Our festival headliner this year will be Andy Sheppard.  Andy Sheppard is one of Europe’s leading saxophonists and one of a few British musicians to have made a significant impact on the international jazz scene, playing and writing for settings from solo to big band and chamber orchestra. Sheppard has composed over 350 works that incorporate a strong and characteristic sense of lyricism alongside a very personal use of rhythms from Asia, Africa and South America. He appears with Norwegian piano trio led by Espen Eriksen

We also feature a Jazz Celebration of Windrush. The Windrush generation made a lasting impact on the UK’s jazz scene. Internationally acclaimed UK jazz pianist Trevor Watkis has assembled an outstanding Anglo-American band to perform a special musical retrospective of jazz trumpeter Dizzy Reece who began his ascent into the jazz scene after arriving in London from Jamaica and cutting his teeth among the best musicians in 1950s London, who included Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott and Victor Feldman. Later, Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins put the word out about him and he was sought out by a Who’s Who of American jazz greats.

Another festival highlight will be the all-star Electric Lady Big Band – “50 years of Hendrix Masterpiece”. A 16-piece ensemble featuring an all-star cast of leading jazz improvisors – including Laura Jurd, Yazz Ahmed, Nathaniel Facey and Iain Ballamy – tackle Jimi Hendrix’s 1968 album Electric Ladyland. The band feature brand new arrangements by guitarist Denny Ilett inspired by the legendary Gil Evan’s reworkings of Hendrix in the 1970s.

Also appearing is stunning ECM record label artists, Israeli-born pianist Shai Maestro. Shai is familiar to UK audiences through his thrilling work with bassist/composer Avishai Cohen. He’s now confirming that promise in his own group, with sometime Lee Konitz drummer Ziv Ravitz and Peruvian bassist Jorge Roeder, one of the most powerful and harmonious collaborations in the This year’s Leeds Jazz Festival takes place at Leeds College of Music and the Wardrobe over the weekend of 18-21 July. We’ve just announced the 2019 line up

Earlybird festival tickets are now on sale – priced £99 until 21 March here: