Bute Jazz

The Jazz Parade

Every year on the Saturday of the Jazz weekend the one and only Jenny Brown leads a parade through the town. It's a jazz free for all as musicians from many different bands jam together whilst they march casually to the esplanade fountain and gardens. The march is also an opportunity to see the wonderfully colourful decorated brollies and a winner is picked at the culmination of procession. Don't miss it! Saturday morning - meet at Guildford Sq. Exact time to be confirmed.

Nova Scotia Jazz Band featuring Roy Williams

The Nova Scotia Jazz Band is firmly in the tradition of the swinging Dixieland groups led by Eddie Condon, Muggsy Spanier, and Alex Welsh. Featuring the world class trumpet of Lorne Cowieson, the banjo wizardry of Duncan Findlay, the elegantly swinging string bass of Ken MacDonald and the clarinet and saxophones of John Burgess this sweet and hot quartet are a fresh take on the classic jazz style. Since 2009 the band have released five CD’s and have appeared at the Glastonbury, Kelburn, Crail, Biggar and Swaledale Festivals, and the Tarragona, Keswick, Bute, Pershore, Shetland, Southport, Ayr, Lockerbie, Glasgow, Fife, ...

George Rodger Sextet with Hermie Longalong & Leanna Zacarini

The band has been playing in Central Scotland for the past five years and after a spell of retirement from the music business, George (guitar) brought together some of his past colleagues to concentrate on Gypsy style Jazz mainly in the vein of the legendary Django Reinhardt and more recently Bireli Lagrene. Three of the ensemble are brothers! Big Frank Henery (guitar) has a unique style very much of his own and was greatly influenced by the late great Barney Kessell. He has accompaniment from the younger members of the family in the form of Danny (accordion) and also John (double bass). To complete the ...

We have Saved the Jazz Festival

We are pleased to announce that following an excellent response to our funding appeal which has been generously supported by our local community and business, the 24th Isle of Bute Jazz Festival will take place from Friday 29th April to Sunday 1st May 2011 We still need funds to make this the best Jazz Festival ever so if you are able to donate you can do it using the PayPal donate button over on the right hand side of this page

Rose Room

Formed in summer 2010, Rose Room comprises virtuoso violinist and vocalist Seonaid Aitken, Jimmy Moon on double-bass with guitarists Tom Watson and Tam Gallagher completing the line-up on solo and rhythm guitars respectively. The music embraces many of the songs of the swing jazz era with a dash of western swing thrown in for good measure. Tom Watson and Tam Gallagher are probably best known for their work as Swing Guitars, first came to prominence after winning the Danny Kyle open stage at 2001 Celtic Connections, they have since performed at festivals in the UK and Europe and have established themselves ...

Academy Swing

"Academy Swing", the swing band of Rothesay Joint Campus have been performing at the Bute Jazz Festival since 2004 and this year will be opening the festival. The band has made quite a reputation for itself in the past few years and performs regularly in the local community and further a field at venues such as the Loch Fyne food fair. It has also toured regularly throughout Argyll giving community concerts and schools demonstration performances on Islay, Mull, Oban and Mid Kintyre. Academy Swing plays in a varied selection of styles, from trad jazz through to big band, through to present ...

Bobby Wishart Group featuring David Newton

Bobby Wishart is one of the greatest jazz musicians in the UK. His band is a byword for quality and one of the finest combos performing today. When you consider the people that Bobby has worked with you begin to realise why he has such a big reputation in the world of music. Over the years Bobby regularly performs and broadcasts with his own groups which feature the very best of the young, as well as the more established Scottish players including... Carol Kidd, Voted UK No 1 Jazz Vocalist David Newton, Voted UK No 1 Jazz Pianist Sandro Ciancio, percussionist - the Scottish National ...

Tim Saul Sextet featuring Norman King & Chris Clark

The trio was formed in 2005 and we also play in a local trad band with Phil Mason (of All Stars fame). We are available for bookings for your party, wedding, etc. We have a Myspace page with some of our music uploaded for you to enjoy. CLICK HERE to visit our page. Current members of our trio are: Paul McKay (bass) plays fretless 5 string upright electric double bass and also a Yamaha fretless 5 string bass guitar and uses Ashdown bass amplification. He recently acquired a new Ashdown Super Fly amplifier which is alleged to prevent hernias, but we have yet to ...

Mike Whellans

Mike Whellans A long time fixture on the British and European club, concert, TV, radio &festival circuit, as a solo former,band leader and session musician, and having toured in Canada and the USA, Mike Whellans is once again making his mark in the UK - he went down a perfect storm at, the 2005 Glastonbury Festival. Born in the Scottish Borders Mike began his musical life in the late 1950s/early 1960s playing his father's drum kit. By age 14 he was playing in local dance bands and in 1969 Mike decided to turn professional. In the early 1970s, Mike teamed up with Aly Bain, the ...

News

The Man with the Jazz Guitar

kensykora

The Discovery Centre Cinema in Rothesay will be screening The Man with the Jazz Guitar on Saturday at the Festival. This is a delightful portrait of the fascinating 1950s jazz musician and popular radio broadcaster, Ken Sykora. Deeply inspired by Django Reinhardt, Ken’s musical career was cut short by the 2nd World War and rock‘n’roll. He moved into broadcasting where he worked on more than 3000 programmes over 4 decades. At the peak of his popularity in the early 70s he suddenly and unexpectedly quit the BBC and moved his wife and young family from Suffolk to Scotland, to run a hotel, in ‘the middle of nowhere’. This was the Colintraive Hotel.
Featuring intimate interviews with his three children, close friends and colleagues, Ken is creatively brought to life through a mixture of animation and his radio voice. With exclusive access to Ken’s extensive archive, his life of music, food and words is reconstructed using memorabilia and rare sound recordings of his musical career not heard for more than 50 years.

Jazz Festival Questionnaire

Please help the Festival to develop and improve by filling in the questionnaire. We want to assess both quality and popularity of festival, the effects of our marketing efforts as well as the economic impact the Festival has on the Island’s economy.

Download the Questionnaire