25th Birmingham International Jazz Festival

A report on 2009’s event.

This year’s Birmingham International Jazz Festival (July 3-12) was a special occasion for a jazz world in which major anniversaries seem to come around with ever-greater frequency.

This was the 25th Birmingham festival and it’s also exactly 25 years since the now famous precursor of the full festival: the M&B Jam Session in Cannon Hill Park when Humphrey Lyttelton and Digby Fairweather led two competing front lines.

Humph and Digby, of course, are the only two people to have served as Patrons of the Birmingham Jazz Festival, Humph for 23 years until his death and Digby for the last two festivals.