The Marsden jazz festival, which takes place in the Pennine village of Marsden near Huddersfield, has two special commissions premiering this year.

The first, Simon Fell’s ‘Revolutionary Traditional (The Ragging of Time)’, which BBC radio programme Jazz on 3 is recording; the second, Chris Bridges’ illustrated piece for septet, ‘I Have a Duck Who Can Roar’, with illustrations by Ann Gilligan.

Marsden, which this year runs from 10-12 October, is expecting an influx of some 8,000 festival-goers. Mostly free entry, jazz-funk trombone star Dennis Rollins, Bob Kerr’s Whoopie Band, The Sugar Sisters, Ben Crosland’s Threeway + Lewis Wright, Troyka, Partisans, and the Bugalu Foundation are also appearing. Marsden is also championing a New Stream strand championing new bands and the cutting edge. New Streamers this year include Michelson Morley, Jam Experiment, Let Spin and Louise Gibbs.

Dennis Rollins, above. Photo: Wikipedia