Jazz fests on the way

© Michael Snell/Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis

The festival season isn't all rock and metal, you know. In fact, a couple of major dates in the jazz calendar are just around the corner.

From 9 to 11 July, dozens of top acts will form the stellar line-up at this year's Marlborough Jazz Festival. Gabby Young, Eduardo Niebla, Seb Rochford's Polar Bear and the Tony Kofi Quartet are just some of the treats in store for campers at the jazz fest.

If that only serves to whet your appetite, there's more fun in store later in the summer. Between 6 and 8 August the picturesque surroundings of southern Powys will host Brecon Jazz 2010. This year's festival features Marc Cecil and the China Moses and Raphael Lemonnier Quartet (featuring Jean-Pierre Derouard on drums).

One man that will be at both festivals is New York/Vienna-based drummer Robert Castelli (who you can check out below), who will be performing alongside Nic Meier, Pat Bettison, Dave O'Higgins and Gilad Atzmon.

Robert beamed: "I'm really looking forward to doing the festivals with my UK cohorts. It is always inspiring to play with a player and composer like Nic Meier. He is just off-the-chart good. He is a TOTAL guitarist.

"Pat Bettison is one of the finest bassists I've ever heard and with Gilad and Dave, everyone is in for a good time! We'll be doing a lot of new music from my upcoming CD, which you can see on YouTube and Myspace. We'll also be doing some of Nic´s music which is always exciting. Glad to be back in the UK!"

For more info on the Marlborough Jazz Festival head here. For further details on Brecon Jazz check out this site.