Our story

1982: Guildford Jazz was started by Heather and Colin Tipton, when it was called Jazz at the Stoke, named after the Stoke Hotel where there were monthly gigs until 1988.

1988: The club moves to the old Civic Hall in Guildford, and then to the newly built Electric Theatre where it continues to run a successful programme of live jazz gigs until 2008.

2011: The Guildford Jazz DNA is unearthed and revived by local bass player Marianne Windham, who becomes the driving force behind (and in front) of the club (there’s a little about her story here). Marianne sets up a monthly jazz night at the Freeholders (“The Cavern”) in nearby Farncombe. until the pub changed hands in the Spring of 2014.

2012: The Electric Theatre asks Marianne to host a monthly Jazz Cafe night in the Theatre bar. We hold our first workshop with the late trumpeter Abram Wilson.

2014: The Freeholders pub is bought by a property developer and the club moves to the Pavilion at Guildford Rugby Club. Our annual charity events are initiated with our first concert in aid of Challengers in the Guildhall, and Jazz in the Park at Loseley park in aid of GUTS.

2015: Our fund-raising events for Challengers becomes annual with the first Wood Street Jazz Festival.

2019: Guildford Jazz becomes a Community Interest Company. Marianne and men without grey suits form the board, and legendary drummer Bill Bruford agrees to become the first patron of Guildford Jazz. Friends’ membership scheme is introduced

2020: The inaugural weekend-long Guildford Jazz Festival is planned….and postponed to 2021 as the country enters lockdown. A timely article here from Seb Scotney of London Jazz News about the precarious nature of the British Jazz scene.

2022: Guildford Jazz wins an Arts Council grant to run BEAT: a series of gigs and workshops designed to introduce a younger audience to the jazz scene.

2023: Following the success of the BEAT programme at the Boileroom, a follow up second series starts in the Autumn, plus some new Friday night gigs at The Stoke in addition to the regular programme at the Pavilion, plus a number of other concerts during the year at G Live, Watts Gallery, Cranleigh Arts Centre, and summer charity events at Guildford Castle, Clandon High Estates, Loseley Park and of course Wood Street Jazz Festival