Media release: Aberdeen jazz group playing leading role in Brussels showcase for Scottish jazz music

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SCOTTISH jazz musicians will be centre stage at a special event in Brussels next spring organised by a group of Aberdeen jazz lovers and supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland.

Jazz at the Blue Lamp is organising a jazz weekend with a Scottish focus at Brussel’s leading jazz venues, the Jazz Station club on Thursday 2 to Sunday 5 April 2020. The concerts will showcase the talents of Scottish jazz musicians in the Belgian capital and Europe more widely.

Jazz at the Blue Lamp is a group of jazz fans from Aberdeen who work together on a voluntary basis to present the best of jazz from Scotland, the UK and across the world. The group put on regular shows at the Blue Lamp club on Gallowgate.

The project began with connections being made between Jazz at the Blue Lamp and Belgian artists and promoters, and is being realised through a partnership between the Jazz Station, the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival and Aubergine Artist Management in Brussels.

Don Sharples, from Jazz at the Blue Lamp, said: “Jazz at the Blue Lamp has helped establish Aberdeen on the local and international jazz scene and as a result we have been able to attract a lot of international acts from Europe, North America and further afield.

“We are also at the point where we can use the international contacts we’ve established to get Scottish jazz musicians exposure on the international scene. The Jazz Focus weekend in Brussels is the most recent of these collaborations to bear fruit.”

Creative Scotland’s Clare Hewitt said: “This exciting weekend of concerts provides a fantastic opportunity to showcase the vibrancy and innovation of Scottish jazz music in a leading European jazz club, and for Scottish musicians to perform in front of new audiences, developing their careers and fanbases.

“Driven by their expertise and passion for jazz music, Jazz at the Blue Lamp work tirelessly to present superb live music, and with this event will help create important new links between the jazz scene in Aberdeen and across Scotland with Brussels and beyond.”

There is an open callout for Scottish jazz musicians who would like to take part. Musicians who are interested can contact Don Sharples on don@jazzatthebluelamp.com.

A full list of projects and activity awarded through the Open Project Fund in this latest round, is available here.

In this round, over 40 creative projects and activities taking place across Scotland have received more than £927,000 of National Lottery funding through Creative Scotland.

Notes for editors:

To find out more about Jazz at the Blue Lamp, visit: jazzatthebluelamp.com

Open Project Funding is available to a wide range of organisations and individuals working across Scotland in the arts and creative industries. It supports a broad spectrum of activity including creative and professional development, research and development, production, small capital requirements, touring and collaborations, festivals, arts programming, audience development, etc. Support is available for projects of different scale and duration with the maximum period of award being set at two years. Awards are made in the range £1,000 to £100,000 (or up to £150,000 by exception). Application guidance and forms can be found here.

Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. We enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life.  We distribute funding provided by the Scottish Government and The National Lottery. Further information at www.creativescotland.com. Follow us @creativescots and www.facebook.com/CreativeScotland

Over £583m National Lottery funding has been awarded across Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries over the last 25 years. Nearly 16,000 individuals, projects and organisations have benefitted from this enabling people and communities to bring their ideas to life. To find out more, visit tnl25.org.uk.

Media contact:

Claire Thomson, media relations and PR officer

claire.thomson@creativescotland.com

+44(0)141 302 1708 | +44(0)7747 606 146

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Contact: Claire Thomson
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Email: claire.thomson@creativescotland.com
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