A Walsall solicitor, poet, playwright and entrepreneur is working with the Birmingham Jazz Festival to bring the Festival to Walsall next year to mark Walsall`s regeneration.
Ian Henery, who has been commissioned to run creative writing workshops across Walsall and Sandwell by Transport for West Midlands and the West Midlands Combined Authority to promote mental health, is also a songwriter whose work will debut on 26th September in Walsall Town Hall for Walsall Makers Fest.
"I had been talking to a number of different record companies" explained Ian Henery "and I was introduced to Jim Simpson, the first manager of Black Sabbath and the renowned Birmingham music impresario who runs Big Bear Music. We found we had a lot in common. He liked my music and asked me to help him with the 42nd Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival. It was a huge success with a total audience of well over 62,000 this summer. This means the Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival is coming back for its 43rd consecutive year in 2027 and heading towards Walsall for the first time ever."
The Jazz abd Blues Festival had a total of 178 gigs, 165 with free admission, performed at 102 venues in Birmingham, Sandwell and the wider West Midlands attracting audiences totalling 62,702 across 11 days this August.
And a survey of that audience has revealed that an impressive 98% rated performances ‘very good’ (83%) or ‘Good’ (15%), while 86% said they expected to visit the Festival again in 2027.
Jim Simpson, who runs Big Bear Music, said "the overwhelming enthusiasm of live music fans means the Festival will run again in 2027 and its coming to Walsall. They say an audience votes with its feet, and that’s certainly the case this year with tens of thousands of jazz and blues fans turning up at venues in Birmingham and across the West Midlands.”
Jim Simpson met up with Ian Henery in Walsall and visited many sites to hold the Walsall part of the Festival including meeting corporate sponsors to discuss engagement and delivery next year.
"We wanted as mix of indoor and outdoor venues" explained Ian Henery "all within a short radius of each other within Walsall Town Centre. The performance locations must be within a short walk of each other and within the pedestrianised zone of Walsall. We are looking at Gallery Square outside the New Art Gallery, The Bridge and the Community Hub at Walsall Bus Depot opposite St Pauls at The Crossing.
For cinematic and artistic purposes alone, we want to film a narrow boat travelling down the canals to Walsall from Birmingham. On board will be one of the bands who will perform in Walsall. The Walsall Festival starts when the narrow boat arrives at Walsall basin, opposite the New Art Gallery and the band get on the roof of the narrow boat and begin to play. We want these scenes to be shared with the world from the heart of Walsall. "
The 2026 Festival featured 59 musical acts and 265 musicians from Birmingham, the West Midlands and across the UK, many acknowledged as leading British jazz and blues musicians.
International musicians included Andres Roots (Tartu, Estonia), the B. D. Lenz Trio (New Jersay, USA), Ben Toury (Paris, France), Miho Hazama (Tokyo, Japan) and Stacy Mitchhart (Cincinnati, USA).
Venues included everywhere from stately homes to markets, art galleries to libraries and gardens to shopping centres, as well as clubs, pubs, bars, cafés, hotels, city squares, museums and bandstands.
The in-kind supporters were QuaySpace, Fair Deal Music, Genesis Radio Birmingham, Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, IT Contact and Big Bear Records. Additional support came from Brindleyplace, Southside District, Royal Sutton Coldfield BID, Jewellery Quarter Bid, Paradise, Henrik Does Events, Caffé Nero, Millennium Point, City of Wolverhampton, and the Mailbox.
