Durham Launches a New Jazz Festival in a City That Has Struggled to Keep a Scene

Frank Graham reports from the inaugural Durham Jazz Festival, held 23 to 25 October in a city he says has long struggled to sustain a thriving jazz scene, partly because audiences travel to Newcastle instead. Founded as a not-for-profit venture by Alan Patrickson, John Lyons and Richard Turner, it ran around 25 events over three days at ten venues, from Claypath Delicatessen, with room for about 30, to the Assembly Rooms. Graham hears Maja Bugge and Dave Evans play from Sortland, Sebastian Rochford's Finding Ways, the Pete Roth Trio with Bill Bruford and a sold-out Knats, and names the one programme clash he hopes the organisers will fix.