I have attended quite a few jazz festivals over the years, but none like the Mike Durham's Classic Jazz Party in Whitley Bay. If I am not saying unique it's only because I have not attended all jazz festivals the world round.
The Whitley Bay festival does not feature bands, but rather is a repertory one . The only regular band featured at this year's festival was The Vitality 5, but that band itself is topic oriented. Sure, other festivals feature tributes to musicians and bands of the past, but that is in addition to working or specially organized bands. The Whitley Bay features first-class musicians from all over. This year, in addition to British players, there were Americans, Germans, Norwegians, Australians and Frenchmen. The Aussies and one American have fore the last few years been UK residents.
Listing all the musicians would take a page, but some were internationally recognized stars, such as the reed players Matthias Seuffert and Claus Jacobi (both German), Enrico Tomasso (British despite the Italian name), the Norwegian Morten Gunnar Larsen and the American Duke Heitger, Josh Duffee and David Boeddinghaus. Not that the others were slouches, on the contrary, just less well known.
They paid tribute to the founder of the late Mike Durham, the founder of the festival
