacheslavov’s new Latin group, featuring Toliy on Sax, Flute and percussion, ace guitarist Hugh turner on acoustic nylon and steel string guitar, acoustic bass sensation Paul Jeffries and polymath Raph mizraki playing congas, acoustic bass and melodica.
Think Getz, Jobim and more!"

FInalist in the "Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the year" in 2024, this gig was INCREDIBLY popular in the first year of Winter Blues. A joyous mix of gospel favourites and popular songs. Come early, every patch of floor was taken!

Art Themen is a true jazz national treasure. A fantastically exciting, playful, and inventive saxophonist, he has been one of the most distinctive and beloved voices in British Jazz for over 60 years. Famously combining an internationally acclaimed jazz career with his work as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Themen has enjoyed one of the most extraordinary and wide-ranging careers in British music. He spent two decades touring the world as frontman of the Stan Tracey Quartet, and has performed and recorded with a remarkable roll call of artists including Alexis Korner, Stan Tracey, Joe Cocker, Jack Bruce, and Bing Crosby, establishing himself as a singular figure whose playful imagination and unmistakable sound transcend genres.

A former winner of the British Jazz Awards tenor saxophone category, a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, Art Themen, is described by The Observer as “one of the tiny handful of undeniably perfect jazz musicians”, Art Themen remains as brilliant, inventive, and inimitable as ever.

Art Themen’s Band brings together friends and long-time collaborators, including the acclaimed jazz vocalist Fleur Stevenson, celebrated for her honeyed tone, charismatic stage presence and effortless phrasing, and one of the UK’s finest jazz organists, Pete Whittaker (formerly of the Nigel Price Organ Trio), with one of the most sought after drummers in Britain, Steve Brown (Stacey Kent, Dave Newton, Andy Panayi, Karen Sharp).

The band delivers groove-led, playful reimaginings of quirky gems from the jazz canon - the perfect vehicle for the twinkling mischief and masterful musicianship of a genuine grandee of British jazz.

Building on her passion for the Empress of the Blues, Julia Titus performs as Ma Bessie, sharing the music of Bessie Smith and her contemporaries with a new generation of listeners. Julia’s rich, warm vocal sound brings classic blues and jazz tunes from the inter-war years to life, alongside original songs and hand-picked covers.

This intimate new show features fresh, unheard material while keeping all the favourites that audiences love. The Ma Bessie repertoire includes classics such as ‘Careless Love’, ‘Send me to the ‘lectric chair’, ‘I forgot to say I love you’ and ‘Someone is knocking my door’.

With sell-out performances across the UK and a growing reputation for authentic sound, “An Evening with Ma Bessie” promises to add style, class and excitement to your evening.

Could be the most star studded of all the bands at Winter Blues!

The Groove Collective is led by Keith Fairbairn, one of the UK jazz scene’s leading percussionists. The band features an exceptional lineup, including bass superstar Laurence Cottle; Brandon Allen, Professor of Saxophone at the Guildhall School of Music and one of the UK’s foremost jazz saxophonists; Tim Goodyer, one of the most in-demand drummers on the scene; and Liam Dunachie, one of the most brilliant young pianists of his generation. Audiences can expect infectious grooves and soaring melodies inspired by artists such as Poncho Sanchez, Herbie Hancock, Ray Barretto, George Duke, Weather Report, Airto Moreira, and Freddie Hubbard.