Tower and Town, August 2018

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The Jazz Festival

Well, it lasted 30 years and became the biggest event of its kind in England. Not bad for a small market town. Thousands of people flocked here from all over the globe. The Arts Council reckoned it brought over half a million pounds into the town over a single weekend, during which over 100 bands would perform. As The Times put it ‘At the Marlborough International Jazz Festival [MIJF], you’re never more than a yard away from a pint of ale, or a note of music.’

Major names featured in this little town, including Elkie Brooks, Darius Brubeck, Georgie Fame, Buddy Greco, Jules Holland, Humphrey Lyttelton, George Melly, Alan Price and Clare Teal. Artistes came to Marlborough from more than 60 countries. Not only that: it represented a start for many a talented young musician.

My own favourites? It’s a very difficult decision with so many brilliant acts, but I would say there are two. Bratislava may sound like an unlikely place for a revival of the big band sound of the inter-war years, but that’s what’s happened there. The ‘Hot Serenaders’ of that city laboriously transcribed 78 records from that era onto sheet music. The authentic sound is recreated and, for good measure, the sound of the Andrews Sisters by their singing trio, the Serenader Sisters: a remarkable feat. Excellent though that is, to me the most exciting artist we put on was L’il Jimmy Reid, the last of the great Louisiana Blues singers. Real blues is a dying voice. It is the music of poverty, oppression, back-breaking work and discrimination. As these abuses have declined, so has the music that they begot, so it was wonderful to hear the 77-year old Jimmy’s vibrant guitar, gritty vocals and haunting harmonica. We’ll certainly never hear anything like that again.

So why has it all ended? It’s a shame and, of course, a lot of people have been bereft about it. The facts are well-known and need not be repeated. Suffice it to say, that there is an increasing awareness, to the benefit of many parts of the nation, that towns are not just for traffic. For the survival of the historic market town, it’s important to get people to go there and MIJF did exactly that.

Nick Fogg