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Date: Friday 16 May

Cheshire Youth Music for Life Jazz Orchestra

mjf @ First Street (House of Social Main Stage)

Jo McCallum director   

The CYMFLJO comprises the best young jazz musicians in Cheshire; their opening set for mjf 2025 features newly commissioned works by established internationally renowned artists including Nikki Iles, Mike Walker and Laura Jurd, alongside works by upcoming young composers. The CYMFLJO has been one of ten youth jazz orchestras across the north to participate in an Arts Council England funded project in 2024/25, commissioning ten British jazz artists to write new pieces for the ensembles. The commissioned music is written in a contemporary big band style, with each composer’s individual compositional voice being evident whilst providing plenty of opportunities for the young musicians to improvise. 

Photography Credit: Mark Lear 

Date: friday 16 may

Time: 5:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Time: 6:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Price: Free

Ubunye

mjf @ First Street (House of Social Main Stage)

Dave Evans keyboards, vocals / Xolani Mbatha, Nokulthula Zondi vocals / Emma Johnson tenor saxophone / Aaron Wood trumpet / Nik Svarc guitar / Sam Dutton-Taylor bass / Steve Hanley drums 

Ubunye’s inspirational fusion of jazz, dance and Afro-beat encapsulates the soul of South Africa, and is swiftly winning the band a legion of fans across the UK and beyond.  

Featuring two powerful vocalists from South Africa’s Kwa Zulu Natal region, combined with a dynamic rhythm section and an array of guest artists, Ubunye’s music is a special blend of contemporary jazz, Afro-pop and traditional ‘Isigqui’ Zulu music.  

Ubunye won the best UK jazz ensemble award at the prestigious Parliamentary Jazz awards in 2023 and have recently released their new album ‘Tell me the Truth’, which immortalises the energy and spirit of their revered live shows.  

Ubunye (loosely translated as ‘Oneness’ or ‘Unity’) is the concept of keyboard player and lead songwriter David Evans, who first collaborated with baritone singer Xolani Mbatha on a festival project in Leeds. Their working relationship flourished, eventually resulting in the recruitment of their most talented colleagues.  

The exciting new line-up features the cream of the Leeds jazz scene, perfectly complementing the vocal frontline and providing a robust sonic force that is as soulful as it is compelling.  

“Vibrant Afro-Jazz band Ubunye performed to a sold-out show as part of London Jazz Festival. Their 10-piece outfit wowed our Holburn crowd with their distinctive high-energy sound.” Pizza Express Live  

‘Ubunye blew the roof off. Unique rhythms, passionate singing and fabulous songs, all delivered with soul…the joy and positivity shone through. Mesmerising.’  Neil Hughes, Buxton International Festival. 

Photography Credit: Samantha Toolsie 

 

Date: friday 16 may

Time: 8:00 pm - 8:45 pm

Time: 9:00 pm - 9:45 pm

Price: Free

Back Chat Brass + NQ parade

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Matt and Phreds

Eliot Richards saxophone / James Hamilton & Simon Czestochowski trumpet / Benji Arnold & Tom I’Anson trombone / James Seabrook sousaphone / Ali Mac & Tom Hawthorn drums 

Kicking off manchester jazz festival 2025 at Matt & Phred’s, we’ve lined up one of the best brass bands in the country: Back Chat Brass. The party starts now. To commence the festival in true M&P style, the band will be doing an outdoor Northern Quarter Parade at 8:45 pm, starting outside the club on Tib Street. 

This 7-piece brass band, based in Leeds, have mastered a repertoire sure to raise the roof of the little backstreet jazz club. It sure has done on many an occasion before. 

Rooted in pop, funk and hip hop, the band’s brassy beats are an instant favourite of any audience lucky enough to catch these guys live. Since 2016, they’ve been wreaking havoc in venues around the world, coaxing even the stubbornest of dance-phobics from their seats with their signature take on your go-to hits. 

From the all-time disco bangers of the 80’s, to the R’n’B classics of the 90’s, to the unforgettable pop hits from the naughties through to the present day…  

Absolutely any age group who loves a dance will fall in love with this band’s one-of-a-kind sound, musicianship and simply electrifying showmanship. A gig with Back Chat Brass is so much more than a gig. 

Doors: 6 pm  

Happy Hour: 6 pm – 7:30 pm 

Call 0161 273 5495 to reserve a table 

Date: friday 16 may

Time: 9:30 pm - 12:30 am

Price: from £7

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Jazz is Everywhere: mjf Youth Advisory Board takeover

mjf @ First Street (ask Garden Stage)

Jazz is Everywhere is an event curated and presented from start to finish by our team of young people from mjf’s Youth Advisory Board (YAB). 

Our YAB are a committed and enthusiastic group of 18–25 year-olds who have been recruited from open application. The group helps advise mjf and its programme on what they feel are the important aspects of running a live music event and organisation. At the same time, they learn about the roles and responsibilities that might be available to young professionals wishing to enter the music sector.  

This year, we set them a task: to create a festival event for the Garden Stage programme at mjf2025 that reflects what they want to see at mjf. 

From curating programme ideas, organising their roles, working with budgets, contracts, planning, production and marketing, this event is the culmination of those efforts. Come down to check out what they’ve produced: it could be a jam, a gig, a presentation, participatory activities… 

Any young people interested in joining the YAB at the next recruitment round should sign up on our platforms or use the sign up form. 

Date: friday 16 may

Time: 6:00 pm - 6:40 pm

Time: 7:25 pm - 8:00 pm

Price: Free

Jazz Students from Chetham’s School of Music

mjf @ First Street (HOME Stage)

mjf’s opening evening, across each of the First Street stages, gives a platform to the next generation of musicians, offering a loud-and-clear statement of intent that the future of jazz talent in and around Manchester is sounding bright. 

Gathering on the HOME stage, a selection of students from Chetham’s School of Music – the UK’s largest specialist music school – will perform a mixed repertoire showcasing their instrumental and ensemble mastery. Affectionally known as Chet’s Bakers, they play under the direction Steve Berry, the lead jazz and improvisation tutor at Chetham’s. 

With a wide range of ages and breathtaking abilities, these young performers are testament to Chetham’s investment in cultivating the stars of the future through their jazz studies at the school – whose alumni include Gwilym Simcock and Emma Rawicz.   

Date: friday 16 may

Time: 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm

Time: 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Price: Free

manchester jazz festival and Factory International present: ganavya

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Aviva Studios (The Hall)

Multi-talented soundsmith ganavya kicks off manchester jazz festival 

Critically acclaimed vocalist ganavya comes to Aviva Studios for the opening night of manchester jazz festival 2025. Described by Wall Street Journal as “among modern music’s most compelling vocalists,” ganavya is a New York-born, Tamil Nadu-raised singer and trans-disciplinarian. 

Trained as an improviser, scholar, dancer and multi-instrumentalist, ganavya takes inspiration from an intergenerational constellation of collaborators, anchoring her practice in pasts, presents and futures. Much of her childhood was on the pilgrimage trail, learning the storytelling art form of harikathā and singing poetry that critiques hierarchal social structures.  

For her most recent album Daughter of a Temple, ganavya organised “a gathering in and for devotion” – drawing on studies of what she terms the musico-philosophies of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda. The result is a deeply moving blend of spiritual jazz and South Asian devotional music. 

Daughter of a Temple (the album) draws upon a vast cast of contributors across multiple disciplines – including esperanza spalding, Vijay Iyer, Shabaka, Immanuel Wilkins, Peter Sellars, Rajna Swaminathan, Charlotte Braithwaite, Chris Sholar, Darian Donovan Thomas, and Bindhumalini Narayanswamy.  

manchester jazz festival 2025 starts here… 

Daughter of a Temple’s purpose is that people “know there’s a village for you, always in the ether. The worlds we dream of are possible when we come at it with the right amount of discipline and devotion. I hope that’s what resonates with them, that it tells the story of this random girl who dreamed of this world and then it manifested itself. I hope it makes them feel less alone, because that’s what it did for me. I think of it as proof that prayer works, and love exists…” 

“No matter the language or the content, ganavya’s voice is a thick ephemera, like smoke as dark as ink, just coming off the fire.” — New York Times 

Doors: 7 pm 

Support: 7.30 pm

ganavya: 8:30 pm

Date: friday 16 may

Time: 7:30 pm

Price: £30

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