Policy Statement

This event is being organised by a local committee of musicians and jazz fans.

Our aim is to promote jazz on the Isle of Wight. Members of the committee will not receive any financial reward. Inspected accounts will be made available on request.

The committee will cover the cost of the main venues and headline acts. This will be funded by sponsorship, ticket sales and other fund-raising activities.

Any subsequent profits will go towards funding future events and a donation to charity (IW Mountbatten Hospice).

We will encourage other performances during the period. However, we will not act as agents. It will be the responsibility of the performers and venues to negotiate between themselves.

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Dennis Rollins

Dennis Rollins (born 1964) is a British jazz trombonist, the founder and bandleader of BadBone and Co.

Rollins was born in Birmingham, of Jamaican parents, and raised in Bentley, Doncaster and attended Don Valley High School.

Although his early listening was funk, by his early teens he was listening to and playing jazz. As he developed his own style, the two forms came together and coalesced in a distinctively exciting and earthy manner. His primary jazz trombone influences were Fred Wesley and J.J. Johnson, although he also paid attention to the playing of Robin Eubanks, Frank Rosolino and Steve Turre.

Rollins attended the college system of Doncaster Youth Jazz Association, the brainchild of John S.M. Ellis MBE, who featured him as soloist with the Doncaster Youth Jazz Orchestra. Later, Rollins played with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and the Jazz Warriors under Courtney Pine. Thereafter, he was in much demand, playing in various bands including the funk fusion groups, Jamiroquai, and Brand New Heavies, with whom he toured the USA.

In 2000 he formed the quintet Dennis Rollins' BadBone and Co., launched at the Barbican in March of that year specialising in funk-inflected jazz.

In 2005 he formed Boneyard, an ensemble featuring ten trombones, sousaphone (or "sousabone"), and drums; this band performed a series of live gigs throughout the U.K. that summer as well as a performance on BBC Radio 3. Boneyard featured the British jazz trombonists Barnaby Dickinson, Matt Colman, Julian Hepple, Andy Derrick, Kevin Holborough, Harry Brown, and Lee Hallam, with Andy Grappy on sousaphone.

In addition to playing trombone, Rollins is also developing as a skilled composer and arranger.He is already an important voice on the UK jazz and funk scenes and his visits to the USA are extending his audience internationally.

Watch Dennis Rollin's Velocity Trio play Samba Galactica

Dennis' Website

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