Armed with iconic songs – War [bertaphoto]

IT might be hard to recall now given its rehabilitation as fashionable, award-winning music, but back in 2013 jazz was still something of a dirty word. If you admitted to being a jazz fan someone invariably quoted the Fast Show’s Louis Balfour (“Nice”) and guffawed.

On the face of it this wasn’t the best time to launch a jazz festival, but that was the year of Love Supreme’s inaugural event held, as it has been ever since, at Glynde, near Lewes in East Sussex.

Barney Dufton, in charge of programming for the festival, agrees: “What we were really battling with in the early days was a very stuffy image and jazz being treated almost like a kind of dead cultural artefact, rather than a living, breathing thing that was relevant to people of all ages.”

We both agree that 2017 was the year of the sea change in jazz’s fortunes in terms of public perception. “That was the year when I felt like it all clicked – you had Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia, Sons of Kemet and The Comet is Coming. They were kind of playing us, but they were going out and playing more kind of crossover festivals and they were almost like alternative bands rather than straight sit-down jazz bands.”

Programming at Love Supreme has always been eclectic, with the line-up ranging from straight-ahead jazz to soul and R&B legends. Like Cheltenham’s equally wide-ranging festival, it is often accused of “watering down” the jazz content to attract non-jazzers, which wrongly assumes people can’t like both Clifford and James Brown.

“In our heads, we have about four to six kinds of musical tribes, roughly speaking, so that’s the kind of bit where you go: Okay, we have something, you know, that appeals to this tribe. What are we missing?”

So where does he start?

“I think probably the first thing we confirmed for this year was War.”

Like Barney, I saw War (Cisco Kid, Lowrider) at The Southbank Centre’s Meltdown and it was obvious they would make a great festival band.

“They have three or four absolutely iconic songs and an intergenerational appeal,” says Barney.

“And that’s one of the things that I really about Love Supreme, the intergenerational quality of it, and the fact that you’ll have fans of my age partying with their parents.”

For similar reasons Barney is looking forward to Brit-Funk stalwarts Central Line and Atmosfear this year, who are having a moment.

“I think a lot of the kids of the people who played or loved that music are now DJs and have great memories of their parents playing Dancing in Outer Space or Walking on Sunshine and those records still sound great.”

Generations, again. Also, he tips bassist Daniel Casimir’s Big Band, stuffed full of nu-jazz stars, Grammy-winning Pakistani-American singer and composer Arooj Aftab, and uniquely voiced R&B superstar-in-waiting Ravyn Lenae as must-sees this year.

There are also two what he calls “talismanic” booking for 2025. One is Chic, who played the first edition of Love Supreme back when Nile Rodgers was about to re-enter pop’s top echelon with his work on Farrell’s Happy (I was there, it was a corker of a show) and the other is Branford Marsalis, who not only played 2013, but was the festival’s first ever booking. “And the best-dressed band I have ever seen,” adds Barney.

Branford will no doubt be playing his Belonging Blue Note album, a beautiful re-interpretation of Keith Jarret’s classic 1974 ECM album. One for the serious jazzers.

Headliners are Jacob Collier, the Roots, Smokey Robinson, Maxwell and En Vogue but, for me, the strength of 2025 lies further down the billing.

Alto-player Lakecia Benjamin’s Coltrane-drenched Phoenix project will blow the walls out of any tent, charismatic Parisian singer and bassist Amy Gadiaga is a hip name to drop at the moment, as is that of ebullient trumpeter Poppy Daniels, breaking out of the back line for the likes of Blue Lab Beats and Leo Richardson to front her own band – check out her funky EP Keep on Going on the Jazz Re:freshed label (https://poppydaniels.bandcamp.com/album/keep-on-going)

Plus, Neil Cowley celebrates his triumphant return to the trio format this year, Avishai Cohen brings his cool, atmospheric ECM trumpet sound, and the great Brian Jackson, musical partner of the late Gil Scott-Heron, explores their soul-jazz-political legacy.

Then there’s drummer Jake Long of the band Maisha, with percussionist and more Chiminyo who featured here recently.

My advice? Don’t stay put in the larger arenas waiting for the next big name, check out the smaller stages.

Last year I came across Knats, an explosion of joyous “Geordie Jazz”, playing to an audience of about 50. It’s how you’ll find the magic.

After all, as Barney says: “We’re really in the business of making musical moments people will remember.”

You just have to put in the leg work to find yours.

l Love Supreme runs at Glynde Place, East Sussex, from July 4-6, easily reached by train from Victoria to Lewes and pre-booked bus to the site. Tickets at https://lovesupremefestival.com/tickets/

Another jazz festival makes its debut in north London on July 11 and 12. The De Beauvoir Jazz Festival describes itself as: “A festival by local residents, for those in the neighbourhood and beyond” and adds “We see jazz not as an exclusive art form, but as an inspiring, unifying force.”
Combining free events in De Beauvoir Square and around and ticketed gigs at Hoxton Hall, The Scolt Head pub and St Peter’s church, among other venues, it certainly has a punchy line-up, nearly all of whom have graced this column.

There’s a brace of clarinet superstars who manage to cover the whole history of jazz in Adrian Cox and Giacomo Smith, who play separate slots. There’s Glasgow’s Ronnie Scott’s regular, singer Georgia Cecile, trumpeter Mark Kavuma and the Banger Factory and Kinetika Bloco, the youth music charity that rustles up an exuberant mix of brass players, drummers and dancers to create an infectious carnival atmosphere. There’s bound to be something there for you.

• Details: https://www.debeauvoirjazzfestival.co.uk/en/tickets