London collective Cykada are to star at this month’s Liverpool International Jazz Festival, it’s been announced.
The sextet are one of the hottest-tipped acts in UK jazz, having released their self-titled debut album last year to great acclaim while also playing Glastonbury.
Now the group will join the line-up alongside masked Belgian dance trio Blow 3.0, as well as British saxophonist Tony Kofi and his Quartet, when the Festival - organised by Hope - launches later this month.
Cykada were recently described by Metro newspaper as sounding like, ‘a spirited, wild and joyful mix of deep jazz grooves, global beats and spacey, raw electronics, featuring both saxophone and trumpet and with a love of LA’s experimental beats community.’
Meanwhile the mysterious Blow 3.0 - whose identity remains unknown - fuse jazz, punk, hip-hop and dance to create their trademark raucous live shows.
The group told its Facebook followers: “Two tenor saxes & a drumkit... That's all we need to get the party started!"
The Festival itself is now in its eighth year and most of the performances will take place at the University’s Capstone Theatre.
Liverpool Hope University Creative Campus Venue Manager Neil Campbell says: “The emphasis of the Festival is on contemporary instrumental jazz in a variety of styles, taking audience members on a musical journey that traverses numerous genres and cross-genres.”
Other featured artists include Dutch trio Tin Men and the Telephone, recently featured in The Guardian newspaper, as well as Indo-jazz innovator Sarathy Korwar and Sheffield’s Martin Archer's Anthropology Band.
Campbell adds: "Along the way there are support sets from up and coming bands, with a strong focus on original music, including sets from Yaatri, Beyond Albedo, Hippo, Moonmot and Blind Monk Theory?”
The Festival will take place between Thur 27th Feb and Sun 1st March 2020.
And a Festival ticket - costing £40 - saves you money by providing you with access to all Festival concerts for a fraction of the price of purchasing tickets for all individual events.
Individual tickets can be purchased here.
Liverpool International Jazz Festival (LIJF) was established in 2013 by Liverpool Hope University, and in previous years has included performances from some of Jazz music’s leading lights – artists such as Courtney Pine, Denys Baptiste, Roller Trio, Impossible Gentlemen, Kit Downes, Led Bib, Philip Catherine, GoGo Penguin, Troyka, Neil Cowley Trio, and Dennis Rollins’ Velocity Trio
On Sat 29th Feb there will be a free admission foyer set of music by Liverpool Hope University students, with their band Hope Swings Eternal.