Menai Bridge
Swing and jazz festival to returns to Menai Bridge
The third March Manouche festival will bring a whole host of musicians to the Anglesey town
Zara WhelanWhat's On Reporter
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The sounds of swing music and gypsy jazz will fill the air in Menai Bridge this weekend.
From Friday, March 17, the third annual March Manouche Festival will bring two days of 1930s jazz music to the Anglesey town - plus instrumental workshops and impromptu jam sessions in several of the local pubs.
The event features some of Britain's top jazz artists, and this year will see the festivals first international acts. Familiar faces will include North Wales locals Andy MacKenzie, Greg Robley, Billy Thompson and Sarah Barnwell.
Remi Harris, widely regarded as one of the UK's top Gypsy Jazz Guitarists, will close the festival with a lively set on Sunday night. The young musician has previously performed at Buckingham Palace, BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall with Jamie Cullum and has toured worldwide with his take on the manouche style.
Remi Harris will close this years event
Gypsy jazz - also known as gypsy swing or hot club jazz - is a style of jazz music often said to have been started by guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt in the 1930s.
Because its origins are largely in France it is often called by the French name, "jazz manouche", or alternatively, "manouche jazz"
Django was foremost among a group of Romani guitarists working in and around Paris in the 1930s through the 1950s, a group which also included the brothers Baro, Sarane, and Matelo Ferret and Reinhardt's brother Joseph "Nin-Nin" Reinhardt.
Music festivals you can enjoy in North Wales in 2017
Many of the musicians in this style worked in Paris in various popular Musette ensembles.
Reinhardt was noted for combining a dark, chromatic Gypsy flavor with the swing articulation of the period. This combination is critical to this style of jazz. In addition to this, his approach continues to form the basis for contemporary Gypsy jazz guitar.
Reinhardt's most famous group, the Quintette du Hot Club de France, also brought fame to jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli.
The main concert venue will once again be the Victoria Hotel, with nearby The Antelope hosting many of the workshops and the popular late night jam sessions.
Tickets for the festival are available online here , and children under 14 go free with an adult.
For more information and the full programme, visit the March Manouche website .
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