Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival 2012

Just had to write a quick review on this years Jazz & Blues festival. First of all, the regular reader will know I adore this festival, it's a highlight of the year and I work my schedule around it.The different between this the 28th and 27th festivals is that last year there was more glorious variety. Jazz and blues 2011 style meant soul, funk, folk as well as swing, big band and strings. This year all I saw was the latter. Fantastic as it was - and it may have been just what I caught - it would have been great to have some entertaining Saturday night funk thrown in. I really missed the blues element too with last year's highlights being Will Scott and Brook Williams (who did appear this year but I missed).I even went to see the organisers Big Bear to volunteer my marketing and promotional services and spent the best part of two hours talking to them about how best to use social media to promote this to the masses. I even recommended several local bands. In the end, the vast majority were international, fair enough or from out-of-town.As with last year, I attempted to see at least one performance a day and in the end just missed one weekday and the day I was in London to see Bruce Springsteen -- valid reason I think.The best performance in my eyes was Tad Newton’s Jazz Friends at Lord Clifden on a rainy warm evening following a very sunny day, which may explain why this was the quietest evening all week at Lord Clifden but at least I got a proper seat rather than perching on a wall!I wouldn't miss the Jazz Fest for the world but more variety please for 2013!