Music and film premieres, unseen archive footage and live concerts from stages and living rooms across the north west will all feature in Manchester Jazz Festival’s 25th online anniversary.

mjf2020: Jazz Unlocked, produced in partnership with Jazz North, will stream across the festival’s social channels from May 21 – 24.

The festival’s opening and closing days will also see live music, special features and new recordings streamed with United We Stream, the newly launched GMCA streaming platform set up to support the region’s night time economy and Greater Manchester’s Mayor’s charity Nordoff Robbins.

The festival team can now reveal mjf2020: Jazz Unlocked will feature:

- A series of specially staged, socially distanced live sets from Baked a la Ska, Kirsty Almeida, Jenna G and George King, Ed Kainyek Hidden Gems Quartet, and the latest acts from mjf’s bespoke artist development scheme hothouse: Archipelago, Ubunye ft. Thanda Gumede, Power Out by Sarah Heneghan, and Lara Jones: EnsŌ.

- Live streams from the living rooms, gardens and balconies of Nani Noam Vazana, Ben Cipolla and Nishla Smith & Tom Harris.

- Exclusive new artist interviews and previously unseen footage looking back at 25 years of mjf originals commissions, featuring Mike Walker, John Ellis, Esther Swift and many others.

- Features from Manchester-based Efpi Records with new music and discussion on improvised music made under lockdown.

- Online premieres of Rob Cope’s moving biopic of trumpeter Richard Turner: A Life in Music and a brand new feature film of Mancunity, mjf2019’s opener and original commission by Andy Scott.

- A collection of features from filmmaker Antony Barkworth Knight’s Counterpoint series, spotlighting the creative genius of 808 State’s Graham Massey, HoneyFEET’s Rioghnagh Connolly, Cinematic Orchestra’s John Ellis and Unfurl’s Olivia Moore.

Many more acts, features and artist video launches are still to be announced.

Broadcasts will run from 8pm – 11pm on 21 May, throughout the days on 22 and 23 May and from 12noon to 11pm on Sunday 24 May, across the mjf, Jazz North and UWS platforms.

Manchester’s longest running music festival had been due to mark its first quarter century this May but was forced to halt its physical gigs as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.

All artists originally contracted to play mjf2020 were paid in full and the festival are now including as many of them as possible in the online line-up, for audiences to enjoy in their own homes.

Head to manchesterjazz.com for more information or follow us on Facebook and Instagram at manchesterjazzfestival or on Twitter @ManJazzFest.

For more information on Jazz North or to watch mjf2020: Jazz Unlocked from their channels head to jazznorth.org, Twitter @jazz_north or Facebook @jazznorth.

On 21 & 24 May, you can also watch the stream on unitedwestream.co.uk, Twitter @streamgm and Facebook @unitedwestreamgm