Trinacria restaurateur and YorkJazzFest promoter Beppe Lombardo
BEPPE Lombardo, soprano saxophone player in his Italian teenage days and supremo of Trinacria Sicilian Ristorante in Bishopthorpe Road for 15 years, is running the inaugural YorkJazzFest from Thursday to Sunday.
No fewer than 28 acts will celebrate jazz in all its forms in a festival that vows to “bring together classic sounds, contemporary sounds, great venues and live music lovers across York”.
YorkJazzFest adds up to Four Days, Six Venues, One City. “Jazz is not one sound, one age, one room or one crowd,” says Beppe, who has put together a diverse programme with funding from York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Mayor David Skaith.
Angel On The Green, York Arts Barge, Young Thugs Studio, the Phoenix Inn and The Winning Post play host to concerts on the first three days, culminating in the Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale on Sunday, topped off by sets by the Fergus Quill Quintet and Dennis Rollins’ Funky-Funk, followed by Ian Chalk at the Phoenix.
Dennis Rollins: Promising Funky-Funk! at the Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale to YorkJazzFest on Sunday
In part inspired by his father-in-law, Jim Morgan, who runs Catwick Live folk music nights at Catwick Village Hall, near Beverley, Beppe decided to launch YorkJazzFest, noting how his adopted home city had never previously held a city-wide dedicated jazz festival.
“Jim went to Celtic Connections in Glasgow and told me about how impressed he was by this multi-venue festival,” he says. “I thought it was a brilliant idea, so that’s where I started getting inspiration for a festival with lots of venues and a big finale at the Bishy Road car park.”
Beppe already had received more than £4,000 funding for an open-sided marquee – now to be used in the Bishopthorpe Road Christmas Bazaar on November 28 – when he decided on staging the YorkJazzFest finale on a 42 square ft trailer, again open-sided, framed in decorative lighting too, supplied by Event Equipment Hire. “I’ll be co-ordinating the bar on the last day,” he adds.
“The first idea for running a festival came just after Covid, when the council put up some funds to refresh the high street, providing Christmas lights and summer bunting for Bishopthorpe Road.
Lo Vu: Playing YorkJazzFest at Young Thugs Studio at 9.15pm on Thursday
“Then David Skaith came along as the Mayor [of the York & North Yorkshire Combined Authority] and created the [Sustainable] High Street Fund. His office has provided £11,600 funding to enable this festival to go ahead.”
Flamboyant chef and restaurateur he may be, but music has always played a part in Beppe’s life too. “I used to play saxophone in a brass band in Sicily, the Vittoria Youth Brass Band, which was set up to get kids off the streets, with the local council providing funds for free music lessons in schools, studying theory first from [age] nine or ten and paying 75 per cent towards the cost of an instrument,” he says.
“I wanted a tenor sax, but I was told ‘for my height, you should have a soprano saxophone’ as I was 11. It was a bit harder to play, because it has a higher pitch, and it’s easier to get wrong, but I played for seven or eight years, at festivals and funerals, and I loved it.”
Beppe continues: “My father loved reggae, blues and soul, not really jazz, but because I had a sax, I started listening to Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, and I really got into jazz, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker – and I did like Kenny G too.
Olivia Cuttill: Leading her quintet at York Arts Barge on Saturday at 8.30pm
“But then I went into the Italian army and let the music go, and afterwards I started working on the family farm, in my father’s greenhouses.. He was a strict dad, teaching me a lot – and growing up in Sicily in the 1980s, with the Mafia bosses there, you learn to look after yourself and stay on the straight path.”
Beppe did not want to be a farmer – “I thought it was too risky” – and instead took on a job as a waiter in a Vittoria, learning the skills of making customers comfortable and relaxed, telling jokes: social skills that still apply in running Trinicria and promoting a jazz festival.
Drawing on his mother’s cookery prowess, he became a chef, picked for one of 30 jobs from 1,000 applicants by ClubMed to work in France and Sardinia. York beckoned. “I knew I wanted to learn English, and a friend had done the Erasmus course in York and said it was the Florence of England,” Beppe recalls.
“I arrived on 21st October 2001 at five minutes to midnight and didn’t have anywhere to sleep. My first experience was these four English guys helping me to find a hostel.”
SwanNek: Booked into Young Thugs Studios for 7pm on Saturday
Looking out over Lendal Bridge the following morning, Beppe thought, “Oh my God, this is a beautiful city. It took me only a few days to fall in love with it.”
He has never left, working at Bari, in Shambles, Silvano’s, where he met his wife, and The Dormouse, in Clifton Park Avenue. “That’s where I really learnt English, covering every role, and became ‘the star’ of the place!”
Emboldened, he opened Trinacria in 2012, its name taken from the ancient name of the island of Sicily (whose roughly triangular shape is defined by three headlands). His restaurant runs on a triple bill of “best ice cream, best pizza, best ingredients). “I will not save on ingredients,” says. “I only use ingredients that I would eat.”
As a Sicilian, by the way, he prefers to use semolina as 33 per cent of the pizza base to complement the flour, referring to the softer Neapolitan version as “wet paper”!
After watching gigs at The Crescent and the Phoenix Inn and running a regular Thursday jazz night at his restaurant – now discontinued – he is staging his first jazz festival.
Alina Bzhezhinska: Whispers Of Rain concert at York Arts Barge on Friday at 8.30pm
From Jonny Hooker at Young Thugs Studio to Christian Topman, who runs the York Bargestra Big Band, New York Brass Band trombonist Will Osborne to spreadsheet maestro Philip Thornhill and Miles Lindley, with his contact book of York acts, Beppe has received support for his venture.
Ouroboros promoter Harkirit Boparai helped him to set up the festival website and secured Dennis Rollins and Ukrainian-born harpist and composer Alina Bzhezhinska for the event, while graphic designer Roham Bayat designed the neo-vintage festival poster. Beppe himself signed up Newcastle jazz collective SwanNek and up-and-coming cabaret-style act Rivkala after spotting their talent at Manchester Jazz Festival in May.
Already Beppe has plans for expansion next year, when he may look to switch the festival to early September. “The vision is to make this a legacy event, thinking ‘why have Scarborough, Leeds, Manchester run jazz festivals for so long, but not York?’. York has never had a proper jazz festival. I want to change that,” he says.
“This year we wanted to focus on the South Bank and Bishopthorpe Road area, but my vision is to expand over the city, maybe to church halls, venues that already do jazz concerts, like the National Centre for Early Music, and The Crescent definitely wants to be involved next year.
“This is just a vision, though we don’t know what path we will take yet, but maybe one day we could have a two-day finale with a big headliner at the racecourse? This is only the beginning, but slowly, slowly, we will get bigger and stronger, watering the seeds we’ve sown, and hopefully attracting Arts Council England support.” Watch this space, but watch this week’s festival acts first.
For full listings and tickets, go to: yorkjazzfestival.com.
Roham Bayat’s poster design for the inaugural YorkJazzFest
YorkJazzFest programme, October 1 to 4
Venues: Angel On The Green, Bishopthorpe Road; York Arts Barge, Foss Basin Moorings, Tower Street; Young Thugs Studios, South Bank Social Club, Ovington Terrace; The Phoenix Inn, George Street; The Winning Post, Bishopthorpe Road, and Bishopthorpe Road Car Park for Sunday finale.
Thursday
6pm, Balanco Malandra, Young Thugs Studios
7pm to 8.15pm, Harrison & Morrison Duet, Angel On The Green. Admission free
8pm to 10pm, Brendan Duffy Band, The Phoenix Inn. Admission free
8.30pm, Alligator Gumbo, York Arts Barge
9pm to 10.15pm, The Shandog Swingers, Angel On The Green. Admission free
9.15pm, Lo Vu, Young Thugs Studios
Rivkala: Performing at Young Thugs Studios on Friday at 7pm
Friday
6pm, DB Trio, Angel On The Green. CANCELLED
6pm, York Bargestra Big Band, The Winning Post
6.30pm, Danny Lowndes Hot Club, York Arts Barge
7pm, Rivkala, Young Thugs Studios
8pm, Stephen Swing Wilson, The Winning Post
8pm, Karl Mullen & Friends, The Phoenix Inn. Admission free
8.30pm, Alina Bzhezhinska: Whispers Of Rain, York Arts Barge
9pm, Mike Conliffe Trio, Angel On The Green. Admission free
9.15pm, Afrodesia, Young Thugs Studio
Saturday
6pm, Flowerden, The Winning Post
6pm, Mutant DJ Jazz, Angel On The Green. Admission free
6.30pm, Emma Foulds Quintet, York Arts Barge
7pm, SwanNek, Young Thugs Studios
8.30pm, Al Morrison Quartet, The Winning Post
8.30pm, Olivia Cuttill Quintet, York Arts Barge
9pm, Borgia, Angel On The Green. Admission free
9pm, Lovedancin’ DJ, Young Thugs Studio
Sunday
Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale. FREE ENTRY, no ticket required.
12 noon, YorkJazzFest Orchestra
1pm, Vipertime
2.15pm, Big Bamboo
4.15pm, Fergus Quill Sextet
6pm, Dennis Rollins’ Funky-Funk!
8pm to 10.30pm, Ian Chalk, The Phoenix Inn. Admission free.
Ian Chalk: Closing YorkJazzFest at The Phoenix Inn on Sunday at 8pm
