JAZZ FESTIVAL GOES FROM STRENGTH-TO-STRENGTH AS EXCITING LINE-UP FOR 2007 IS REVEALED. Top national and international talents are being gathered to play one of the UK’s premier jazz festivals this Spring. Organisers of the Aberdeen Jazz Festival have secured a highly impressive roster of artists for this year’s event, which takes place over five days between the 7th to 11th March, with broadcast coverage from BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3.

Leading lights of the contemporary jazz scene Polar Bear and the Neil Cowley Trio lend a real cutting edge to the line-up. Polar Bear are the hottest band in London, creating a massive stir with their brand of free jazz and punk. The Neil Cowley Trio have been lauded from pillar to post for debut album Displaced, with Jazzwise calling the group ‘thrilling, dynamic and distinctive’, and Time Out claiming that Cowley will be ‘British jazz’s next poster boy’.

Set to grace the festival for the first time is the internationally acclaimed guitar virtuoso Martin Taylor who has been described as ‘the acoustic guitarist of his generation" by America's Acoustic Guitar Magazine. Taylor’s inimitable style has seen him recognised as the world's foremost exponent of solo jazz guitar playing.

Other highlights include the effervescent BBC Big Band with the velvet-voiced Elaine Delmar, New York’s pre-eminent vibraphonist Joe Locke, and from Scandinavia the jazz guitar virtuoso Ulf Wakenius, multi award-winning saxophonist Jonas Kulhammar, and the first lady of Swedish jazz Victoria Tolstoy.

Home grown acts come in the form of leading Scottish trumpeter Colin Steele, who will be joined by an all-star band of players to reproduce the music of Miles Davis, and world-famous Scottish sax star Tommy Smith. Add some South American rhythms courtesy of Venezuelan pianist Leo Blanco to the mix, along with a cool blast of acid jazz from Chicago by way of Orange Alert, and the Aberdeen Jazz Festival 2007 will truly be catering for the taste of all jazz lovers.

The festival is also a strong supporter of aspiring new talent. A performance by the award-winning pianist Gwilym Simcock, the first ever BBC Radio 3 New Generation Jazz Artist, will be broadcast live to the nation, and a number of instrumental workshops providing expert tuition for hundreds of music students will also be available.

Spread over five venues in this vibrant and diverse Scottish city, the festival’s rapidly growing reputation shows no signs of slowing.

www.aberdeenjazzfestival.com

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