One of the most diverse bands to play during the second week of the Festival are Charanga Del Norte – the UK’s only Charanga band, strongly influenced by the Buena Vista music scene and described as ‘deliciously different and incredibly danceable’. On Tuesday 22 November, they will be performing Cuban dance music, which will surely get toes tapping if not bodies swaying, including Mambo, Chachachá, Danzón and Pachanga as well as Son and Son Montuno dance styles. (Churchill College Chapel, 7pm – 10.30pm, £15/£12/£6. Includes supporting act).
Another performer not shy of trying out anything new and different is Grammy award-winning Bill Laurance (Snarky Puppy). He will be kicking off the second weekend of the Festival on the evening of Friday 25 November with a performance of his latest album, Aftersun, a tribute to space exploration and life in the cosmos. With flavours of dance music and African percussion, this latest album combines deep world grooves with Laurance’s signature genre-bending exploration. (West Road Concert Hall, 7pm-9.30pm, £20 /18 / £16 / £15 / £14 / £12 / £8).
Staying with the theme of diverse, the Festival presents the incandescent Snowpoet (pictured)on Saturday 26 November. The band combine melody and poetry in an improvisational effort inspired by artists such as Bjork, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits and Ólöf Arnalds, as well as poets Sylvia Plath, W.B. Yeats and Philip Larkin. Taking you through a magical journey, their music is mesmerising and bewitching with beautiful poetry and storytelling, led by the voice of Lauren Kinsella, winner of the UK Vocalist of the Year at the 2016 JazzFM Awards. Kinsella is known as one of the jazz scene's most adventurous artists experimenting with spoken word, poetry and her own voice with her fearless improvisational singing – shrieks, yelps and clicks are part of her repertoire of improvisation. (Unitarian Church, 5.30pm-7pm, £12 / £10 / £8).
Another famed vocal star of the jazz world, Cleveland Watkiss performs his elusive a cappella vocal improvisation, VocalSuite, at Gonville and Caius College on Sunday 27 November – the final day of the Cambridge International Jazz Festival. Using a breathtaking vocal range that makes seamless links between musical cultures, Cleveland Watkiss blends improvisation and counterpoint harmony, electronics, breakbeat loops and basslines (all live and from his mouth) to stunning effect, creating a unique, orchestral vocal soundscape. (Bateman Auditorium, Gonville and Caius College, 2.30pm-3.30pm, £6 / £3)
Other more eclectic events during the second week of the Festival include:
- Gearbox Records Jazz Kissaten – Audiophile vinyl record label Gearbox Records follows the Japanese tradition of playing the best jazz music on state-of-the-art sound systems and bring their acclaimed ‘Jazz Kissa’ to the Cambridge Jazz Festival. (23 November, Hidden Rooms, 7pm – 8.30pm, £10 / £12)
- RipRap – Those super cool cats RipRap explore some less common modes of composing and open-ended improvisation, working with spoken word in the form of readings with contemporary poets. Encompassing the freedom that typified the early period of the original Beats, they take their inspiration from the Beat Poets, with their freewheeling lateral association. (25 November, 1pm-2pm, Mumford Theatre, FREE)
- Sara Mitra and Magic Box – Children will be transported on a magical musical journey by this new collaboration between professional jazz singer Sara Mitra (and her 7-piece band!) and children's drama specialist Lottie Alle. These one-hour long shows involve plenty of interaction and fun for children aged five and under. (27 November, 1.30pm-2.30pm, 3pm-4pm, Unitarian Church, £12).
Festival Director, Roslin Russell, said: “The first week of the Festival was a huge success and we are now looking forward to welcoming audiences to events taking place during the second week. Part of our remit as a Festival is to offer a range of musical experiences, from the well-known and mainstream to the more avant-garde. The second week is a fantastic showcase of some of the more varied performers sitting alongside some better-known names.”
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Further information about the Festival can be found here: www.cambridgejazzfestival.info
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