Brighton Jazz Festival 2023 offers top names

SussexWorld

After the sell-out success in 2022, Brighton Jazz Festival 2023 will return to Brighton’s Palace Pier with four days of world-class music featuring an array of international jazz artists from the deep tradition to the cutting edge (October 5-8).

Transcript

00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Now we

00:05 have happening in Brighton in October the third Brighton Jazz Festival. As it says on

00:11 the man's t-shirt, and it's lovely to be speaking, it's the festival co-director Eddie Meyer.

00:16 Now, I'm thinking just now that it's a festival full of the quirky individuality that Brighton

00:23 is known for. Now the point is, high quality jazz next to the dodgerms at the end of the

00:28 day, that's quite some combination, isn't it?

00:31 It is, we think it's pretty unique, you know, we're definitely the, I think in the world

00:36 the most ocean-going jazz festival possible. We're furthest from land, right out at the

00:42 end of Palace Pier in Horatio's Bar. So it might sound like, you know, quite an incongruous

00:48 location for a jazz festival, it's definitely not your normal jazz club, you're right out

00:52 at sea, you've got incredible views across the south coast. But we're in our third year

00:57 now and people just keep coming back because they love the venue.

01:01 What makes a venue special then?

01:04 I think, yeah, I mean, you know, jazz music possibly has a bit of a reputation in some

01:13 quarters for being a bit staid and a bit intellectual, you know, that's maybe, some people can find

01:18 that sort of, that reputation has a bit off-putting, and Brighton Jazz Festival really isn't about

01:25 that, it's at the end of Palace Pier, you know, it's serious music in a fun situation

01:31 and that's, I think, what makes it quite unique, you know, and we love the whole idea of just

01:36 taking jazz out of, you know, the concert hall and putting it into some different environments

01:40 where it's super accessible for people.

01:42 And the other thing that's really interesting about your festival is that you are genuinely

01:46 a post-pandemic festival, aren't you? You started October 2021 as we were kind of coming

01:52 out of the pandemic. That was a brave thing to do, or perhaps a mad thing to do?

01:57 Yes, some would say mad, but we decided to go ahead anyway, you know, it was great to

02:03 reinstate, Brighton used to have a jazz festival back in the 80s and they had people like Nina

02:06 Simone playing, and we've always thought that Brighton would be a great place to have another

02:11 one and to have that sort of, a jazz festival in a way that sort of fits with the kind of

02:16 vibrant and slightly offbeat and quirky nature of the town, you know, and so we really wanted

02:21 to do that. And as you said, we did press ahead, perhaps crazily, but it worked. People

02:27 really liked it. We came back in 2022, bigger and better, still on the Palace Pier, and

02:32 now we're in the position where we can start booking bigger artists, international artists.

02:38 You know, we have Benny Burnack III coming over from the States to play this year, one

02:43 of the front people for Postmodern Jukebox.

02:45 And the date's this year, October?

02:49 It's 5th to the 8th of October. So tickets are on sale now.

02:54 And it sounds like a good time of year for a festival, isn't it?

02:58 Yes. I mean, you know, there's always, it is October, so sometimes we're blessed with

03:03 sunshine, but we have also had some very stormy nights as well. And we're pleased to report

03:08 the Palace Pier does hold up even in the fiercest storm, you can still play music. You know,

03:13 you may feel the pier start to shake slightly, but you can still hear even the quietest moments.

03:17 It's great.

03:18 It adds to the atmosphere, presumably.

03:21 It certainly adds to the atmosphere, it really does.

03:24 Fantastic. Well, Eddie, lovely to speak to you. Good luck with this year.

03:28 Thank you very much.

03:29 And everything goes brilliantly.

03:30 Thanks, Phil. I really appreciate the cover. Thank you.

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