Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Sonny Bradshaw - file

EACH JUNE, for nearly 20 years, Sonny Bradshaw has launched the Ocho Rios Jazz Festival with little fanfare. There are no marquee acts, divas or massive promotion, yet Bradshaw's little show has quietly established itself as one of Jamaica's enduring live events.

Only the annual Boxing Day dancehall extravaganza, Sting, which celebrated its 23rd staging last year, has been around longer. The 82-year-old bandleader says even though the show is approaching its 20th anniversary, it is still a task to produce.

"It's always challenging, especially when you don't have the financial backing, but the most satisfying thing is that the music has always been top class," he said. "Every top jazz player has played here."

Live bands

Vibraphonist Milt Jackson, organist Jimmy Smith, saxophonist James Moodie and flautist Herbie Mann are some of those top players. Each year, these 'big' names are complemented by bands and performers who make their living playing in clubs or at festivals that cater to lovers of straight ahead jazz.

Bradshaw, a trumpeter, was weaned on the big band sound of the 1940s. It's the beat his own Big Band and Sonny Bradshaw Seven played for decades; when Bradshaw decided to start a festival, he was determined traditional jazz would be its focus even though it is not a huge crowd-puller.

Sponsorship

This year, Bradshaw has again found enough interested sponsors to foot the US$10,000 to stage his festival. That's lunch money for most acts who perform at the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival in January.

Most of the overseas acts, he told The Gleaner, make the trip to Jamaica through funding from government agencies in their countries. British singer/percussionist YolanDa Brown, Kerekes Five out of Hungary and Four Tenor Saxes from Switzerland are just three of the foreign performers billed for the eight-daylong event.

It is the 'Women of Jazz', however, who will be in the limelight. Bradshaw's wife Myrna Hague, Marjorie Whylie, teenage violinist Nadje, Karen Smith and Ouida Lewis are all scheduled to perform at venues in eight parishes.

First-time venues

There are three first-time venues: the Dr Antonio Park and Mockingbird Hill Hotel in Port Antonio, Portland; and Rick's Café in Negril.

'Jazz and Coffee' opens the festival on June 7 at Forres Park in the Blue Mountains. The following day, activities move to The Jamaica Pegasus in New Kingston for Jazz In The Gardens.

The 18th Ocho Rios Jazz Festival closes at the Shaw Park Hotel on the St Ann/St Mary border with the School Band Competition.