JAZZ HEADS & Gary Washington present: The Jazz Carnival

The Jazz Carnival is a 'JAZZ HEADS LIVE' spin off. Conceived as a pop-up jazz festival, the project attempts to reposition JAZZ as a vibrant, raucous and energising experience.

A combination of a series of phenomenal LIVE performances from established Jazz artists and DJ sets creates a unique, guest centred event. 

The Jazz Carnival, challenges its visitors to participate, blow their whistles and dance until they drop!

Live Performances:

Warming up with the late May bank holiday sunshine - The Jazz Carnival introduces a series of established, underground artists and musicians.

Gary Washington (co-founder The Jazz Carnival)

Gary Washington, also known as The Urban Cellist, is a New Orleanian cellist, composer and song writer based in Manchester, UK. A versatile artist and composer switching effortlessly between writing orchestral music and BAM (Black American Music), often referenced as Jazz. Gary will be presenting his 'Monumentalist Ensemble' for the first time, it's a world premiere!

Rory A. Green

Rory A. Green is a Manchester based Jazz guitarist and composer. Drawing inspiration from Jazz, Acoustic Folk music and a touch of Ambience, His work creates atmospheres and stories with depth that will leave you captivated.

The Ladies of Midnight Blue

The Ladies of Midnight Blue are an Afro-Latin percussion & brass duet. Their music consists of powerful and upbeat combinations of percussion, brass, vocal chants, and mbira arrangements that inspires dancing and calls for audience participation.

Adé Kayode

Mentored and taught by Tomorrow’s Warriors alum Camilla George and mentored by Warriors co-founder Gary Crosby OBE, David Kayode is a rising talent on the UK jazz scene. It was at Tomorrow’s Warriors that Gary Crosby encouraged David to  swap from alto to tenor sax, the instrument he now favours. David has gone on to perform regularly with the Gary Crosby Sextet for the acclaimed Mingus  Moves series of concerts in 2022/23.

An incredible line up of talent and expertise.

(Watch out for the GUMBO JAM).

The After Party:

The night ends with a raucous JAZZ HEADS party in collaboration with legendary Manchester (audiophile) Nam Soundsytem, in fact, it's the JAZZ HEADS 1st birthday party celebration headed up by curator, designer, academic and DJ - Andrew Ibi (co-founder The Jazz Carnival).

Ibi is a vinyl collector and founder of The Reference Library, London. His music and cleverly programmed sets span the genres of Jazz, Funk, Afrobeat and other illicit JAZZ HEADS grooves, expect to blow your whistles, dance your pants off and wreck your shoes!

The afterparty kicks off at 10pm and runs until 2.30am.

The event runs a festival style entry system - you can buy a ticket for the full event - including all live performances and the after party, live performances only or after party only. With a full entry ticket - you can come and go as you please (but you won't want to).