Jazz, Blues and Heritage

The Birmingham International Jazz & Blues Festival has always sought to find unusual venues for jazz and this year there was a special emphasis on heritage sites and tourist destinations, which play a big part in making Birmingham what it is.

The Barber's Institute of Fine Arts will aired a lunch-time concert on Friday 16^th July, where award-winning American Drake University Big Band shook the stands with their big band styling.

Birmingham's historic Botancial Gardens will played host to two concerts on Sunday 18th: Carol Sudhalter in the morning and Britain's Got Talent runner up Julian Smith with the Monday Sessions in the evening.

Warwick Castle enjoyed the royal treatment on Friday 23^rd July, when Chicago-style band Judy Eames and The Kaminsky Connection - who have an impressive repertoire of songs including jazz standards, blues, ballads and “boogie woogie” piano – performed well into the summer evening.

Visitors at Dudley Zoo enjoyed a swinging jazz session on Sunday 25th July, as the Midlands-based Millennium Eagle Jazz Band treated the audience and the animals alike to classic jazz compositions from the 1920s to the 1940s, as well as New Orleans blues, stomps and marches.

The Black Country Living Museum in Dudley was paid a visit from the high-octane jump and jive band King Pleasure and The Biscuit Boys on Saturday 24^th July. Saturday also saw Cadbury World getting plenty of the sweet stuff from the Martinique Jazz Band on, who supplied the crowds with a wide variety of jazz styles.