Hexham Jazz Festival - Sunday 14 May 2023

7pm – BOREALIS

Joe Steels (guitar), Ferg Kilsby (trumpet), Asha Nicholson (vocal), Dan Brown (piano), Paul Susans (bass), John Hirst (drums).

Inspired by the wild untamed beauty of the North East countryside, Borealis is the brainchild of guitarist, Joe Steel, a rising star and recent graduate of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. With a much-anticipated debut album due for release later this year, this band of brilliant young musicians sound utterly unlike anything you’ve heard before, fusing folk and cool contemporary jazz.

8:30pm – Claire Martin OBE & Jamie Safir – The Jazz Divas  8.30pm

Claire Martin (vocal), Jamie Safir (piano)

‘She ranks amongst the four or five finest female jazz vocalists on the planet.’ – Jazz Times USA

Hexham Jazz Festival with Hampstead Jazz Club Present a celebration of some of the most iconic female jazz singers of all time featuring award-winning jazz vocalist and BBC Radio presenter, Claire Martin and Jamie Safir, who was recently called ‘one of the biggest talents of British jazz piano’ by the Guardian’s Jay Rayner.

From Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday through to Peggy Lee and Nina Simone, this unmissable show features a joyous jukebox of Great American Songbook classics that still have as much emotional resonance as they did when they were first recorded.

Having cut her teeth collaborating with a long list of legendary musicians including Stephane Grappelli, Martin Taylor John Martyn, Claire Martin has released numerous critically acclaimed albums and performed in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, firmly establishing herself as one of the most unmistakable voices in jazz over the course of an illustrious career that stretches back more than 30 years.