Let’s all hail Val the conquering heroine!

THE performer generally regarded as the UK’s finest ever female jazz singer has been confirmed as a headline act at this year’s Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival.

Val Wiseman will perform with Lady Sings the Blues orchestra on Friday, July 31 at The Core Theatre in Solihull during the festival, which runs from Friday, July 24 to Sunday, August 2.

Festival director Jim Simpson, whose Big Bear Music company has organised the annual festival for the last four decades, explained how The Lady Sings the Blues was initially a one-off project that featured at the 1987 festival.

He said: “We’re pleased to confirm Val as one of the two headline acts, a great thread of continuity for what was only originally envisaged as a one-off gig all those years ago.” 

West Bromwich-born Wiseman was a local jazz star in the 1960s with Second City Jazzmen, before joining the Monty Sunshine Jazz Band and relocating to London.

Simpson recalls: “Back in 1986, I booked London-based Eggy Ley’s Hotshots to feature in that year’s festival and was delighted to find that Val was the featured singer.

“She was terrific, even better than I remembered, and in fact I believe she’s the UK’s finest ever female jazz singer – in the styles of Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee and Anita O’Day.

“We talked – a lot – while Val was at the festival and as a result she relocated back to Birmingham and we got to work creating The Lady Sings the Blues, an all-star tribute to the music of Billie Holiday.

“This debuted in 1987 with a sell-out concert at Sir Adrian Boult Hall, with Val fronting an eight-piece band featuring seven leading UK musicians.

“It was so successful, we decided to put it on the road throughout the UK and Europe and today it’s still plying its trade.”

The other headliner at this year’s 42nd consecutive festival is King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys, one of the world’s greatest jump, jive and swing bands, performing at the Botanical Gardens on Friday July 24.

Simpson said: “King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys’ first featured at the festival 40 years ago in 1986 and they are now celebrating an amazing 40th year of being on the road.

“The band’s career has been incredible, with tours throughout Europe, Russia, North Africa and the USA, but this will be a great ‘back to the cradle’ moment to have them at the festival four decades on from their first appearance.”

The number of bands confirmed for this year’s festival is now well over the 60 mark, from throughout the UK as well as from France, the USA, Estonia, Japan and Venezuela.

More are expected to confirm in the next few weeks. There are 99 venues confirmed so far throughout Birmingham, Sandwell, Wolverhampton and nearby towns between them presenting 170 performances - 158 of them free admission.

The Plough & Harrow hotel in Edgbaston is the festival’s official ‘Hotel Partner’ and will host many stars from across the UK and abroad, as well as welcoming the incoming army of jazz and blues fans. To help fund the festival, or to become an ‘in kind’ partner, contact Tim Jennings on 0121 454 7020 or at tim@bigbearmusic.com.