Long-time programmer of our well-respected PAC strand, Tony Dudley-Evans, retired last year - but will be returning to commission new works in 2024 and has been supporting Alexandria Carr - founder of Amplify Sounds and Contemporary Music Programmer at London's Southbank Centre - in programming for the strand.

In a series of blogs, he writes about some of his highlights of this year's PAC programme.

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This is the third of the pieces I am writing about the programme in the Parabola Arts Centre (PAC) at this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival, a programme that has been curated by Alexandria Carr and myself. It is a programme that presents a cross section of all the interesting things happening in contemporary jazz with a particular focus this year on the creative British scene.

Sam Eastmond and John Zorn’s Bagatelles Sunday 5th May 2.30 to 3.30

Sam Eastmond is a young composer/arranger who has worked closely with John Zorn, the iconic New York composer ansd saxophonist who has been at the centre of the New York creative jazz scene for many years, also spending time in Japan where he has a very large following. The Bagatelles are 300 tunes that Zorn composed between March and May 2015 and which have been collected under the title of Bagatelles. These tunes have been described as ‘clever, intriguing and bewitching‘ (the Free Jazz Collective) and ‘wonderful innovative music’ (Jazzwise). Sam Eastmond, in partnership with Zorn, has arranged a considerable number of the Bagatelles for the large British ensemble that he leads, a 12-piece band which features great young players such as saxophonists Asha Parkinson, George Garford and Chris Wiliams, trumpeter Charlotte Keeffe, guitarist Moss Freed, pianist Olly Chalk and drummer Alasdair Pennington.

I heard the band at Cafe Oto in London last year and was blown away by the wonderful energy and swing of the music. I wrote a review for London Jazz News which you can read here. The concert was also reviewed by Tony Benjamin in Jazzwise. I particularly like his comment that the music could ‘any time evoke the power of Mingus’ big band, the swoon of Ellingtonian orchestration, the witty non-sequiturs of Sun Ra and the cartoonish irreverence of Spike Jones’.

This is without doubt the my gig of the festival!

Julien Durand’s Dreamscapes Sunday 5th May 12 to 1pm

Dreamscapes is the attractive name for another great young band, this one coming out of the jazz course at Birmingham Conservatoire. It’s a five-piece band, led by guitarist Julien Durand and features the voice of Lucy-Anne Daniels, a fine young singer who recently toured with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) performing the songs of Amy Winehouse. She has a beautiful voice that Julien Durand uses very effectively in the ensemble passages to create the ‘floaty’ atmosphere that is implied in the name of the band. The band also fine soloists in saxophonist George Garford, pianist Cenk Esen and Durand himself, and makes use of gentle electronics in creating the group sound. Jack Robson completes the band on drums.