I Got Music

Twenty years of hot jazz and spats

SPATS Langham and Hot Fingers are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, and their birthday tour includes three dates with Artsreach in Dorset, starting at Langton Matravers village hall on Thursday 25th at 7.30pm. Join Hot Fingers on a musical journey, weaving together the history of songs and jazz from the 1920s and 30s, with…

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Stomping bluegrass for 2024

BLUEGRASS quartet Old Baby Mackerel bring their high energy, foot-stomping sound to three Dorset villages on an Artsreach tour in January, from 11th to 13th January. The line-up of virtuoso musicians use the rhythmic sounds of banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle and double bass, to create blistering solos and gorgeous harmonies. Expect to be transported back in time 100 years or…

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An all-round national treasure

EARL Okin, who is coming to the Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis on Friday 12th January, is a man of many parts – musician, raconteur, philosopher, broadcaster, composer … owner of absolutely no casual clothing and wearer of spats. Self-styled as a “jazz cabaret artiste”, and described as the finest performer of bossa nova outside…

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Blues veterans at Bridport

THE Blues Band may be retiring from touring, but their two lead vocalists are still on the road – catch Paul Jones and Dave Kelly one their acoustic tour at Bridport’s Electric Palace on Saturday 20th January. Ruggedly durable and timeless, the blues is as popular today as it has ever been. Young musicians still…

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Dorset dates for Welsh folk group

AWARD-Winning Welsh chamberfolk trio VRi come to Dorset in December for two concerts with with Artsreach, on Friday 15th at Litton Cheney community hall and on Saturday 16th at Corfe Castle village hall, both at 7.30pm. Winners of Best Album at the 2023 Wales Folk Awards, VRï have been praised for making a “formidable artistic…

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Jazz greats at Lyme Regis

TAKE a journey through the American song book from Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn to Joni Mitchell, with an exciting trio of brilliant jazz musicians at the Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis on Friday 8th December. The line-up of legendary UK saxophonist Iain Ballamy (Hermeto Pascoal, Loose Tubes, Norma Winstone), singer Ian Shaw and brilliant…

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Witch in Bristol

WITCH, the band known as the Zambian Beatles in its heyday, released Zango, its first album in 40 years, back in June. The tour to celebrate the new disc was so successful that a second UK tour has been arranged. Ahead of the tour, and in celebration of Chaka Khan’s upcoming induction to the Rock…

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P-p-p-ppp-up Penguins at Lyme Regis

THERE is avant-garde … and there is avant-pop, and it doesn’t get more avant-pop than the Penguin Cafe, making a return to the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, on Friday 1st December with music from their most recent album, Rain Before Seven, which was released in July. Avant-garde pushes back the boundaries of contemporary classical and…

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Three more gigs from Sarah McQuaid

SINGER and songwriter Sarah McQuaid has three more concerts before Christmas, over the coming weekend at Bemerton near Salisbury, Box and Swindon. The Spanish-born, Chicago raised Cornish resident makes her second visit to two interesting venues – the renovated former church built in 1860 at Bemerton on Saturday 25th November, and the little performance space…

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