Saturday 29th until Monday 31st August 2009 @ Kings Street, Bristol
Featuring Performances From: Phil King, The Excelsior Jazz Band, Henry’s Bootblacks, Robin Reece, Fat Man Swings, Humph’s Three Saxes & Cass’s Monster Trio, Eden Height, The Rinky Dinks, The Severn Jazz, The Blue Notes, Heavy Quartet, Cass Caswell’s Allstars, Jeremy Hugget’s Band Of Gold, Sheelanagig

Whether you are young or old, rich or poor, the Old Duke Jazz Festival is for you! Cosily ensconced in the middle of Kings Street, this free festival blasted out a brilliant mix of funk, country, blues, country, rock and jazz over a sunny August Bank Holiday weekend.

The first act up was Phil King who wooed the audience with his incredible vocal talents. He was honestly a really hard act to follow but there were some stunning jazzy performances the rest of the Saturday afternoon by The Excelsior Jazz Band and Henry’s Bootblacks followed by a very charismatic performance by Robin Reece.

The festive atmosphere kept each act running fluently onto the next and The Excelsior Jazz Band played a smooth repertoire of New Orleans jazz and trad blues. I started subconsciously tapping my feet as Fat Man Swings rolled on stage and blasted out some good old boogie blues. Humph’s Three Saxes & Cass’s Monster Trio drew gasps from many a spectator with a spectacular performance that showed their huge experience of jazz and these guys showed no shame in getting the 12 bar blues on!

Eden Height had the ground trembling with heavy funk, afro-beat and hip-hop. They have a huge presence and one can only describe their music as, quite frankly, arousing. Another particularly interesting band were The Rinky Dinks. Now don’t be fooled by the name, this ukulele super-group blew the crowd away with an extremely lively set. Dressed in full cricket attire, they proved that they are a force to be reckoned with!

The Severn Jazz men kept the crowd comfortable with a flurry of swing blues and The Blue Notes had us all on our toes with a very strong performance by Hannah Wedlock. Heavy Quartet had the (by then, rather drunk) crowd swaying to their fascinating sounds; it would be quite a feat to find a jazz band with the same power that these musicians possess. Cass Caswell’s Allstars with Joy Parke played a great range of traditional jazz, swing and bebop and Jeremy Hugget’s Band Of Gold proved their fantastic musical talents to us all.

The highlight of the festival was an incredible set by the notorious folk kings Sheelanagig. This group of virtuosos had us eating out of their palms as they fed us a string of gypsy jazz and world folk music. Despite it being folk and not thrash metal, there were mosh-pits aplenty and when the end seemed nigh, they deliberately dived back into a fiddled frenzy of eastern European folk tunes.

All good things must come to an end and there was many a forlorn look as the last band were cheered offstage. It feels tragic that a whole year must pass before we are again treated with this remarkable event yet, wait we must!

www.theoldduke.com

Thomas Dunn
Photos by Ian Bradley www.ianbradleyphotography.com