THE FOCUS SHIFTS from Celtic music to jazz on the festival circuit this month, with the annual Nairn Jazz Festival kicking off in the first weekend of August. Ken Ramage, the founder and director of this successful festival (and the subject of our July ‘Artsfolk’ feature), swears that next year will be his last in charge.

If Ken really means it this time, it will be his 15th year running a festival which has carved out a special place in the UK mainstream jazz calendar. The unique location has combined with high quality artistic programming to establish Nairn as a must-do destination for both musicians and fans in early August.

This year is no exception, with returning favourites like Ken Peplowski, Warren Vache, Junior Mance and David Ostwald’s Gully Low Jazz Band joining significant new faces in pianist Eric Reed (piano is Ken’s particular favourite, and always scores high in this festival), trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, and saxophonist Jesse Davis.

Scotland’s Brian Kellock is another Nairn favourite, and the pianist returns this year on the back of his second successive triumph at the BBC British Jazz Awards. Brian followed up last year’s prize for Best Album by scooping Best Instrumentalist this year – our warm congratulations to a talented artist.

Elsewhere this month Phil and Aly – second names are hardly needed – take to the road, and Jane Moncrieff has a revealing conversation with the fiddler. John Burns takes a hard look at the place and role of poetry in the cyber age society in our ArtsRant slot, and our Gaelic feature looks at the revival of story-telling.

We have more up our sleeves to reveal as August progresses, so don’t forget to look back in on your window to Highland arts and culture.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor
August 2003