Nairn International Jazz Festival 2008
2-7 August
Background
Programme
Highlights
Nairn International Jazz Festival was awarded Jazz Development funding.
Nairn International Jazz Festival was founded by Ken Ramage, who so enjoyed hearing Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Petersen live in Glasgow in 1957 that he wanted others to have a similarly great experience of jazz.
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After selling the main part of his wholesale fruit and vegetable business in the north-east many years later, he used his extensive network of contacts to set up the festival. |
The very first concert was in Inverness in 1990 as part of the Festival of Food and Jazz (as Nairn Jazz Festival was first known), with Herb Ellis, Ruby Braff and Carol Kidd, and was combined with a cookery demonstration. Unusual venues for gigs in the early days of the festival, a high media profile and quality festival programming have grown the audience from 35 at the first concert into a loyal following of festival-goers today.
The festival now uses two main venues: the Newton Hotel Conference Centre in Nairn and Universal Hall in Findhorn. Festival-goers can buy a ticket for the whole festival, or for individual gigs.
According to Ken Ramage, this year’s festival is a 'reflective programme filled with the essential elements that have become synonymous with the brand style now known as Ramage Jazz,' looking back on the Nairn jazz tradition over the last 18 years.
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The festival's organisers respond to their audience's favourites in the programme – if the audience has loved a gig or artist, then they are brought back to the festival for more. Favourite trumpeters take centre stage throughout this year’s event. |
This year's festival also pays tribute to cornet-player Ruby Braff, who died in 2003. Braff performed at the opening gig of the very first Nairn Jazz Festival, and a recording of his final live performance in the 2002 festival will be released this autumn. Hear Me Talking is a tribute concert by his long time friend Scott Hamilton, pianist John Bunch, bassist Dave Green and cornet-player Jon-Erik Kellso.
| American trumpeter Duke Heitger features in a festival residency, introducing fellow New Orleans vocalist Topsy Chapman for his Paddleboat Shuffle and clarinettist Engelbert Wrobel in The History of Jazz. Heitger also appears in Best of Friends (Thursday 7 August), a special set typical of Nairn Jazz Festival, which reunites him with long-standing friends Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet), John Sheridan (piano), Andy Cleyndert (bass) and Butch Miles (drums). |
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Other programme highlights include:
The Nairn Trumpet Summit features Australian Bob Barnard together with Randy Reinhart and Jon-Erik Kellso
The Wild Bill Davidson Legacy Band with Randy Reinhart (cornet/trumpet) and Bill Allred (trombone)
Swedish Jazz Kings Bent Persson (trumpet), Martin Litton (piano), Tomas Ornberg (clarinet and soprano sax), Bo Juhlin (tuba) and Borre Frydenlund (banjo)
Nairn International Piano Trio, a unique chance to hear Nairn’s new Steinway in the hands of jazz mainstream master Larry Fuller, with Andy Cleyndert (bass) and Butch Miles (drums)
The festival closes with the Louis and Ella Special Tribute, a unique line-up of horns each playing homage to trumpet legend Louis Armstrong, with Rebecca Kilgore recreating Ella Fitzgerald’s magic in the legendary partnership.
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