Let Spin @ More Music, 15 April

We’re excited to announce Lancaster Jazz Festival favourites Let Spin back are heading back our way for what will be a very special show. Brought to you in collaboration with our good friends at More Music.

Ruth Goller, Moss Fried, Chris Williams and Finlay Panter have all appeared at the jazz festival, in Let Spin and in other acts as well. Whenever any of these excellent musicians have played the festival we always get great feedback and audiences have loved them.

Let Spin have a strong connection to Morecambe, and even have a song called ‘Morecambe’ on their album ‘Steal the light’.

“An electrifying live band whose grooves could wake the dead” Guardian

Find out more and book your tickets

Where: More Music, Morecambe
When: Wednesday 15 April 2026, 8pm
Tickets: £14 on the door, £10 advance
£5 MM participants / LA3 LA4 /under 18s

Join us on Friday 6th March for Lancaster Jazz Festival’s Ignite Showcase!

Lancaster Jazz Festival’s Ignite showcase is designed to light a spark for a new wave of contemporary jazz artists, embodying our belief that the future of Jazz is now. Funded with support from Jazz North’s New Northern, a scheme to support emerging artists to expand their audiences in the North of England, the event offers a platform to new talented artists, including the first performance from the Lancaster Jazz Band, formed out of our work with Lancaster High School musicians.

Featuring:

Dobbö

Performing in Lancaster for the first time, Dobbö is a 21 year old multi-instrumentalist and producer making groove-based jazz fusion in the north of England. His sound can loosely be described as quirky, retro inspired fusion reminiscent of artists such as Herbie Hancock, Kiefer and Bob James.

Listen on Spotify

Zoey Jones

Zoey Jones is a Lancaster-born producer, singer-songwriter and DJ whose sound blends soulful, ethereal vocals with atmospheric textures shaped by emotion and desire. Moving between the UK and Asia in recent years, her songwriting and production have evolved into something more intimate and cinematic — music that captures feeling in its rawest form.

Listen on Spotify

Lancaster High School Jazz Band

Formed through a series of workshops delivered in collaboration with Lancaster Jazz Festival, More Music and Lancaster High School music department, this new band will make their first performance at this Ignite Showcase. A fantastic opportunity to support new artists from the local community.

Details:

Date: Friday 6th March 2026

Venue: Gregson Centre, LA13PY

Doors: 7.30pm – 10.30pm

Tickets: £5 available online or on the door

Book tickets

Our friends at Lancaster Jazz Scene do a fantastic job of listing all the great jazz that’s happening in and around Lancaster. If you’re not already signed up to their mailing list, you should be! Sign up via their website, or email lancasterjazzscene@gmail.com, and check them out on Facebook or Instagram.

In addition to keeping you in the loop with all things jazz in the Lancaster area, they also run the Lancaster Jazz Jam every month in the Storey, and put on and support jazz gigs in Lancaster throughout the year.

Here’s what’s coming up in the next few weeks:

FlightRisk
Fri 16th Jan Free John O’Gaunt, Market Street, Lancaster
Story-driven punk rock jazz

Dan Whieldon Trio
Sat 17th Jan 20:00 Tickets £5 Zefferellis, Ambleside LA22 9AD
Featuring Ed Harrison Double bass and Dave Walsh Drums

Neil C Young Trio
Thurs 22nd Jan 21:00 Free Golden Lion, Lancaster
Cool, sophisticated jazz fusion

Palladium
Thurs 22nd Jan 19:30 Free The New Continental, South Meadow Lane, Preston
Dynamic four-piece jazz fusion outfit

Jazz Main
Thurs 22nd Jan 20:00 Tickets £7-9 Carlisle Jazz Club, Carlisle Jazz Club, Warwick Road, Carlisle
Cool bop-style jazz

Gaz Hughes Trio
Sat 24th Jan 20:00 £5 Zeffirellis, Ambleside
Gaz Hughes is a renowned jazz drummer and band leader

Jazz Stats Big Band
Sun 25th Jan 12:30 Entry £13 Whelley Ex-servicemans Club, Wigan
Top band, top arrangements

Hotcha
Thu 29th Jan 20:30 Tickets £7-9 Carlisle Jazz Club, Carlisle Jazz Club, Warwick Road, Carlisle
The finest in gypsy jazz – highly recommended

Lancaster Jazz Jam
Fri 30th Jan 19:30 – 22:30 Free The Printroom cafe bar, The Storey, Meeting House Lane, Lancaster. https://lancasterjazzscene.blogspot.com/
An inclusive jam session for all abilities with an emphasis on having fun, supporting each other and enjoying the music. Audience very welcome.

Air Horns
Fri 30th Jan 20:00 £5 Zeffirellis, Ambleside
Jamie Brownfield/MIke Smith quintet

Claude Bourbon
Fri 30th Jan 20:00 Tickest £15 The Globe Hall, Ireby, Wigton
Jazz, blues, classical and Spanish fusion guitar

Northern All Stars Big Band
1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month from 8pm. Free entry + raffle. Jubilee Club, Slyne Road, Morecambe https://www.facebook.com/people/Northern-All-Stars-Big-Band/100064569113984/

Live Jazz at the Gregson
Every Wednesday evening from 19:00 at the the Gregson Arts Centre, Lancaster

Anything Goes Swing Trio
Alternate Thursdays at the Stonewell Tap, Lancaster from 17:00

Sun Street Stompers
Every Sunday at The Taphouse, Gage Street, Lancaster from 12:30

Hotcha
First Thursday of every month Free The Pier Inn, Lytham St Annes (exception – the January gig will be on the 8th January)
The finest in gypsy swing

High Society Jazz Band
3rd Fri of every month at Carnforth Station Bistro and Bar from 12:30. 01524923282 to make a reservation for the Jazz Lunch.
3rd Sun of every month at Bare Village Club, Morecambe from 4pm. A very comfortable venue, plenty of car parking and good bar prices. “Sitters-in” welcome

John Towers Big Band
3rd Friday of each month from 8pm, Winmarleigh Village Hall, north of Garstang. Free entry, bar open from 6.30pm, hot food available. The long-established 16-piece plays all the swing classics with vocals by Lynn Kennedy.

Wyre Levee Stompers
Every Thursday 14:30 Stocks and Shilling, Poulton Le Fylde

Jazz Jam at The Old School Rooms
Monthly Jazz Jam on the 2nd Tuesday of each month from 19:30 with Trish Ferrarin leading the backline Free entry Lowergate, Clitheroe, BB7 1AD

Jazz Jam at Blue Jam Arts
Last Sunday of every month from 2-4pm at BlueJam Arts Space, Penrith CA11 7XR. Hosted by Jilly Jarman. Info bluejamarts.org or email bluejamarts@gmail.com

Make seeing more live jazz your new year’s resolution!

Off The Rails at the Silverdale Film and Music Festival

A date for your diary – Lancaster Jazz Festival heroes Off The Rails are doing live, improvised soundtracks to the Silverdate Film and Music Festival for an afternoon of groundbreaking and mindbending cinema from the early days of film.

Where: Silverdale Gaskell Hall, Carnforth

When: Sun 1 Feb 2026, 3:00PM

Tickets: £12.50

Off The Rails will be providing a live and improvised soundtrack to these silent films:

Ghosts Before Breakfast
Dada, the rhythm of montage and the chaotic life of things, the sense of danger in post-WW1 Europe, the strange outward appearance of things.

The Telltale Heart
Expressionism, the inner state of feelings, guilt, madness, visualized, the rhythm of the heart.

Tusalava
Cel(l)s, evolution rhythm, the creation of life, Maori art forms, dream world, ‘circle of life’ (Samoan). The original (lost) score was for two pianos.

Blue Bottles
A more conventional film to end on, but made by Ivor Montagu, a founder of The Film Society. To follow on from birth and creation, something where the adults behave like children, a cops and robbers caper, the rhythm of the chase. Swarm.

Book your ticket for this and other Silverdale Film and Music events now!

Learn more about Silverdale Film and Music on Facebook

Learn more about Off The Rails on Facebook

Open Programme Submissions 2026

The Lancaster Jazz Festival open programme is open to all artists without restriction.

At Lancaster Jazz Festival we want to promote brilliant musicians from the breadth of contemporary jazz. We are interested in promoting a diverse programme of events from around the UK, which includes new works, genre pushing acts, emerging artists and projects, and cross art form collaborations.

Lancaster Jazz Festival has a commitment to equity and inclusion which includes offering a platform for under represented groups in our industry. We would like to represent more black, asian and global majority artists within our programme, and we encourage applications from artists from these backgrounds.

We work to proactively address accessibility in our venues and festival delivery, working collaboratively with our community and artists with additional access requirements. Review our accessibility and safe spaces statement.

Please read these guidance notes before filling out our short form:

We will listen to 2 tracks from every submission. Please send us direct links to where we can listen to whole tracks online. Please make sure the tracks are representative of the act you are applying for, especially if you are applying for a new project.

We will ask you to tell us about your music. We want to hear what excites you about this music and why you are playing it, why you think it is great – a couple of sentences will do.

Please note – we have limited venues with access to an acoustic piano. If you are applying for a project for which a acoustic piano is essential, please make that clear within your application.

Deadline for applications is the midnight Sunday 15th February 2026. We aim to be in touch with everyone who has applied by the middle of April.

If you have any questions, have any difficulties using the form, or require this form in another format, then please email shout@lancasterjazz.com.

To be sure you receive our communications, please add our domain @lancasterjazz.com to your safe-senders list to avoid missing any emails from us.

Many thanks and we look forward to exploring your music,

The Lancaster Jazz Festival Team

Apply to play at the Lancaster Jazz Festival

A great start to the Lancaster Jazz Festival

What a brilliant first night to kick off the 2025 Lancaster Jazz Festival. First up we had the brilliant Donovan Haffner Quartet, followed after a quick breather with Maddy Coombs quartet. Both acts had the audience on the edge of their seats with amazing playing from all the artists.

We were delighted to sell out our first event of the festival, and the feedback from our audience was great too.

“Wonderful flowing melodic jazz. Loved it!”

“Really good start to the Festival. Thought both excellent & very nice to have Tomorrow’s Warriors alumni in Lancaster.”

“A real breath of fresh air for the city. Wonderful to be able to hear music of this quality so locally.”

This evening was a collaboration with Tomorrow’s Warriors, a Black-founded and Black-led organisation, Tomorrow’s Warriors offers a free-to-access programme of learning and training, which champions and supports young Black and female talent and those who come from challenging circumstances.

Check out these photos from Ginny Kopenhol, who captured the atmosphere at both shows so beautifully.

We’re delighted to welcome James Mainwaring as our Artist in Residence at this years festival

James Mainwaring is a genre-fluid improvising saxophonist and composer. Since co-founding the Mercury Prize-nominated Roller Trio, he has carved a distinctive path through ambitious solo projects and boundary-pushing collaborations.

His playing combines extended techniques—currently focusing on multiphonics, and singing while playing—with a deep commitment to instrumental exploration.

In addition to solo work, Mainwaring leads and co-creates in ensemble contexts. His collaborative focus currently is on two projects: one of which is The Exu, a visceral trio with double bassist Dave Kane and drummer Emil Karlsen. Drawing influence from free jazz, hip hop, and metal. The second is Sveið, a trio with Karlsen and electronic artist Federico Reuben. Their upcoming album Latent Imprints (due in 2025 on New York’s 577 Records) explores the creative tension between human expression and machine logic, using generative AI to co-create and disrupt in real time. Entirely improvised and recorded in one session, the album interrogates authorship, agency, and post-digital mythmaking.

Mainwaring continues to contribute to the UK and European improvised music scenes through performance, recording, and education. Based in Leeds, he is a tutor and lecturer at Leeds Conservatoire.

James will be running a workshop and performing a special solo set at the Gregson on Saturday – see the Innovation Hub page for details.

Also look out for James playing with one of his current projects, the Exu, at Kanteena on Sunday.

We’re excited to share some details about this year’s Innovation Hub – back for 2025!

The Lancaster Jazz Festival Innovation Hub is a space to be creative and be together, hosting a mix of planned events and impromptu happenings. The Hub will take place over Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 September.

Highlights this year include:

• a creative jazz workshop with our artist in residence, James Mainwaring
• spoken word and jazz sessions
• Lancaster Jazz Jam
• Chinese jazz fusion
• zine making workshop
• art vs jazz living drawing sessions

See the full programme for Saturday and Sunday.

Want to get involved?

We are welcoming proposals from anyone who would like to use a session to explore an innovative concept or collaboration, try out a new project or run an activity in an exploration of music, art and ideas.

Contact ste@lancasterjazz.com