Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival
The Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival is an international jazz festival that takes place annually for ten days in July in Edinburgh .
The festival began in 1978 as a free-entry traditional jazz event in pubs, organized by banjo player and guitarist Mike Hart. Traditional jazz and blues (which was presented over an additional blues weekend at the Caledonia Brewery) were also regularly presented later, but the only thing left from the pubs was sponsorship of breweries. Regular musicians in the early days included Buddy Tate , Warren Vaché , the Black Eagles Jazz Band and the Hot Antic Jazz Band. There was a parade in Princes Street and open air events in Princes Street Gardens and Grassmarket Gardens. The Mardi Gras with costumes in Grassmarket and Jazz on a Summers Day in Princes Street Gardens is still left of it. The festival had become more professional since the mid-1980s.
The festival promotes local musicians, jam sessions and has its own Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra with its own productions. In 2013, for example, this ensemble performed the Sacred Concerts by Duke Ellington . Other musicians in 2013 were Champion Fulton , Jools Holland , Brian Kellock , Malene Mortensen and Tia Fuller .