Durham Jazz Festival

30/05/2026

29/05/2026

Artist Spotlight

We are incredibly excited to welcome The Pete Roth Trio to Durham Jazz Festival, featuring Pete Roth on guitar, Mike Pratt on bass, and the incomparable Bill Bruford on drums. This is one not to be missed!!

PRT strives for an intimate, relatively unscripted music that thrives in small places and dark corners. Jazz, funk, contemporary classical, Dvořák. Nothing is out of scope.

It’s not retro. It’s not comfortable. It’s just brilliantly unruly.

Roth’s original compositions, such as Dancing with Grace, the Trio’s collaborative works like Part of the Charm and Looking Forward to Looking Back, or their reinterpretation of masterworks such as Dvořák’s Largo from Symphony No. 9, offer just a few gateways into the creative world of the Pete Roth Trio, a world that will likely reshape your perspective on what the guitar trio format can achieve.

Drummer Bill Bruford is internationally known as a rock musician, with King Crimson and Yes, but also has impeccable jazz credentials, having recorded, performed with or written music for Al Di Meola, the Buddy Rich Orchestra, David Torn, Allan Holdsworth, Tim Garland, Django Bates, Iain Ballamy and Chris Botti among others.
�Early success propelled Bill, by nature a restless innovator uncomfortable with the well-worn path, into a 40-year career as a bandleader and writer. His groups such as Bruford and Earthworks led the way with advanced harmony in rock in the 70s and 80s; samples, electronics, and odd metres in electric jazz in the 90s; and stylistic innovation in his 21st-century acoustic jazz.

Guitar: Pete Roth
Bass: Mike Pratt
Drums: Bill Bruford

27/05/2026

Artist Spotlight

Zoe Gilby and Andy Champion

Singer Zoë Gilby and double bassist Andy Champion create a mesmerising duo performance blending bold improvisation with beautifully reimagined songs and intimate musical interplay

Winner of Parliamentary Jazz Awards Jazz Vocalist Of The Year 2019, Zoë has teamed up with her husband, the innovative and powerful double bassist Andy Champion for a voice and double bass duo.

This exceptional pairing creates an electrifying soundscape with beautifully integrated music, breathing fresh life into the familiar as well as heading off to the unchartered.

The well-honed duo know each other by heart. Their approach is bold, hypnotic and mesmerising, interacting and infiltrating one another’s sound.

Removing the boundaries, exploring space and time with just voice and double bass.

Redhills Miners Hall 6pm Sunday 25th October 2026

24/05/2026

20/05/2026

08/05/2026

06/05/2026

01/05/2026

We are excited to announce our full performance line up for the Durham Jazz Festival.

We have some amazing shows for you, with something for everyone.

Full details of timing and venues will be up on the website soon.

Ticket sales will be on sale from 5th May.

01/02/2026

Durham Jazz Festival… exciting announcements coming later this month on venues and acts!
Watch this space 🎶

11/01/2026

It’s going to be an exciting year for the launch of Durham Jazz Festival.

We are planning something really special for Durham, the whole of the North East and the UK jazz scene.

Your support will really help us achieve our objectives and we’ve launched a Crowdfunder.

Click on the link below if you want to support our venture and be part of the story.

Much Love
Al, John & Richard

We are launching a new jazz festival in Durham City in 2026