Ventnor Blog

Originally part of the old kitchen garden of the Strathwell estate and now sheltered from the salty gales by the walls and trees, Tom Smith’s one acre garden at ‘The Old Coach House, Strathwell Park, Kemming Road, Whitwell was designed 13 years ago to be a garden for all seasons.

Tom, chairman of the Ventnor Botanic Garden Friends’ Society, has previously opened his garden in the summer and it will be an opportunity to see it as an autumn garden.

It is a delightful place with a variety of walks and plantings. There is a stream that runs down to the Eastern Yar and a new feature is a standing stone weighing over 1 ½ tons in the southwest corner.

Coffee/tea and biscuits are included in the entry fee of £3.50. There will also be bring and buy, plant and cake stalls as well as a raffle.

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Here’s a little recap of events around Ventnor’s Winter Gardens Management Committee (WGMC) and their recent acceptance of the booking to use the Winter Gardens for the Ventnor Jazz Festival 2009.

Maureen Cawley, the Chair of the WGMC, gave assurances on 5 May that the Winter Gardens Committee would only let the Jazz Festival go ahead at the WG if …

1) there was no adverse publicity following this years event
2) and all creditors being paid in full

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At the last meeting of Ventnor Town Council, just after the public were excluded from the Winter Gardens Management Committee, the next agenda item to be discussed was the 2009 Jazz Festival - if they would sanction the hire of the Winter Gardens.

You might remember the black cloud over the festival with unpaid debts from both the 2007 Jazz Festival and the 2007 Folk and Blues Festival.

Chair of the Winter Gardens Management Committee (WGMC), Maureen Cawley, had agreed to pencil the 2009 festival in to take place at the Winter Gardens, subject to there being no negative publicity and all debts paid by September 2008.

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For anyone who missed the You and Yours programme on BBC R4 last week, when outstanding debts from the Jazz and Folk and Blues festivals were discussed, VentnorBlog gives you a chance to listen again, even after it runs out on the BBC website.

It appears that Geri Ward chose her words carefully when asked by John Waite for a simple Yes or No, as to whether they would be paying musicians who were still owed money.

We lost count of the amount of times he asked the question, listen yourselves (after the jump) to see how she answered.

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It was Geri who represented the Jazzers on Radio 4 today.

You and Yours presenter, John Waite, did a telephone interview after some of the people who haven’t been paid put their feelings across, including Ian Shaw from this years Jazz Festival (although he’s been promised that the cheque is in the post).

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Today we got a phone call telling us that the Ventnor Jazz Festival and the Folk and Blues Festival will be the subject for discussion on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme tomorrow at midday.

Given it’s the stations consumer affairs programme, it will be investigating the problems of the previous years, where some of those involved have spoken of non-payment, you know what we’re talking about.

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Don’t forget the grand finale of the Isle of Wight International Jazz Festival is Pete Long’s big swing band featuring Ian Shaw and Liane Carrol.

The jazz duo will be taking part in this specially commissioned performance with an 18 piece Big Swing Orchestra of major names led by Pete Long, director of Ronnie Scotts Big Band.
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Aneesa Chaudhry is back on the fringe today following her excellent performance yesterday evening at the Mill Bay Inn.

We caught her last night and thought she was a fantastic performer.

Her eclectic take on jazz managed to clear the front row at one point, but don’t let that put you off - the rest of the room thought she was fabulous.

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Here’s one gig you should definitely make to effort to go today.

Anyone who saw Derek Nash play with Sax Appeal at the Rookley Jazz Club back in January, will be interested to hear that he’s back on the Wight this weekend and heading up a gig at the Ventnor Winter Gardens later today.

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We had a great time last night at the Maceo Parker Gig, what amazing talent! It was brilliant to see the Winter Gardens so busy and vibrant.

This morning, the sun is shining, the skies are blue and we’re looking forward to wandering around the festival venues and checking out what’s on offer.

If you’re planning a trip down to Ventnor, don’t forget that under 12s go free into all gigs. There are tons of gigs on today and tomorrow, check the Jazz Festival website for full programme (note: some venues have changed but all within walking distance).

So get yourselves down to Ventnor today and enjoy some great jazz by the sea.

Originally hailing from over the water (the big bit between us and US), but now popping down from London, Tony Smith promises a great jazz gig for anyone into guitars.

He has a unique sound and voice and has been touring with the legendary Roy Ayers all over the world for nearly six years.

He started his own band in 2003 and has played with another jazzer taking part in the Festival, Ian Shaw.

Gig takes place at the Winter Gardens and although it is difficult to work out what gigs are strollers or fringe from the festival website, we think this one is a stroller number.

Due to changes of venues, this gig will now take place at the Mill Bay Inn.

The Baddest Blues Band Ever describe themselves on their MySpace page as “An earthy, modern blues band in which the funkiest musicians from the parallel worlds of blues, jazz and rock return to their roots.”
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There are two Glorious Chorus events taking place as part of the Jazz Festival this weekend.

The first takes place at St Catherine’s Church on Saturday afternoon at 12.30pm. This is a great opportunity to take in the amazing “Rockin’ with Motown-inspired grooves, burstin’ with jazz-inspired passion, and wrenching the very core with weight of the mighty blues, this choir inspires the heart and soul with their passionate and committed performances.” (more…)

Great to see so many up and coming names in the line up for the Isle of Wight International Jazz Festival as well as some of the more established acts.

One such up and coming star is Sophie Garner.

On Friday afternoon she’ll be performing at the Winter Gardens with the Jazz Cotech dancers.

Judging by her biog, it looks like she’s been a very busy lady, performing at ‘thousands’ of jazz and blues clubs, music festivals and concerts across England, Europe and the Middle East and has even played at The Houses of Parliament!

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One name that stuck out when going through the list of artists performing at this years Jazz Festival was Louis Vause.

As well as performing solo in the fringe over the festival, on Saturday afternoon he’ll be performing as Louis Vause & his Musicians at the “On the Edge” event in the Baptist Church in Pier Street (opposite Bon Bon)

Here’s what the organisers had to say about him ….
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great thing about the Isle of Wight International Jazz festival is that if you can’t stretch to buying stroller tickets (even though they are only £60 for adults and £30 for 13-15 year olds) or specific gig tickets, you can still soak up the great jazz atmosphere by taking in some of the free fringe events.

Mick Smith, Director of Quay Arts is going to be hosting three days of free fringe gigs, held mostly at the Mill Bay Inn, on our wonderful Ventnor esplanade.
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Sunday night at the Isle of Wight International Jazz Festival sees the grand finale with a Big Band Swing Orchestra all-star line up.

Liane Carroll and Ian Shaw will be taking part in this specially commissioned performance with an 18 piece Big Swing Orchestra of major names led by Pete Long, director of Ronnie Scotts Big Band.

The Orchestra will be presenting all the great hits of the golden years of swing. Expect to hear from the libraries of Basie, Goodman, Shaw, Ellington, Barnet, Kenton and Miller.
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Saturday night at the Jazz Festival sees the return of DJ Perry Louis and the JazzCotech dancers to Ventnor.

They performed a great show last year (despite the problems with the power) and this year they return alongside Manteca and Thabani.

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If you like a bit of funk with your jazz, then this is going to be the gig for you.

With the catch phrase “2% Jazz, 98% Funky Stuff” you can be sure that Maceo Parker will having you funking out this Friday night at the Ventnor Winter Gardens as the headline act for the Isle of Wight International Jazz Festival.

Starting out in the early to mid ’60s, working with the godfather of soul, James Brown, Maceo went on over the years to work with all the musical greats.

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Only one week to go before Ventnor welcomes major names from the jazz world for the annual Jazz Festival and the sun has started to shine! Here’s an overview of what to expect this year, so if you haven’t already got tickets to do all or a bit of it there is still time to work it out and buy in advance.

There have been some changes but be in no doubt whatsoever that this festival starts next Friday and that there is a great variety of sounds this year for all ages and music lovers to try out.
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Thanks to everyone who has voted or expressed a view about whether we should publicly support the forthcoming Jazz Festival.

As it stands at the moment, more of you would like to see us support the festival than not.

We agree with many of you who have commented that the festival is a good thing for Ventnor and the Island.

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There’s a week to go and here at VentnorBlog we’re in a real dilemma about the Jazz Festival running in Ventnor next weekend 11-13 April.

While we know that bringing visitors to town should be good for the economy, we’re more than a little concerned that many people who have dealt with the organisers in the past, are saying that they still haven’t been paid for their efforts.

We’ve decided that we should put it to you, dear readers, to decide if we should cover it. Whatever you decide will be enacted - we are at your command.

Before you decide, we’ve gathered together some of the issues that we’ve grappled with, that although long, should give you some background if you haven’t already made up your minds.
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We’ve been asking Red Funnel for a statement about their support of the Jazz Festival for quite a few weeks now, following Wightlink deciding that they couldn’t be involved with it this year. Today we got a statement from them, which is shown in full below … (more…)

At the Islands Full Council Meeting last Wednesday, John Wortham asked a question during public question time from the public gallery.

In my opinion, Ventnor’s Snellen and Ward, aka IW Jazz, are insolvent, owing approximately £55,000 from the 2007 events. As legally in such situations, the interest of creditors are paramount, does this Authority intend to grant them the facilities of Salisbury Gardens in April? A simple YES or NO would be appreciated.

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At the end of last week, we received the following email from the Jazz Office. In what must be an incredibly busy time for them, we were surprised by the length of the email - it must’ve taken a long time to compose, and as so much effort seems to have gone into it, we thought it would be worthwhile publishing it on VentnorBlog. They were happy for us to publish the email, so make of it what you will. Ed

Dear Sal and Simon,

Thank you for your last posting in reference to the Jazz Festival in Ventnor. There are a few individuals (we do know who they are) who have made it their business to destroy the jazz festival and destroy us as individuals because we are perceived as “competition” to them. They have made this attack very personal.

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