The smooth sounds of the saxophone and the sleek guitar stylings of the one of the finest jazz musicians in the UK will fill the south of the island later this year.

The Port Erin Jazz festival returns for the second time this autumn, and will see the legendary UK jazz guitarist Martin Taylor perform alongside saxophonist Beccy Rork, Scottish jazz singer Alison Burns, easy listening jazz duo Dave Newton and Alan Barnes, the LCM jazz three-piece and a host of the best jazz and swing talent the island can muster.

The festival takes place two days and across three venues in Port Erin, on the Friday and Saturday, October 7 and 8, and will feature a mixture of ticketed concerts and free sessions at the Erin Arts Centre, , The Bay Hotel, and the Falcon’s Nest Hotel.

The festival will be opened by the local ‘Blue Train Swing Band’, at the Erin Arts Centre, on the Friday evening, who will be followed by a concert withy Martin and Alison, and supported from the LCM jazz band who are all graduates from the Leeds Colleague of Music with degrees in Jazz, featuring Hayden Morrow on drums, Fergus Leach on Bass and Connor Thomas on Guitar.

On Saturday evening, UK based Saxophonist Becky Rork will be supported by the LCM Band, who will warm the crowd up for a headline concert from Alan and Dave, who headlined the inaugural 2021 festival and are developing a very close relationship with the jazz scene on the Isle of Man.

The Saturday afternoon will feature free performances by local jazz groups in all three venues, performed by the likes of the Blue Vannin Jazz Band, The Heinrich Manoeuvre, The Red-Hot Whisky Jazz Band, The Big Wheel Blues Band, Loose Crew, The Dave Holland Swing Band, The Bus Pass blues band and the folk jazz group Tree ny Kiare,

Organiser saxophonist Jerry Carter, said that the local line up is a great and key feature of the growing festival.

‘This represents an eclectic mix of mainstream progressive gypsy jazz and blues and was extremely well attended by the audiences in 2021,’ said Jerry.

‘The quality of the performances by the local artists exceeded all expectations.’

A new feaure for the 2022 festival will be that both the evening concerts will be live-streamed from the Erin Arts Centre by Greenlight television, potentially opening the festival up to a global audience.

Tickets for the evening concerts are priced at £20 each or a concessionary price of £35 per head for a festival ticket for both evenings, available online from erinartscentre.com.

The festival is being sponsored by Ravenscroft Investment Services.