With the fabulous Rye Jazz and Blues Festival providing a fantastic August Bank Holiday weekend of music, it is worth remembering that it also marks the start of the Autumn festivals, and is followed by the fortnight-long Rye Arts Festival in September. The 48th annual Rye Arts Festival (September 13 – 29) also includes some of the best of jazz and blues.
Two headline acts are must-see events! On Sunday, September 15 the Festival is thrilled that the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) is coming to do a gig at 7pm in the Milligan Theatre at Rye College.
NYJO is what it says it is on the side of the tin. They are the very best young (under 18) jazz musicians in the UK who play as a 24-piece orchestra, gigging mainly in London but also occasionally around Britain.
NYJO played Rye Arts Festival a few years ago and they made a big sound! But you won’t see the same musicians as that cohort has moved on. Remember, this is your chance to see the jazz stars of the future. The NYJO alumni list is impressive, with perhaps its greatest former member the hugely and sadly missed Amy Winehouse. But the list also includes Sam Brown and Joe Stilgoe – off-spring of Joe Brown (of the Bruvvers) and Richard Stilgoe respectively – Joe Jackson and David Arch (whose band is the house combo on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing).
And the Pink Singers will provide an evening of huge fun as they sing their hearts out and dance their socks off on Saturday, September 21 at 7:30pm at St Mary’s church.
The Pink Singers have an impressive pedigree – the choir having been founded in London in 1983, when Gareth Malone had only just moved up from infants to primary school! They are an institution and are Europe’s longest-established LGBT+ choir, but this will be their first visit to Rye.
The Pink Singers put on an old-fashioned show – singing and dancing – and their programme is called “Divas Through the Decades”. As a tribute to some of the greatest female voices from the world of blues, soul, pop and, of course, jazz they will be singing songs of Shirley Bassey, Barbra Streisand, Kylie Minogue, Judy Garland, Diana Ross and, of course, the greatest female jazz singer, Ella Fitzgerald.
The Pink Singers are so thrilled to be coming to play in Rye they are staying en masse a few miles from Rye after the show so they can enjoy the town and the area on Sunday! They’ve bought into Rye and Rye Arts Festival so why not buy into the Pink Singers and get tickets? You won’t be disappointed.
Tickets for these gigs (and other events) are on the Arts Festival website and also at Grammar School Records in the High Street as well as at the Box Office in Phillips & Stubbs on Cinque Ports Street.
Image Credits: Rye Arts Festival .