"Artists lining up for next month's HSBC Brecon Jazz (August 9-12) cleaned up in the BBC Jazz Awards held at London's Mermaid Theatre on 13 July, with Curtis Stigers, Martin Taylor, Gary Crosby, Julian Siegel and Simon Spillett all winning glittering prizes - demonstrating that Brecon is once again bang on with current trends in world jazz.
Top of the tree is Curtis Stigers who won the Radio 2 Jazz Artist of the Year. At the forefront of a new generation of jazz singers, songwriter and sax player Curtis pushes the boundaries of conventional jazz performers.
He has had pop music success and is now a jazz force to be reckoned with. Curtis plays Brecon's Watton Marquee on Sunday August 12.
In-demand saxophonist Julian Siegel won Best Instrumentalist at the BBC Jazz Awards, and appears at Brecon on August 12 in what is sure to be an energetic performance by Partisans, one of the first of the new wave of UK jazz bands to be influenced as much by Jimi Hendrix as by Miles Davis or Sonny Rollins.
Gary Crosby was rewarded for Services to Jazz in the UK. Acknowledged as one of this country's pioneer jazz talents, and one of our most important bandleaders, double bassist Gary leads a new and rejuvenated world-class line-up in Jazz Jamaica at the Market Hall on August 12.
The band also features New Orleans trumpeter Abram Wilson who was nominated for a couple of awards - both Radio 2 Heart of Jazz and for the Album of the Year for his work Ride! Ferris Wheel to the Modern Day Delta.
He was beaten to the Radio 2 Heart of Jazz award by multi British Jazz Award winner Martin Taylor, one of the most awesome guitarists in the world, described by Acoustic Guitar magazine as "THE acoustic guitarist of his generation". Martin plays a solo show at the Theatr Brycheiniog on Saturday 11 August.
Rising Star award winner Simon Spillett is a dynamic and distinctive be-bop tenor saxophonist, a fiery player in the mould of Tubby Hayes, who appears on the Brecon Stroller programme with his Quartet."
To book tickets, find further information, or get the latest jazz news, please go to www.breconjazz.co.uk or call 01874 611622 (Mon-Sat 10am - 5pm)."
Article written by Jim Smith
