Andy Sheppard, Hejira, Elaine Delmar and many more headline Swanage 2025

The Swanage Jazz Festival returns to its longstanding home in South East Dorset at Sandpit Field and venues around the town for this year’s edition from 11-13 July. There’s a packed programme featuring 40 headline bands, drawn from an impressively wide variety of acts, chief among which are the likes of sax great Andy Sheppard, jazz vocal grand dame Elaine Delmar and an exciting large ensemble of Pete Long’s Jazz at The Mowlemonic featuring a 10-piece band including saxophonists Simon Spillett and Alex Clarke. There’s a good balance between high calibre contemporary jazz and groove-orientated groups, with south Londoners Soothsayers topping the Friday night with their heady blend of Afrobeat/Latin sounds, with earlier performances that day from hard-boppers The Jazz Defenders, latin-fusioneers Hexagonal and the beguiling harp-led Tara Minton Trio.

With Andy Sheppard set to close out the Saturday night, it’s the highly acclaimed Joni Mitchell-inspired Hejira with singer Hattie Whitehead and guitarist Pete Oxley who are the penultimate band on 12 July, with a busy programme that day including the likes of Ian Bateman’s Tribute to Louis Armstrong and his Allstars; Threeway with special guest John Etheridge; UK-US band Atlanticus; Ribbons with Sara Colman and Rebecca Nash; The Kevin Figes Sextet and pianist Craig Milverton’s Tribute to Oscar Peterson.

Sunday’s bill gets underway from 11.30am and finishes with exciting young pianist Sultan Stevenson and his Trio, with other bands on the bill including the aforementioned Pete Long’s Jazz at The Mowlemonic; Mr and Mrs with Georgia Mancio and Liane Carroll; The Jazz Couriers Revisited – with Pete Long and Simon Spillett;  Misha Mullov-Abbado Sextet; The Emily Masser/Alex Clarke Quintet; The Jon Lloyd Quartet and The Martin Dale Quartet.

All this is complemented by a Festival Fringe in Swanage’s hotels and pubs, with free outdoor concerts in The Sandpit Field Stretch Tent, while the New Orleans programme has moved to the Mowlem Theatre’s recently refurbished top floor studio space.

For full details, timings and tickets visit www.swanagejazzfestival.co.uk