THE CURTAIN-RAISER FOR 2013! 

Thursday October 31st: THE CUSTOMS HOUSE presents “When Swing Was King” 

A tribute to Artie Shaw, Billie Holiday and Bunny Berigan, who all played, sang and recorded together in the 1930s. Starring clarinet maestro MATTHIAS SEUFFERT from Germany, brilliant young American singing star CÉCILE McLORIN SALVANT and U.S. trumpet ace DUKE HEITGER. Main Theatre, 7.45pm.

Cécile McLorin Salvant, now aged just 23, has been singing with Wynton Marsalis and New York’s Lincoln Center Orchestra, also drawing big crowds across the USA, Europe and Japan with her trio. Cécile is an outstanding interpreter of the material of Billie Holiday, bringing fresh insights into Billie’s 1930's work in particular. 

Matthias Seuffert is a master of all the reed instruments: north-east audiences in particular will recall his superb appearances in the Benny Goodman role at The Sage Gateshead, but he is in great demand across Europe and further afield. He is a great admirer of Artie Shaw and relishes this opportunity to pay tribute to another of his clarinet heroes. 

Trumpeter Duke Heitger is another young instrumentalist at the peak of his powers; he divides his time between New Orleans, New York and Europe and is completely at home in the early jazz styles from the twenties to the swing era. He counts Louis Armstrong and Bunny Berigan amongst his favourite players. 

In addition to our three stars, the superb seven-piece international band assembled to play this great music consists of Jean-François Bonnel (France, clarinet & saxes), Spats Langham (UK, guitar & vocal), Henry Lemaire (France, bass) and Richard Pite (UK, drums), all under the musical direction of BBC Jazz Heritage Award-winning pianist, arranger and bandleader Keith Nichols. The Customs House (Mill Dam, South Shield, NE33 1ES) is a splendid listed building dating from 1848, sensitively adapted to include an intimate 440-seat theatre, restaurant, exhibition gallery and smaller performance spaces. 

It occupies a beautiful waterfront location on the banks of the River Tyne at South Shields. Tickets for this concert are on sale exclusively from The Customs House. You can book online via their website (http://www.customshouse.co.uk) or by phone at (0191) 454 1234. Tickets are priced at £16, concessions £15. There will also be a return coach service between the Village Hotel and The Customs House: you will need to book your place on the coach via the Classic Jazz Party at wbjazzfest@btinternet.com.

                                        The Customs House, South Shields