The fourth Oxford Jazz Festival will take place on Easter weekend – 21 April to 24 April – and comprises a colossal number of events across a huge selection of venues in Oxford. The theme for this year is ‘Celebrating British Jazz’, chosen because it is, in the words of co-founder Paul Jefferies, “echoed in a veritable cornucopia of British musicians, jazz poets, BBC Radio 3 interviews, talks, jazz compositions and jazz music. From straight ahead, through funk, post-modern, classical crossover to rap, gypsy, swing and New-Orleans punk!”
What that means, in terms of stuff you can pop along to and see, is 50+ events taking in venues as diverse as Modern Art Oxford, the Jericho Tavern, The Albion Beatnik Bookshop and Oxford Town Hall. Some tasty-looking highlights include The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band at the Jericho Tavern on 22 April, Soweto Kinch at Oxford Town Hall on the same day, and Tom Hewson’s ‘chamber jazz’ Treehouse at Modern Art Oxford on 23 April. The Festival organisers say that they will create ‘Jazz Neighbourhoods’ across the weekend:
- Thursday 21 April: Cowley Road
- Friday 22 April: Jericho
- Saturday 23 April: Summertown
- Sunday 24 April: Oxford’s West End (eh?)
A veritable jazzed-up takeover of the whole city, then! The Oxford Jazz Festival website has full details of about the whole event as well as every single artist and gig that’s happening as part of it.
Finally, as is a clichéd yet customary way for a news piece such as this to end… nice.