This year’s Swanage Jazz Festival will begin, Friday afternoon, 8th July, with The Afternoon Jazz Train and Dance with Chris Walker’s Pedigree Jazz Band and finish at some point Sunday, 10th of July with The Simon Spillet Band playing the music of Tubby Hayes.

From start to finish you will find a variety of jazz music to satisfy your taste or discover afresh. Familiar faces like Alan Barnes, Dave Newton, Art Themen, Nat Steele, and Henry Lowther will be present alongside newer names such as Mark Kavuma and the Banger Factory, Alex Clarke, Xhosa Cole, and Yazz Ahmed – the biggest problem you may well face is deciding what to see and hear should sets overlap: a first world problem no doubt.

I very much look forward to returning to Swanage and to meeting in person a number of artists I have only been able to “talk” to via social media. This is one of the strongest festival line-ups I have seen in a while so do take a look and book tickets soon because they will sell fast!