Annual event’s got soul... plus blues, jazz (From Echo)

Annual event’s got soul... plus blues, jazz

10:20pm Wednesday 8th July 2009

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THE annual Bures Music Festival starts today.

Running until Sunday, it promises to be one of the best festivals yet, with a wide variety of music on offer, ranging from the melodic through to the blues, soul and, of course, Jazz by the Stour, which is how it all began, some 13 years ago.

Since then, the festival has become a great deal bigger, and raised well over £120,000 for charities and community-based organisations, including St Helena Hospice and the village football, cricket and tennis clubs.

The opening evening will see the Voice Squad, a 40-strong choir based in Bury St Edmunds, who have achieved notable successes in the national choral community.

They have appeared at all the major halls – including the Royal Albert – and they made it through to the finals of the BBC Choir of the Year competition.

Tomorrow is the B-Fest, targeted at up-and-coming school-age singers, choirs, musicians and bands, while Friday’s event will be bringing the blues to Bures once again, with Paul Lamb and the King Snakes, supported by Colchester’s Ramon Goose Band.

It’s soul on the Saturday, with Soul Kitchen, and this year’s Jazz by the Stour on Sunday will certainly live up to the high standard of previous years, as it opens around lunchtime with the Jonny Boston Quartet.

Pianist-singer Joanna Eden and the Eden Project, a ten-piece band with backing singers who are heavily influenced by the sounds of Latin America, are next, followed by the Jo Fooks Quintet and headliners Trudy Kerr and the Geoff Gascoyne Quintet, which includes two members of the Jamie Cullum Trio, Jamie not being one of them!

Tickets can be bought from various outlets, including Compact Music in Sudbury, Manns Music in Colchester, the post office in Bures, and all the village pubs plus the Thatchers at Mount Bures.

Tickets are also available online, at www.buresmusicfestival.co.uk

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