Page 22 - Oxted Local October 2024

22 October 2024
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Oxted Local 
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Bletchfest’s themed music nights
aim to explore the influence of
different strands of musical styles
on modern popular music. Last
year’s Blues Night proved a great
success as Blues classics were
mixed with modern interpretations
of the genre and popular covers
with blues influences by two
bands. By the end of the evening
the headliners British Bluescasting
Corporation were given a standing
ovation by an appreciative sell-out
crowd.
This year’s event, on the 9th
November at Bletchingley Village
Hall, takes a look at the impact
Jazz has made on contemporary
music. As with the blues Jazz has
many parents and many children.
Generally accepted to have started
in New Orleans in the early part
of the last century its origins are
in the fusion of Blues and ragtime,
brass band marches, European
(notably French) harmonies and
African rituals. In turn, as with the
blues, it spawned many different
styles as it absorbed regional
cultures with dance oriented swing
bands, gypsy jazz, bepop and the
cool, lounge jazz of the 1940’s all
developing over the Jazz Age of
the 1920’s.
The performers at Bletchfest’s Jazz Night show different
but equally entertaining Jazz styles.
Red’s Dreamers Jazz are a Reigate founded trio bringing
a blend of jazz classics from the Great American
Songbook plus a jazz style take on more contemporary songs across
the decades. Lorraine’s great jazz voice is given the perfect backing
with Ade on guitar and Simon of flute.
One Jump Ahead has an irresistible blend of jazz, blues and fun
generating a highly charged atmosphere that really lets the good times
roll. Likened to swing jazz, jump blues greats such as Louis Jordan,
Slim Gaillard and Cab Calloway they have wowed audiences from
Islington to Israel, Clerkenwell to County Cork and from Docklands to
Deutschland!
Led by singer, saxophonist and songwriter, Kit Packham, often
accompanied by keyboard, guitar, bass, drums and trumpet. Kit has
composed plenty of his own critically acclaimed material but normally
concentrates on the well-known “covers”, which get the feet tapping
and the soul moving often mixing in more original compositions – or
some of his wry updated lyrics to jazz standards.
It’s a 100 years since Jazz celebrated its Golden Age in the 1920’s but
its influence on modern music is as strong as ever with contemporary
greats such as Amy Winehouse and Gregory Porter
impacting on the music scene in recent times.
Both One Jump Ahead and Red’s Dreamers
show that the Jazz form is still enduring,
entertaining and popular today as
Bletchfest’s Jazz Night will more than
demonstrate.
Doors open 7:00 pm at Bletchingley Village Hall
with the first performance beginning at 7:30 pm.
There’s a licensed bar open throughout the event
offering a variety of drinks with some bar snacks.
Visit the Bletchfest website for more information and to book tickets.
Bletchfest
– And All
That Jazz!