Glasgow Jazz Festival ‘25

This week, we're at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, as this year's 39th Glasgow Jazz Festival kicks off..

The city's longest-running music festival runs until Sunday June 22nd, and among its wonders, it'll welcome Gil Scott-Heron's legendary collaborator Brian Jackson - a keyboardist, flute-player and vocalist who's also worked Stevie Wonder, Gwen Guthrieand Earth, Wind and Fire…

He joins artists on the programme like Later With Jools favourites the Neil Cowley Trio, Colin Steele and his Quartet reimagining The Blue Nile - and incredible turntablist Mariam Rezaei joining forces with saxophonist Raymond MacDonald... 

With only a mere few hours till the opening events - and fresh from Alan Donaldson's excellent exhibition, The Glasgow Jazz Pictures - I met up with Glasgow Jazz Festival director Jill Rodger, and rising jazz star Marianne McGregor, who won best vocalist at the Scottish Jazz Awards in 2023, and who'll launch her new album - Make Believe - at the festival on Sunday...

Jill, Marianne and I looked forward to some of this year's events, and Jill also looked back on a festival that she's been a part of since 1990... 

I didn't anticipate how much of our conversation would be taken up with Jill's memories of George Benson hanging out in Dorothy Perkins, or her taking soul icon Jimmy Smithunderwear shopping - but then again, if jazz has taught us anything, it's to expect the unexpected...

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