DJ Craig Charles, Sister Sledge and Candi Staton head to Mostly Jazz, Funk and Soul Festival in Birmingham

The Mostly Jazz, Funk and Soul Festival will feature Jimmy Cliff, Sister Sledge, Candi Staton, Roy Ayers and DJ Craig Charles.

There will always be sets from Fred Wesley and The New JBS, David Rodigan, Lucky Chops, Jungle Brothers, Ezra Collective and more.

Jimmy Cliff will be a huge draw for local fans, after growing up on the Somerton District of St. James, Jamaica. With only one midwife tending to the entire village, a mother gave birth to her child, wrapped him in a sheet and took him to shelter at a neighbour’s home as the hurricane blew her house away. However, everybody agreed that there was something special about her boy.

He became famous by the age of 14 for a hit coincidentally entitled Hurricane Hattie and soon popularised reggae around the world.

A spokesperson for the event says: “Nowadays, his impact remains inescapable, with immortal anthems like I Can See Clearly Now, Wonderful World, Beautiful People, You Can Get It If You Really Want, The Harder They Come, and many more.

“In addition to receiving his country’s highest honor The Order of Merit, he holds the distinction of being one of two Jamaican Rock and Roll Hall of Fame® Inductees – in good company with Bob Marley.

“Everyone from the Rolling Stones and Elvis Costello to Annie Lennox and Paul Simon has sought him out for collaborations, while Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Cher, New Order, and Fiona Apple have recorded notable covers.”

Meanwhile, Sister Sledge are one of the most iconic female groups of all time. As the pages of the Chicago Tribune have asserted, Sister Sledge ‘has the stuff legends are made of’.

Sisters, Debbie and Kim (sister Kathy stepped away from the ensemble in 1989, sister Joni passed 2017), are daughters of entrepreneur/actress Florez Sledge and acclaimed Broadway performer Edwin Sledge. Their grandmother, Viola Beatrix Hairston Williams, an accomplished lyric-opera soprano, provided unique vocal training to the siblings early on. Arranging for her granddaughters to perform at church events and community functions, the quartet were first introduced to the world as Mrs Williams Granddaughters. Before long, they formed a band and with Debbie serving as vocal arranger, Joni as artistic director and Mom, Florez as manager, Sister Sledge was born.

Performing jazz, soul, gospel, disco, and R‘n’B, the multi-lead vocal group flourished both in-studio and onstage. The sisters built a formidable reputation, dazzling audiences and impressing critics. They also made certain to complete academic studies, each of them earning a Temple University college degree.

Candi Staton earned four Grammy Award nominations and has sweetly strutted between musical genres such as gospel, southern soul and Americana over the course of her celebrated career. However, danceable music has always been her main groove as she celebrates the 40th and 30th anniversaries respectively of her two biggest radio hits Young Hearts Run Free and 1986’s You Got The Love.

The former is a liberating self-preservation anthem that peaked at number one on the Billboard R‘n’B singles chart. The latter is an inspiring chant that hit the American R’n’B Singles chart in 1986 but found greater success in Europe and the UK in 1991, 1997 and again in 2006.

Candi has a fresh version of You Got The Love”bouncing off the concrete walls of clubs throughout Europe as she currently preps a new arrangement of Young Hearts for a new generation of fans.

She says: “I’ve been very blessed to have two extremely big songs and a lot of other respectable hit songs when some artists never get one.”

DJ Craig Charles is a household name who describes himself as being ‘late to bed, early to rise’.

The Liverpool-born actor, poet, comedian, author, presenter and DJ has starred in Red Dwarf and Coronation Street, helmed shows such as Takeshi’s Castle, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and Robot Wars, made numerous other appearances as an actor, star guest and presenter, and has most importantly been the UK’s most prominent champion of Funk and Soul music.