News Post

This year’s jazz festival weekend is just a few weeks away and we’re delighted to announce that our headline gigs will be back at Marsden Mechanics.
The very first Marsden Jazz Festival was held at the Mechanics Hall in 1992 after the 19th century building was brought back into use following a major refurbishment.

We’re presenting an evening of jazz gigs at the venue on Saturday 7 October featuring festival legend Ben Crosland, award-winning saxophonist and composer Emma Johnson, and Leeds sensations Vipertime.

We’ve faced a difficult few months after failing to secure Arts Council England funding for last year’s festival weekend. The festival is now run by a small but dedicated group of volunteers and we’re grateful to everyone who has given us their support so that this year’s jazz festival weekend can go ahead.

We’ll be providing more details about the events taking place throughout the weekend soon, including live music in Marsden Park and gigs at venues around the village.

Tickets for our evening of jazz at Marsden Mechanics cost just £10 for each gig or £25 for a Saturday Night Pass to see all three. We’ve also got reduced rates for anyone under 30, and child tickets (16 and under) are just £1 when accompanied by an adult.

Tickets can be booked through our online box office.

We’ll be kicking off the evening at 6pm with a performance by Emma Johnson’s Gravy Boat featuring music from their forthcoming album Northern Flame.

Described by Jazzwise as an ‘exciting prospect’, the group features the Leeds-based saxophonist alongside Richard Jones on piano, Fergus Vickers on guitar, John Pope on double bass and Steve Hanley on drums.

In his Trust The Doc review, Neil March’s verdict was that the group is ‘one of the most refreshingly imaginative and perfectly configured acts in contemporary jazz’.

They’ll be followed at 8pm by Ben Crosland, who has been a regular at Marsden Jazz Festival for three decades.

The Ben Crosland Quartet will be returning to Marsden Mechanics with a set of original tunes and standards, plus favourites from Jaco Pastorius, Bob Mintzer, Mike Mainieri, Don Grolnick and Sir Ray Davies.

The Independent called Ben a ‘fluid and inventive contemporary bassist’ while Jazz Journal International described his compositions as ‘colourful, beguiling and thoroughly musical’.

We’ll end the night with a group that combine jazz with dance, dub, afrobeat and post-punk, and will definitely get you in the mood for dancing!

Our 10pm headliner, Vipertime, draw from influences as diverse as John and Alice Coltrane, Count Ossie, The Jazz Warriors and Trio VD to create a scintillating jazz/punk vibe.

Jazz Revelations hailed Vipertime’s ‘incredibly rare sound that spectacularly distinguishes them from all their contemporaries’.

Tickets for all three gigs are on sale now.

You can get the government to cover the cost of your ticket by making a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of Marsden Jazz Festival.

Just select the Jazz Champion option for any of our gigs to make a £40 voluntary donation to the festival. We will then be able to claim an additional £10 (the cost of a gig ticket) from the government through the Gift Aid scheme.

You can also get a free Saturday Night Pass by making a £100 donation, which will allow us to claim an extra £25 in Gift Aid.

Marsden Jazz Festival is a registered charity and your support will help secure the festival’s future. You must currently pay Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax to be eligible to make a Gift Aid donation.

For more details and to book tickets for all our headliners on Saturday 7 October, visit: www.marsdenjazzfestival.com/whats-on