Langtoun Jazz Festival: weekend of live music at three Kirkcaldy venues

The event will showcase seven bands across three venues from Friday, June 23 to Sunday 25th - and the organisers have urged people to lend their support.

The 2023 event is being run by Langtoun Jazz, and brings its shows to the Old Kirk and St Bryce Kirk in the town centre plus Hayfield Community Centre.

Grace Black, founder and treasurer, said: “We are very excited by thevariety of styles in our 2023 programme; there really is something foreveryone. It’s also great to have a festival which spreads out into different venues around town.

"We were really keen to highlight the amazing richness of new youngtalent emerging from the Scottish scene and making waves nationally andinternationally, and the three Friday and Saturday concerts certainly deliver that aim. Tickets are already selling well for those three concerts and the Sunday tea dance.”

The programme offers something for all music fans - not just jazz lovers.

The festival opens with a concert at the Old Kirk by the Matt Carmichael Quintet, heralded by BBC Music Magazine as “a distinctive new voice in a crowded scene.”

The saxophonist and composer has performed at Celtic Connections, Ronnie Scott’s, and Love Supreme Festival as well as being a guest soloist with the Grammy Award winning WDR Big Band in Germany.

His debut album ‘Where Will The River Flow’ was critically acclaimed, amassing over three million streams.

On the Saturday evening, a trio of young musicians emerging from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland take centre stage, led by Ben Shankland, an Edinburgh-born pianist and composer. He is joined by Kirkcaldy-born Ewan Hastie – winner of the BBC Young Jazz Musician 2022- on bass, and Chun-Wei Kang on drums.On the Saturday afternoon in St Bryce Kirk, audiences can look further into the future with a concert by Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra. Ewan will be doing a workshop with FYJO players before the concert and may also join the band for a couple of tunes.

On Saturday afternoon in the Old Kirk, audiences can relax to a range of standard and more contemporary numbers from Inverkeithing Community Big Band - it’s a free show but also a fundraiser for Kirkcaldy Food Bank, with the audience asked to make a donation.

Sunday afternoon brings a chance to dust off the dancing shoes as theLouisiana Fairytale Riverboat Jazz Band repeat their very popular performance of last December at Hayfield Community Centre.

The venue will be offering an afternoon tea at a small extra cost.

The festival wraps on Sunday evening in the Old Kirk with a double billof top-quality Scottish bands.

Figiro Quartet is a light jazz and swing group hailing from the west of Scotland who specialise in bringing a vintage twist to modern classics, with covers ranging from Nina Simone to The Beatles and from Édith Piaf to Jessie J – and JazzMain is one of the most acclaimed, renowned, and respected groups performing in Scotland and the UK today.

Full details and booking information at www.langtounjazz.co.uk