New LIVELY UP! Festival celebrates Jamaica’s cultural icons
If this tour was an album, it would be a collector’s item!
Dune Music has released news about a bold new festival – Lively Up! – produced in association with Tomorrow’s Warriors that will tour 50 musicians and dancers to 10 cities around the country from 28 September-2 November in a vibrant programme to mark 50 years of Jamaican independence.
Lively Up! honours some of Jamaica’s most important cultural icons – such as Bob Marley and The Wailers, Joe Harriott, Louise ‘Miss Lou’ Bennett and the pioneering Windrush generation – through a celebratory festival of concerts and participatory activities that offers something for everyone: children, adults and families.
A festival of music on tour, Lively Up! 2012 will present 19 events in 17 venues from Southampton to Edinburgh.
Acts confirmed for the Festival include: Jazz Jamaica All Stars with Urban Soul Orchestra and Brinsley Forde (Aswad) who present Catch A Fire – A Tribute To Bob Marley And The Wailers in a pulsating music extravaganza with 30-piece orchestra; the Nu Civilisation Orchestra in collaboration with visual artist, Emma Godebska who deliver a multidimensional, mixed media Parallel – A Tribute To Joe Harriott, the iconic Jamaican free form jazz saxophonist; Tomorrow’s Warriors with JazzCotech Dancers and the young Calypsonian Sheldon Skeete host a Jamaican dance party with spectacular floorshow for the whole family; and Jazz Jamaica Family Fun Club presents Mango Spice, an interactive performance workshop for children and their carers to discover Jamaican folk songs and ring games.
Lively Up! is curated by Gary Crosby OBE – Artistic Director of Tomorrow’s Warriors and nephew of the great Jamaican guitarist, Ernest Ranglin – and is supported with funding from Arts Council England and PRS for Music Foundation.
For further information, interview requests, please contact:
Kim Morgan PR Gerry Lyseight PR
020 7277 9559 / 07939 591403 020 7095 8146
kim@kimmorgan-pr.com gerry@glpr.co.uk
Notes To Editors
About Tomorrow’s Warriors Ltd
Founded in 1991 by jazz bassist and Artistic Director, Gary Crosby OBE, Tomorrow’s Warriors Ltd is a leading organisation for youth jazz education and professional artist development, with a special though not exclusive focus on young people from the African diaspora. Our programmes and workshops inspire, develop and mentor gifted and talented young musicians and professionals of all ages. Our core ensembles include: Junior Warriors, Youth Warriors, Tomorrow’s Warriors Youth Jazz Orchestra, and the Nu Civilisation Orchestra. Tomorrow’s Warriors is a weekend resident at London’s prestigious Southbank Centre (2009-2015) and an Associate Artist at Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton (2012-2015).
Tomorrow’s Warriors is a National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England. Current and past funders include the PRS for Music Foundation, Youth Music, Foundation for Sports & the Arts, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Gulbenkian Foundation.
The Dune Music Company Ltd
Sister organisation, The Dune Music Company Ltd was established in 1996 by Gary Crosby OBE and Janine Irons MBE FRSA. It is an award-winning independent jazz production company that has nurtured the professional careers of some of the UK’s most outstanding young artists, helping them to garner more than 30 major awards including two Mercury Music Prizes, three MOBOs, several BBC awards and more.
The Directors
Gary Crosby OBE (Artistic Director) is one of the UK’s most highly regarded and influential jazz artists and educators. He is the nephew of Jamaica’s legendary guitarist, Ernest Ranglin OD. Gary received the BBC Jazz Award for Best Ensemble (Jazz Jamaica All Stars) and the Ocho Rios Jazz Festival/Jamaica Jazz Hall of Fame Award for Consistent Contribution to Music in Jamaica in 2002; the Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Band (Jazz Jamaica) in 2006; the BBC Award for Services to Jazz in 2007; the OBE for Services to Music in HM The Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2009; and the Parliamentary Jazz Award for Jazz Education in 2012.
Janine Irons MBE FRSA (Managing Director) was nominated for a European Federation of Black Women Business Owners award in 1999 and was awarded the MBE for Services to the Music Industry in HM The Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2006. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
