Lewes Guitar Festival: round-up

Today’s free gig in the Gun Garden (1pm), traditionally a spot for lesser-known, up-and-coming artists, will be performed by James Chadwick, who very much fits the bill. James, a 20-year-old singer-songwriter from the Lincolnshire/Cambridgeshire border, is compared to many guitarists of varying hues, from Nick Drake to Jimi Hendrix, via Jeff Buckley. He says his unique style has been influenced ‘by everything and nothing (but not forgetting Bob Dylan)”. He has the reputation of playing a beautiful, emotional set: ‘a welcome, intellectual reminder of the calming effect that music can have on anyone,” according to one recent reviewer. Radio 2 Folk bloke Mike Harding is a big fan, but to pigeonhole James as a folk musician would be to do his eclectic talents a disservice, by all accounts. Watch him do his stuff, up in a tree, here.

The late afternoon slot in Pelham House (5.15pm, £7) will see the rather more upbeat Catalan Biel Ballester Trio play their Django-Reinhardt-infused ‘Jazz Manouche’ repertoire. Reinhardt, of course, together with long-term associate Stephan Grapelli, mixed traditional gypsy sounds, Parisian bal-musette and hot American jazz. The BBT toss sundry subsequent sounds into the mix, including bolero, rumba and bossa-nova. Biel Bellastra (solo guitar) is joined by Argentinian double-bassist Leandro Hipqucha and fellow Barcelonin Graci Pedro on rhythm guitar. You can check them out, playing with Stochelo Rosenberg, here. AL