Blog
To book or not to book?
26 Aug 2026
As the jazz schedule gets back into gear after a quiet couple of months, there’s picking and choosing to do again. Maybe a bit of planning too. Should that include booking ahead? We’re pretty spoilt in Bristol, in the sense that if you find out about a gig on the day, or just wait and […]
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Smart booking at Wiltshire Music Centre
7 Jul 2026
I don’t know who does the booking at Wiltshire Music Centre, but they’re on a roll… Worth noting because after nabbing a UK date for Samara Joy (what a voice) last night they are following up with Gretchen Parlato next Sunday (July 12). It’s a great venue – seats about 200 and superb comfort and […]
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and another festival…
12 Jun 2026
No sooner does a note appear here about the choice of festivals over the Summer than news arrives of another – It’s a three day affair at Radford Mill Farm in Somerset, and programmed by Ian Storrer. There are several levels of posh camping on offer too. Full details here
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Festivals refresh
2 Jun 2026
Regular weekly gigs thin out over the Summer, but other events make up for that a bit. Is there anywhere that doesn’t have something billed as a jazz festival these days, be it ever so small? Well, Bristol doesn’t seem to be able to manage one at the moment (though maybe the profusion of gigs […]
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Remembering Keith Tippett
13 May 2026
There was a moving, and affirmative, event at the Beacon yesterday to launch Martin Phillips’ excellent biography of Keith Tippett. Tony Benjamin has a generous account of it here, with a great set of links if you want to sample more music from one of the greatest players and composers born in Bristol. I reviewed […]
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Summer starts early…
7 May 2026
The heading doesn’t imply quite the good news you might assume. I mean the Summer break. I reckon quite a few of you are regulars at the Wednesday Bristol Music Club sessions and/or the BeBop Club. Both are gigs where the organisers take a well-deserved breath over the Summer. At BMC, recently revived under new […]
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Jam Sessions? Oh yes…
1 Mar 2026
If Bristol looks like it has more gigs than you’d expect for a city our size, I reckon the same is true for Jam Sessions. These don’t get listed every month on the calendar as I want to make it easy to find the regular gigs, and because it would mean putting in quite a […]
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New gig – Brilliant Corners at the Fringe
5 Jan 2026
Using this page again to note, not a new venue, but a new gig. Worth a mention as it was announced too late to make it into Tony Benjamin’s Bristol 24/7 monthly roundup for January. Brilliant Corners is the branding for a new promotion at The Bristol Fringe in Clifton, on the final Tuesday of […]
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Fringe Jazz continues!
19 Dec 2025
Just a quick update – having wished farewell to Jon Taylor as organiser and promoter of Fringe Jazz (see previous post), it is good to hear that the gig will carry on. It was a last minute thing, evidently, as Bristol247’s nice Tony Benjamin feature on the history of the gig a couple of weeks […]
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Bath Jazz Weekend 2026
9 Nov 2025
The Bath Jazz Weekend run by Nod Knowles for All of the Above Promotions has lifted the dead days of early January for a few years now, but Nod has really excelled himself for the next one. As usual it’s a clever combination of the best players/groups from here and roundabout, old friends from further […]
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