We absolutely loved covering this festival last year, Europe’s largest outdoor jazz festival, held at Glynde Place in beautiful East Sussex. Great to be invited back this year.
The 2025 edition [its 12th year] has a stunning lineup across eight stages, including Motown legend Smokey Robinson on his first return to the UK for 15 years. Seven-time Grammy winning Jacob Collier and neo-soul superstar Maxwell performed their only UK shows of the year.
If that were not enough to whet the appetite, there’s Nile Rodgers and Chic, The Roots, En Vogue, War, Thee Sacred Souls, Branford Marsalis, Stanley Clarke, and lots more.
Love Supreme is definitely one of the sparkling jewels in the crown of UK music festivals, which saw more than 60,000 music fans flock to the picturesque East Sussex site across the three day event.
Saturday night delivered an electrifying main stage [North Downs] headline slot for Jacob Collier. While the legendary Motown star Smokey Robinson topped the bill on the South Downs stage with a masterclass of smooth old school soul; still in great voice at 85-years-old. Sunday was the turn of Maxwell to headline the North Downs stage, and Sampa The Great on the South Downs stage.
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Friday we caught excellent sets by: DJ Spoony, Jamila Woods, Toby Lee, Matt Johnson, Rudi Creswick, Cassius Cobbson, Mama Terra and Jake Long…
Jamila Woods is a poet, musician, and teaching artist born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. In 2016, Jamila released her critically acclaimed debut album, “HEAVN”. Her second studio album, “LEGACY! LEGACY!” in 2019 pays homage to a collection of artists of colour who have influenced her life and work. Jamila’s third solo album, 2023’s “Water Made Us” is an introspective song cycle about love and relationships.
Jamila has been featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk, CBS This Morning, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She has shared stages with Corinne Bailey Rae, Rafael Saadiq, Bonobo, Common, Chance the Rapper, Brittany Howard, Macklemore, and many others. An award-winning poet, Jamila’s work often blurs boundaries between poem and song.
Toby Lee is an award-winning UK guitarist and vocalist whose talent has earned him international acclaim from a very young age.
The 20-year-old described as an old soul went viral at 10 with a tribute to BB King and has since performed on global stages, shared the spotlight with legends like Joe Bonamassa and Slash, and starred in the West End’s musical “School of Rock”, earning an Olivier Award.
Toby’s debut original album “House On Fire” topped UK charts following a 100-date tour, with standout performances at Glastonbury and the Royal Albert Hall, and much work touring with Jools Holland’s big band and appearing on “Later…with Jools Holland” on BBC TV.
A three-time Young Blues Artist of the Year, Toby’s widespread appeal is reflected in more than 500 million online views, major TV appearances, and endorsements from Gibson, Blackstar, and D’Addario, marking him as a defining voice of the new generation in blues and rock.
A professional DJ for almost 25 years, Spoony started playing music in his bedroom at the age of 15. Hackney, London born, he was influenced by reggae, calypso, pop and his first love soul. In the mid-1990’s he joined pirate radio station London Underground and met two guys that would go on to be huge influences on his DJ career. Timmi Magic, Mikee B and Spoony joined up to become the Dreem Teem and with the genre ‘UK Garage’ took the country by storm.
Spoony and the guys went on to have radio shows on Kiss FM, Galaxy FM and in Jan 2000 joined BBC Radio 1.
The next few years would see the ‘Teem’ appear in the national charts and in club-land all over the world. In the UK he was weekly resident for ‘Twice as Nice’ and has played at all the big festivals including Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds and The Southport Weekender.
Spoony’s other love is football. In 2003 he joined BBC Radio 5 Live to host ‘606’, a weekly phone in show. He has also appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, The Weakest link and won an edition of Celebrity Mastermind and Pointless. His broadcasting experience and football knowledge saw him signed up The Premier League for their own channel in 2014.
After 2 years of covering various shows he joined BBC Radio 2 permanently in 2022. He can be heard presenting the ‘Good Groove’ every Friday evening from 9-11pm.
Nominated for ‘Breakthrough Act 2025’ at the Jazz FM Awards, Glaswegian pianist, composer and producer Marco Cafolla and saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski are the core of Mama Terra’ hotly tipped by Jazz FM, and signed to legendary London label Acid Jazz Records.
Debut single “Ruptura”, from their first album “The Summoned”, went straight in at number one on the ITunes Jazz chart, playlisted for six consecutive weeks, and the single “A Mind Supreme” was track of the week on Jazz FM. Their debut album was released in July 2023. “Mama Terra” launched their new album at Ronnie Scott’s in London to a sold out room and received a standing ovation.
Known for his skills on bass with UK soul and jazz acts Tom Misch, Loyle Carner, Alfa Mist and more, Rudi Creswick has since been stepping into the spotlight releasing his first full length solo offering “Different Forms”, and a new EP.
Hailing from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Rudi’s musical journey began in the vibrant DJ and club scene, where he absorbed the sounds of dubstep, jungle, hip-hop, house and garage, shaping his production and distinct style on bass. Drawing from influences including Thundercat, Burial and Mala, Rudi blends sub-heavy beats with the technical sensibilities of jazz.
For the last 22 years Matt Johnson has been a key member of Jamiroquai, playing keyboards and co-writing most of the band’s material during that time. He also co-produced their last album “Automaton”. He hosts a popular YouTube channel dedicated to all things keyboards, which has more than 140,000 subscribers.
As well as Jamiroquai, Matt has written and performed on many artist’s records including Dizzee Rascal, Duffy, Ashanti, Lizzo, Purple Disco Machine, Nolwenn Leroy, Lucky Daye, Newton Faulkner and many more. For the last few years he has been touring the world with his own six-piece band.
Multi-instrumentalist and producer Cassius Cobbson was born and raised in Enfield, North London, to a Ghanaian family, and at 11 his mother’s cousin, Chris Cobbson, former Courtney Pine guitarist told his sister about a Soul II Soul concert in Ghana to celebrate 30-years of independence. That sparked Cassius’ interest in music and the history of his Ghanaian roots.
At that same time he saw Santana with Carlos Santana performing “Black Magic Woman” on TV and knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
His first single “AKWAABA”, was a mixture of two key genres, afrobeat and jazz. After discovering afrobeat music from Nigeria, Cassius wanted to experiment with Ghanaian ‘high life’ music, and merge both with jazz, resulting in “AKWAABA.” His debut album “SANKOFA” was released in September 2023.
Jake Long was born in Southfields in Southwest London, and brought together some of the capital’s most exciting young players as a loose collective called Maisha. Featuring guitarist Shirley Tetteh and saxophonist Nubya Garcia and more, Maisha cut their debut EP “Welcome To A New Welcome”, following up with critically acclaimed album “There Is A Place” on the Brownswood label.”
Jake was asked by Gilles Peterson to assemble a band to perform with saxophone legend Gary Bartz at We Out Here Festival and at the Royal Festival Hall. Opening up the opportunity to record with Gary Bartz for a direct-to-disc ‘Night Dreamer’ session, Maisha took a different form once more.
For the new album “City Swamp”, Long spent a time with Maisha collaborators Amané Suganami, Tim Doyle, Twm Dylan, Nubya Garcia, Binker Golding, Tamar Osborn, Shirley Tetteh, Artie Zaitz, and Al MacSween recording material that formed the foundations of “City Swamp.”
* Check out the coverage of Saturday and Sunday in our Live Zone….
Photos by Manja Williams
Words By Steve Best
