Civil Nights - Leee John Jazz Quartet Opens New Festival

Leee John, the chart topping singer of pioneering British black music act Imagination and featured Gorillaz vocalist, is headlining a new festival series in Woodbridge, Suffolk, starting on Friday 22 May. The three week series celebrates Thomas and John Clarkson, the renowned anti-slavery campaigners that lived in and near Woodbridge, and the civil rights movements their legacy inspired.

The line-up of musical maestros at St Mary's Church will see Leee John appear with his new Jazz project, including Simple Minds drummer Mel Gaynor, Imagination and Sister Sledge pianist Dr. John Watson, Soweto Kinch and Jazz Warriors bassist Miles Danso and virtuoso Saxophonist Dave Mansell.

The night launches a campaign to create a permanent space to celebrate the legacy of the Clarksons, who founded two of the world's first civil rights movements, campaigning for the abolition of slavery and world peace.

Events at St Mary's Church, where John Clarkson is buried, will book-end the three-week festival series.

There will be a further family and music and art events, as well as a Woodbridge Festival club night on Saturday 23 May at New Street Market.

The opening night on 22 May celebrates the foundation of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, co-founded by Thomas Clarkson on 22 May 1787 and will launch a campaign to create a space in Woodbridge where the Clarkson's contribution to civil rights movements can be permanently displayed. The closing event, on Sunday 14 June, celebrates the 210th anniversary of the foundation of the world's first peace movement; co-founded by the Clarksons on 14 June 1816.

Thomas Clarkson was a founder and leading advocate in the movement that led to the abolition of the slave trade. His younger brother, John Clarkson, a naval officer in the British navy, established Freetown in Sierra Leone, as a home for formerly enslaved African people. On returning to the UK John settled in Woodbridge, while Thomas lived in nearby Playford.