The sun, sea and sounds were a reminder of the famous film, Jazz On A Summer's Day, and while an introduction from Eli's Chosen Few was missing, traditional jazz emanating from the Marquee suitably provided the backdrop.
Jazz á Vienne's annual two-week gathering has been charming crowds for almost four decades, thanks to a diverse and vibrant programme and a headline venue – a stone-built Roman amphitheatre – that never fails to get jaws dropping.
Director Klaus Widmann's theme for this year's Südtirol Jazz Festival was 'Exploring the North', with most of the musicians and bands chosen from Scandinavian countries.
This two-day festival that explores and extends the 650-year-old tradition of Japanese ritual performance art Noh is a welcome event, given the success of its previous 2016 edition.
Take the current craze for mindfulness, add one pioneering jazz album, get a 400-strong audience to listen to it in silence, then bring them back to hear a key period of the artist's music brought to life by some of the most groundbreaking contemporary musicians around .
'All-star' is a term mostly out of fashion these days.
Given the background of trombonist Annie Whitehead and her involvement with African music, it came as no surprise that the concert at Leamington's Restaurant in the Park reflected this and the spirit of Dudu Pukwana, Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba was in the air.
This April saw the third edition of the Transition Festival take place at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, Holland.
David Sanborn, who has perhaps the most distinctive and influential alto sax sound in contemporary jazz, R&B and funk, is now in his early seventies, but he's still full of surprises.
The backstory: having written the music during a personally difficult year Bristol-based bass player Greg Cordez decided to recruit some of his favourite New York musicians to record it over there.
