ORGANISERS of this year’s Brecon Jazz Festival, which took place via the online music platform Vialma, have received huge support from audiences everywhere as well as fantastic reviews.

And one strong message is - “we’ll be back!”

The Festival did much to remind people of what they’ve enjoyed in Brecon - or even just heard about - in the jazz weekend over the last 37 years.

In fact, more than 50,000 people learned about the online Festival. Some said that this was the first time that they had been able to ‘attend’ but it ignited the flame to visit.

One musician, American saxophonist Steve Lehman in his introduction, produced a painting of the Brecon Beacons that hangs in the hall, to emphasise his links to the town and its festival.

And the good news is that the Festival has been so popular with audiences that Vialma have decided to show it for another week so that more people can join and enjoy it.

The warmth and love for Brecon as a special place and the strength of following for ‘Brecon Jazz’ came across in abundance in many messages from artists and audiences alike, who also praised the very high quality of the performances and their visual presentation.

This was a tribute, the organisers say, to their collaboration as Brecon Jazz Club with partners Vialma music and Ratio Studios. So a terrific 2020 programme was recreated as recordings of live performances, and shown in a carefully-designed virtual environment.

See next week’s paper (September 2nd edition) for the full story and more photographs.