2014 has been another great year for J-Night and Hull Jazz Festival, with 3 festivals, 131 artists and audiences of over 120,000.
We started in the Spring with a series of shows supported by the PRSF Jazz Promoter Award, featuring Mercury-nominated GoGo Penguin, Eyes Shut Tight, Matthew Holborn and Michael Cretu.
Our Summer Edition took place at Hull Truck over three days at the end of July, with highlights including Soweto Kinch and Jay Phelps, Django a la Creole and a sell-out show with Last Train to Skaville that had the whole house on its feet! The festival also showcased jazz artists from across the North, including Stuart McCallum and Mike Walker, The Honeybirds and Matthew Smith.
Our Yellow Bus stage at Freedom Festival saw audiences of around 115,000 give an enthusiastic Hull welcome to artists including Naturally7, Roland Gift, Ruby Turner, Abstract Orchestra, Hannabiell & Midnight Blue, Riot Jazz Brass Band, Arun Ghosh and Claude Deppa.
Finally, our Winter Edition 2014 saw great performances from Arun Ghosh Sextet, Tim Kliphuis Trio and Gilad Atzmon Orient House Ensemble plus a special youth showcase featuring City of Hull Youth Jazz Orchestra and the Jazz Aesthetic from the University of Hull sharing the stage with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and special guest artist Soweto Kinch.
Huge thanks, as always, to the fantastic Hull audiences, to all of the artists we’ve worked with this year, to Hull Truck theatre, Freedom Festival and Walk the Plank and to our funders, Arts Council England, Hull City Council and the PRSF.
You can see a selection of photos from this year’s events over on our Facebook page.
Plans for 2015 are starting to shape up, as we start working towards Hull 2017. We’ll be celebrating International Jazz Day on 30th April with a special performance to be announced in the New Year. Our Summer Edition in July will see us working with Jazz North and their Northern Line artists to celebrate jazz from across the North of England. We’ll be back with the Yellow Bus at Freedom Festival in September and we’re looking forward to working with Walk the Plank and the Hull 2017 team to stage three Hull premieres from international artists. And our Winter Edition will be the first of our festivals, working with Hull Music Hub, the University of Hull and NYJO to give a platform to the young people of Hull.
Thanks for a great year in 2014, here’s to an even better one in 2015!
