Jazz a Vienne gets underway

Pee Wee Ellis and James Morton

The French festival season got underway over the weekend with the start of the Jazz a Vienne festival in the small town of Vienne just a stones throw away from Lyon, the second city of France.

The main concerts take place in the Theatre Antique a 2000+ year old Roman Amphitheatre that dominates the town.

The opening nights concert was themed around a tribute to James Brown and featured RAD (Rose Ann Diamalante) and her band and then a fantastic band put together by Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley featuring Cheikh Lo and singer Simphiwe Dana.

The show featured all of the James Browns songs that made the man such a legend and made for a great launch for the rest of the festival.

It was great to see James Morton on alto sax in the front line of Pee Wee's band. He made a great impression on me when he played at Cheltenham earlier this year alongside Andy Sheppard and was very impressive here alongside such seasoned players.

James is one of a number of up and coming sax players from the very lively Bristol Jazz scene that includes Edition artists Kevin Figes and Ben Waghorn.

Kevin's album 'Circular Motion' is released on Edition on 21st July.