What’s this?

Bristol’s music scene offers a lot of jazz gigs for a small city. Good! But they can be hard to keep track of. This website aims to make that easier. We list gigs large and small, by date.

Entries

Each entry is minimal:

If there is a link in the entry, it will take you to a booking page. If not, you can find venue links on the Guide to Venues page.

If you’d like your gig listed (no charge), using this format will help.

Restrictions

This site is for things jazz, or jazz related. That’ll be loosely defined, but not loosely enough to include metal, folk, or organ recitals. If we have trouble deciding, we’ll lean toward anything where the musicians are improvising interestingly, at least some of the time.

Limitations

Listing will be as comprehensive as possible. Limitations are geographical – for our purposes Bristol and roundabout will include Bath, Portishead, and Clevedon. If there’s ever a jazz gig in Thornbury, it’ll probably go in. But we won’t stretch to Trowbridge, Swindon or that hotbed of jazz, Frome.

To avoid clutter/preserve clarity, there won’t be any categories here beyond “jazz”, so if you are fearful of encountering squeaky bonks instead of bebop, you’ll need to follow some links.

And one aid to clear presentation: There’s just one venue, as far as we know, that has jazz of some kind every single night. We won’t list gigs at The Old Duke here to avoid clutter – please find their own full calendar here.

We’ll aim to update at least twice a month, but late entries will also happen. Cancellations will be notified if possible, but do check with venues before setting out if you can.

Alternatives

This listing will complement the regular preview of jazz in Bristol that Tony Benjamin writes for Bristol247. Go to “culture”, then “music”, and scroll down until you find it for a knowledgeable guide to what’s on and where each month.

Local not for profit Ticket agency Headfirst also has an increasingly comprehensive gig listing that is searchable – and you can buy a ticket while you’re on the site.

The facebook groups for Live Jazz in Bristol, and – for gigs farther afield – JazzSouthWest are also worth keeping tabs on.

Something wrong/missing/suggestions/queries?

Please email bristoljazzlive(at) gmail.com

As the site is new (August 2025), do let us know if there are any viewing glitches on your device… Reports so far are favourable, but the internet is a complicated construct nowadays.

Whodunnit?

The calendar and other bits here are compiled by Jon Turney in consultation with Tony Benjamin.

Jake McMurchie built the website.