Music that is “best served intimate” at the Rye International Jazz & Blues Festival

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It is music that is “best served intimate”, says Ian Bowden. That’s the hallmark of the Rye International Jazz & Blues Festival which returns to the historic town of Rye from Thursday to Monday, August 22-26, boasting a host of top names.

As festival director Ian says: “This is music where you want to be up close and personal. You want to see the lips move. That's what makes this festival unique.”

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Ian is delighted with the line-up this year which includes American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter Eric Bibb and his full band on Friday, August 23 at St Mary’s Church; Tunde Baiyewu, the British singer-songwriter and former lead singer of Light House Family, on Saturday, August 24; British female Soul singer Mica Millar and her band on Sunday, August 25; and British soul singer Omar and his band on Monday, August 26.

“The whole festival comes from my passion for music but I chose Ryan because I also love history and Rye is the most wonderful venue with almost 1,000 years of music-making. My passion for history and my passion for music just hit the jackpot with Rye. I've been coming to Rye for many years before I started the festival in 2012 but the idea for the festival came about from an impromptu meeting with the late owner of the very famous Mermaid Inn in Rye on Boxing Day 2011. I said to my wife that I was just going to go for a drive and I ended up in The Mermaid Inn. The fire was roaring and I saw Bob and he welcomed me to the table where he was with his family. He remembered me from my previous visit to the Mermaid Inn and he said ‘Sit down and have a drink.’ He was asking me about music and really that's when the germ of the idea for the festival occurred to me.

Ian Bowden (pic by kt bruce)Ian Bowden (pic by kt bruce)
Ian Bowden (pic by kt bruce)

“I launched it at the end of August 2012 and it has always remained that period of time. I like the idea of thinking of it as an extension to the Bank Holiday when lots of visitors are coming to Rye as a destination venue anyway. The first one started very small. We did various different fringe venues and some music in the street and the concert was Ginger Baker who did a drum workshop and an evening performance. The band he put together was Ginger Baker’s Jazz Confusions and they were brilliant. He had a cracking band with him.

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“And from there we just continued really. We started using St Mary's Church in Rye which is so beautiful. I would say that it is now the heart and the soul of the festival. It feels almost cathedral like. It's on the hilltop of Rye and it is just beautiful with wonderful acoustics. I started to do two or three events there and just built it gradually. And just gradually I started to raise the bar with each year in every way I could. Over the years we have improved all of our staging and light and sound, and I would say the way I like to describe it is that it's a bit like Ronnie Scott’s on steroids but based in a church!”

Starting off the festival’s summer series of events, the festival is also presenting American singer, songwriter and saxophonist Curtis Stigers at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Saturday, August 3.