PICTURE this... you’re sitting back, glass of fizz or beer or maybe some tea and cake in your hand, in the beautiful surroundings of Chalkwell Hall situated in Chalkwell Park, listening to some high quality jazz.

Oh and it’s not even going to make a dent in your pocket, as admission is free. ‘Tell me more about how I get to this piece of heaven’ I hear you cry.

Well, it’s all down to arts organisation Metal’s jazz programme of Lazy Sundays.

Every Sunday for the rest of the six weeks holiday up until September 2, from 2 – 4pm you will be able to treat yourself to the delights of Metal’s pop-up Cafe Valise, as well as some of most amazing live jazz performances you’ll see this year, in the beautiful surroundings of that Georgian house in Westcliff.

The line up has been curated by The Jazz Centre UK based in Southend, and includes some of the UK’s best musicians and singers, accomplished four-pieces, emerging musicians and much loved local heroes. All of the performances are free.

The Lazy Sundays series is just part of the jam-packed Cafe Valise Seven Weeks of Summer programme.

Since the beginning of the school holidays and continuing until Sunday September 2 there will be a whole host of events happening at the house, on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The programme is diverse and suitable for families and young people, and include anything from unplugged music sessions to Permaculture workshops.

You’re invited into the house, to relax on the sunny veranda which looks out upon stunning views over the Thames Estuary, and enjoy the art, comedy and music events, the second hand book-shop which is installed there, exhibitions and the fully licensed bar and café.

If you are a creative of any kind - poet, filmmaker, musician, other - you can have a chance to get involved and perform, via open mic slots and the lunch time 1pm ‘15 Minutes of Fame’.

You need to apply via chalkwell@metalculture.com.

Visit metalculture.com/event/cafevalise to check the whole Seven Weeks of Summer programme.

Sunday August 12:

2pm – 4pm: Lazy Sunday Jazz – Digby Fairweather with special guest Brian Dee

Much loved local jazz hero, Digby Fairweather, took up jazz fulltime in l977 working with the Midnite Follies Orchestra, Velvet and the Pizza Express All Stars. From l983 he led a variety of solo projects including the Jazz Superkings, The Great British Jazz Band and (from l995) his award-winning Half Dozen which toured with George Melly (2003-7), Paul Jones (2007-present), and which has won the British Jazz Award – the ‘Jazz Oscar’ - for top small group for the last 11 years. He broadcast on jazz for the BBC (1986-98); has authored several books on jazz and recorded over 80 albums as leader and sideman. His numerous awards include BBC Jazz Society Musician of the Year (l979), British Jazz Award (trumpet/1992), Services to jazz (1993/95), Freedoms of London (1992) and Southend-on-Sea (in their Millennium Role of Honour, AD 2000). In 2013 he was awarded London’s Worshipful Company of Musicians Lifetime Achievement Award for jazz. He is founder/lifelong patron of the National Jazz Archive (l987) and this year, in his hometown of Southend, has set up The Jazz Centre (UK) as a flagship for jazz in Britain.

Brian Dee

British jazz legend Brian Dee worked with the Vic Ash-Harry Klein Quintet (which toured with Miles Davis in 1961) then led his own trio at the Establishment and Downbeat clubs in the 1960s. He toured with Tubby Hayes in 1965 and from the 1970s worked in studios (regularly for the eminent producer Ken Barnes) with Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Johnny Mercer and Peggy Lee as well as touring with Elaine Delmar, Kenny Baker and the Bruce Adams-Alan Barnes Quintet. In recent years he has continued to freelance as well as working with Digby in the Billie Holiday tribute show Lady Sings the Blues.

Sunday August 19:

2pm – 4pm: Lazy Sunday Jazz – The Harrison Dolphin Trio

The Harrison Dolphin Trio is comprised of Southend and London based musicians aged between 15 and 18 years old, producing music influenced heavily by Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, Tadd Dameron and other great bebop musicians from the 1940’s - 1950’s.

Harrison is one of three UK musicians offered a space on the Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Course in California, USA. The guitarist’s trio is becoming an increasing presence in jazz events around London and Southend, including recent performances at the Jazz Centre UK, Twenty One Southend, supporting Rob Luft at Club 85 and more - and with a constant line-up of saxophonist is Louis McPherson and bassist Lorenzo Morabito, audiences should be expecting a well-connected band of stylistic, instrumental and creative proficiency beyond the musicians’ years.

Sunday August 26:

2pm – 4pm: Lazy Sunday Jazz - Laura Jurd and Elliot Galvin

Laura Jurd is a London based trumpet player, composer and improviser who is making enormous waves on the British jazz scene. She won the prestigious Dankworth prize for composition at just 19, and at the age of 21 was the first woman in nearly 20 years to take the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Jazz Award. The Guardian called her performances “Sophisticated and technically awesome... delivered with the assurance of a budding trumpet-improv original.”

Elliot Galvin is a regular collaborator with Laura Jurd, and is one of the rising stars of UK jazz. A superbly gifted composer and pianist, whose maverick imagination and magpie like ability to blend a disparate world of influences into his own unique musical vision has seen him compared to Django Bates. Galvin’s music is both playful and deadly serious drawing on a wide range of influences from Keith Jarrett to Stravinsky, Ligetti, Deerhof and the Beatles as well as the films of David Lynch, the Dada movement and the literature of James Joyce.

Sunday September 2:

2pm – 4pm: Lazy Sunday Jazz –For the first time together - Dylan Howe Trio plays with special guest Snowboy

Acclaimed drummer Dylan Howe brings his new trio to Chalkwell Hall featuring two of the UK’s finest players; Dave Whitford on double bass and Gareth Hunt on piano – playing two specially crafted sets of classic standards and music by Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Dylan Howe is a British drummer (born in 1969) recently resident in Chalkwell, best known for leading his quintet and other jazz groups since 2002 and his tenures with Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Steve Howe and Wilko Johnson, coupled with extensive session work since 1990.

Snowboy has recorded or performed percussion with many, many jazz and Latin artists such as Airto Moreira, Deodato, Makoto Kuriya, Herman Olivera, Flaco Jimenez, Jon Lucien, James Taylor, Quartet, Big John Patton, and Incognito as well as Lisa Stansfield, Imelda May, Amy Winehouse, Rod Temperton, Mark Ronson, Basia, Simply Red, Mick Hucknall, Mica Paris, Darrel Higham, Patti Austin and many, many more. More importantly he is also the leader of his world - famous Afro-Cuban Jazz group, featuring a who’s-who of the UK’s most exciting and fiery Jazz and Latin players. His music draws on Salsa, Mambo and Latin Jazz, and captures the block party feel of 1970’s New York, inspired, as ever, by the greats such as Eddie Palmieri and Tito Puente. Snowboy and the Latin Section’s current album New York Afternoon reached number one in the Latin Jazz chart and number 6 in the Jazz chart, and was the number one salsa album on the Colombian radio station Salsa Exitos Del Mundo.

7pm – 11pm: Farewell to Summer – Special Guest DJ Snowboy supported by the mighty Urban Allstars. (Free but booking required).

All events are free but some may require booking.

Please see metalculture.com for more details and to book your place.