A SPECTACULAR programme of jazz to suit all tastes comes to Morewellham Quay on the banks of the Tamar this month.
?Down By the Riverside? organised by Plymouth Jazz Club of Friday August 20 features The Richard Bennett Band, Joy Parke and Her Trio, Original Rags, Mas Bajo, Jazz and Company and Afterglow.
The event is from 6pm and the audience can enjoy strolling and picnicking to five different styles of jazz at this atmospheric venue.
After several years leading the highly successful New Orleans Jazz Band, Richard Bennett will be leading a fresh ensemble at Morwellham this year. Exuberance and excitement marks his approach to music and this will be there is generous measure.
The Richard Bennett Band will be playing at the Garlandstone and Devon Great Consuls Quay.
Performing at The Bakery will be Jazz and Company ? a quartet formed in 1989 led by Terry Sloggett on alto sax with John Broad on guitar, Derek Maughan on drums and with Mike Isaac on six string electric bass deputising for regular bassist Judy Whitlock.
In The Ship Inn you can catch up with Original Rags.
Steve Graham on trumpet and mandolin and Mike Denham on piano and swanee whistle first collaborated three years ago on a programme called A Hundred Years of Rags.
So successful was this partnership that they now work regularly as the duo Original Rags with a performance that embraces ragtime, the sounds of Bix and Louis, the popular melodies of Irving Berlin and Fats Waller plus the driving rhythms of boogie woogie.
The seven-piece Mas Bajo featuring Claire Hoinville on vocals will be cranking up the atmosphere in the Lime Kilns. Top West Country musicians Ian Wright, keyboards, vocals; Tim Sayer, trumpet; Harry S Fulcher, reeds; Chris Harris, bass; Rory Francis, percussion and Mark Hayward, drums combine to make a very vibrant rhythm section.
Joy Parke has built a reputation as the Sophisticated Lady of British Jazz and proved to be one of the most popular artistes to appear on the scene in recent times. Joy and her Trio will be in the Manganese Barn.
She specialises in the beautiful compositions of Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and Sammy Cahn.
Joy has been singing in public since the late 1970s, winning the prestigious Cleo Lane Award 1981.
She began to sing music from the jazz era in the 1980s joining one of the top UK bands. In 1994 she moved from Northampton to Devon and has since been a popular guest with leading West Country bands as well as appearing with her own trio.
Making her second visit to this riverside venue Joy will be accompanied by Dave Soby on keyboard, Clive Morton on double bass and Peter Cox on drums.
Incidental music will be by Afterglow.
For more information contact Morwellham Quay 01822 832766 or Plymouth Jazz Club on 01752 721179.