Welcome to Sunday at Southport Jazz Festival - 3 amazing shows in one day!

Your Sunday Day Pass gives you the chance to see all of these amazing shows at a discounted price!

11.45am - Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra in Concert

3.00pm - Jamie Safir Trio featuring Liane Carroll and special guests

8.00pm - Curtis Stigers

Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra in Concert

We are delighted to welcome the superb WYJO to join our 2027 festival.

Formed in 1976 by Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, this multi-award winning band aims to train and develop the musical skills of its members through the performance of big band music from 1930’s to the present day.

Over the years, WYJO has received many national and international honours, most notably from the BBC Radio Big Band Competition, the Daily Telegraph Young Jazz Competition and the National Festival of Music for Youth. The band is three times winner of the Great North Big Band Festival winning the top prize in 2014, 2015 and 2019 and they have been invited to perform at the prestigious National Festival of Music for Youth on many occasions.

As a result of their high standards, the orchestra has worked with a number of the world’s top musicians including Maynard Ferguson, Bobby Shew, Bill Watrous, Phil Woods, Conti and Pete Condoli, Eric Marienthal, James Morrison and many more.

Since 1985 the Orchestra has released eleven albums. These albums have sold to over twenty-five countries and are broadcast regularly on radio stations throughout the world. The most recent recordings feature guest soloists Eric Marienthal (2016) and James Morrison (2018) and were recorded live at Wigan International Jazz Festival.

WYJO has clocked up an impressive list of touring destinations including the USA, Russia, Israel, Kuala Lumpur, Australia and South Africa as well as throughout Europe. The most recent venture abroad was in summer 2018 when WYJO joined with Wigan Youth Symphony Orchestra to tour Poland.

Every year brings personnel changes in the orchestra. Many members go on to study at Music Conservatoire and forge careers in the professional music world. Drawing on the work of its training ensembles Wigan Schools Swing Band and Wigan Youth Big Band, there are always new and eager young players waiting in the wings to fill vacancies.

Jamie Safir Trio ft Liane Carroll

Originally from Manchester, Jamie has been based in London since 2010 when he embarked on a Bachelors Degree in Jazz Music at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he is a now a member of the faculty. Since graduating in 2014 he has performed in some of the worlds finest venues, concert halls and jazz clubs including The Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Barbican Hyde Park Radio 2 Festival, Ronnie Scotts with the RS All Stars, Minton's in Harlem, Glastonbury Festival ​

He has toured across the UK as a member of Will Young's Band from 2015 until present and around Europe with Judi Jackson in 2018. Performance highlights include headlining a private show with Kylie Minogue in 2022, Headlining Womad with the Brand New Heavies and a Veevo Live Session in Berlin with Olly Murs.

In 2020, Jamie recorded the album 'What's New' with award-winning stars of the European jazz scene; Ian Shaw & Iain Ballamy which released on Silent Wish Records.

He is a long-term collaborator with 2022 Parliamentary Jazz Nominee, Emma Smith and co-arranged and performed on her recent album 'Meshugga Baby'.

Liane Carroll is one of the UK’s most powerful and emotionally compelling jazz vocalists and pianists. Renowned for her soulful delivery, virtuosic piano playing and deeply personal interpretations, she brings a rare combination of technical brilliance and heartfelt honesty to every performance.

Born in London and raised in Hastings, Carroll grew up immersed in music and began performing professionally in her teens. Over the years, she has built an international reputation for her distinctive blend of jazz, blues, gospel and soul, drawing comparisons to artists such as Nina Simone while remaining unmistakably herself.

On stage, Liane Carroll is both commanding and disarmingly warm. Whether delivering a whisper-soft ballad or a full-throated blues, she connects deeply with audiences through humour, storytelling and raw musical authenticity. Her performances move effortlessly between tenderness and exuberance, reflecting a lifetime dedicated to the craft of song.

With a career spanning decades and an ever-growing discography, Liane Carroll remains one of Britain’s true jazz treasures and a performer who continues to inspire, surprise and move audiences wherever she plays.

Curtis Stigers

Curtis Stigers comes to Southport Jazz Festival 2027 — live, up close and personal, in the beautiful and intimate setting of The Grand.

An unforgettable evening with one of music’s most distinctive voices.

“An artist of genuine class and lconic charm” (The Guardian), multi-platinum selling singer, saxophonist, producer and songwriter Curtis Stigers makes his Southport Jazz Festival debut, performing tracks from across his nine critically-acclaimed, award-winning jazz albums.

Curtis Stigers has had top ten hits as a long-haired, blue-eyed soul singer and has written and sung an Emmy-nominated TV theme song; he’s recorded a track for one of the biggest-selling pop albums of all time, and he’s released nine critically-acclaimed, award-winning jazz albums. He’s played for presidents and princes, and appeared in two Seth MacFarlane movies about a foul-mouthed cuddly bear called Ted. He has recorded thirteen studio albums and a live album singing Sinatra songs with a big band from Denmark. He has toured with symphony orchestras, written songs with Carole King and duetted with Al Green, Shawn Colvin and Tom Jones.

Since 2001, Curtis Stigers has been seriously pursuing a career as a first-class jazz singer. With multiple awards under his belt - his album You Inspire Me was The Times ‘Jazz Album of the Year’, he was named ‘Jazz Artist of the Year’ by BBC Radio 2, and he won the German Jazz Echo for ‘Best International Male Jazz Singer’. He has performed at most major jazz festivals and iconic jazz clubs around the world and is a regular at concert halls on both sides of the Atlantic.

"I cannot think of another vocalist who creates such an exuberant combination of bebop artistry and raw emotion."
— Sunday Times

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