A POPULAR jazz festival is set to make its debut in Scotland to showcase some of the country’s most “incredible artists” in an evening full of music.
Brick Lane Jazz Festival is heading to Glasgow for the first time, on Friday October 11, marking a major milestone for the festival as it expands its sound beyond its East London roots and embraces Scotland’s jazz culture.
Located at the iconic Rum Shack, Glasgow’s own Rebecca Vasmant, will be featuring some of Scotland's best jazz talent from her own record label, Rebecca’s Records, while providing an unmissable DJ set.
Rising stars Ari Tsugi, who blend spiritual jazz, psychedelic rock, and Brazilian melodies will be playing on the night along with the moody yet uplifting quarter Azamiah.
Festival director Juliet Kennedy, who will also be DJing at the event, explained that Scotland has such a rich jazz culture and said it made sense to expand the festival to Glasgow.
She said: “The festival started as quite a sort of London-centric showcase because I was running a jazz club in London, and there was this amazing jazz scene in London that I really felt like I wanted to bring to a broader audience.
“But since running the festival for four years, it's like every year I just get these incredible musicians from outside London.
“In particular I just noticed that there's this huge pocket of talent in Glasgow.”
Kennedy said that Vasmant’s previous performances at Brick Lane festivals really highlighted the sheer amount of talent of jazz musicians in Scotland.
Vasmant (below) is best known for her knowledge of spiritual jazz and electronic music and is a resident DJ at the popular Glasgow venue Sub Club and has made several appearances on BBC Radio Scotland.
“It's like there's just so much amazing talent up in Glasgow. “I was like, we should be up there checking it out, finding out what's going on.
“It's also really interesting for us, and I really love the idea of just experiencing the culture up north and see how it's different and how it's similar.”
She added: “We're all tied together by the appreciation of this incredible music, which seems to be getting produced all across the country.
“So why just stick to London?”
The evening-long event is part of the larger Brick Lane Jazz Festival Presents series, which is a year-round initiative that brings the festival’s spirit to cities across the UK with other dates in Manchester, Bristol and Brighton announced.
The series aims to showcase the best of jazz, hip-hop, neo-soul, R&B, broken beat, and electronic music while celebrating the local jazz culture.
More information and tickets for the event can be found here.
