Bristol may just have had its first International Jazz & Blues Festival at the Colston Hall, but a few hundred metres away over on the cobbles of King Street, the Old Duke pub hosts live jazz and blues bands every night of the week. What’s more, all its gigs are free.
Tonight’s live music comes from The Randy Swindlers, tomorrow is the Bristol Afrobeat Project, Friday The Robin Reece Jazz Band, Saturday The Dirty Funk Syndicate, while Sunday sees The Blue Notes over lunch and Eddie Martin’s Blues Band in the evening.
For three days and nights in August, music leaves the inside of the pub making its way to the street outside for the Old Duke Jazz Festival; always a highlight of the Bristol summer.
As well as jazz and blues, cider is a speciality here at a pub that claims it is named after American jazz musician Duke Ellington.
But is more likely to have been named after the Duke of Cumberland who visited Bristol in 1803 during the Napoleonic invasion scare and became a freeman of the city, and after who the Cumberland Basin is also named.
The Old Duke, 45 King Street, Bristol, BS1 4ER
