27th ANNUAL VISION FESTIVAL 2023 – June 12th – June 18th, 2023
By Bruce Lee Gallanter (Down Town Music Gallery)
By Bruce Lee Gallanter (Down Town Music Gallery)
Text and photos by Fiona Mactaggart
This year’s lavish, multi-venue, ten-day juggernaut of an Edinburgh Jazz and
Blues Festival (EJBF) opened with a bang, with a ‘Mardi Gras’ in Edinburgh old
town’s Grassmarket and an Edinburgh Festival Carnival along the beautiful,
new town Princes Street getting the party started over the first few days. EJBF
has now screeched to a halt while some other festivals Edinburgh is famous for
have taken off, and it feels timely to reflect on some of this year’s jazz festival
offerings.
Bigger than ever this year, EJBF encompassed a wide range of jazz and blues
and prompted the feeling that there may have almost been as many bands
coming from overseas as from within Scotland itself.
Venue: The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland
Date: July 13, 2019
Review by Fiona MacTaggart
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a huge and culturally multi-colored creature and tonight’s show, which was part of Creative Scotland’s Made in Scotland mini-festival within the Fringe, constituted somewhat of a Scottish celebration of cross-cultural music. Organised and MC-ed by local drummer Tom Bancroft, three bands were showcased, all primarily jazz bands but bringing significantly more than jazz to the table.
Venue: Spiegeltent Palais Du Variete, George Square, Edinburgh, Scotland
Date: July 19, 2019
Review by Fiona MacTaggart
Date: July 14, 2019
Venu: Spiegeltent Palais De Variete, George Square, Edinburgh, Scotland
Review by Fiona MacTaggart
Sons of Kemet are one of the several bands esteemed British saxman Shabaka Hutchings leads and following this band securing the much sought-after 2018 Mercury Prize for their album Your Queen is A Reptile, in which each tune is named in honor of a female civil rights hero, Harriet Tubman for example, they have been in even more demand.