Brit Jazz Festival to showcase some of Britain’s finest talent

This summer’s packed programme of music festivals continues with the Brit Jazz Festival, which kicks off tomorrow at London’s renowned jazz venue, Ronnie Scott’s.

Now in its second year, the festival, which will showcase some of Britain’s finest jazz talent (including Hammond player James Taylor, trombonist Kalvin Singh and keyboardist Brian Auger), is to coincide with the opening of Ronnie Scott’s very own radio station.

Running exclusively for the two-week duration of the festival, the station will feature live recordings from the festival itself, as well as guest presenters and a special series entitled ‘1959’, which looks back to a year of revolutionary jazz records, in the year the historic club was founded.

Discussing the series, Simon Cooke, the managing director of Ronnie Scott’s, described it as “not something that radios usually do” – “whole albums” will be played in full “across six shows”, to celebrate the ground-breaking records produced in that year (Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, hailed by critics as “the one jazz record owned by people who don't listen to jazz” and John Coltrane’s “legendary” Giant Steps.

Contemporary acts performing at the festival have a tough act to follow.