After the madness of Glastonbury (not that I went, but my sources tell me that there was a palpable sense of depression mixed with anger, for those souls so inclined, i.e. they give a shit and the shockwave of the EU Referendum, it was with some relief that I was able to get away from social media and the constant breaking news, for a jolly out to the Sussex countryside, to luxuriate in this most well-heeled festival, on one of the more rain-friendly, and visually enticing sites imaginable. While Glastonbury suffered another of its periodic bouts of flash flooding, gluey gloop, and more rain, Love Supreme, by dint of it being a week afterwards, never seems to suffer from these problems. Luck of the draw I guess, but even when it does rain, the porous chalk of the Sussex Downs sees it off in no time. This year there were, by my reckoning, just two smallish muddy patches. Granted, my methodology is akin to election polling, but wellies were far and few between, and not a single canoe was to be seen. The well heeled and their luck, eh?

Still, it's deserved. Despite the steep ticket prices and the huge numbers willing and able to upgrade to 'Supremium', and all the relative luxury that involves (glamping, clean and well stocked toilets, hot showers, private bar etc), Love Supreme is a fine music festival. There are no other 'performing arts' here; no comedy (unless you count Avery Sunshine, who was a hoot – more of that later), circus, theatre, walkabouts, etcetera etcetera. It's all about the music, and imbibing your choice of poison, either of the caffeine, energy drink or alcoholic varieties (gurners and space cadets are at a minimum here, although jazz cigarettes were in attendance). So, as there has been since the the inaugural festival in 2013, there was one outdoor stage, two big indoor tents (The Big Top and The Arena), and the small but rather lovely bandstand. There's also a late night clubbing zone, a children's area, a so-small-you-may-have-missed-it 'healing zone', and. that's about it. Oh yes, there's a record shop, a chill-out listening tent, several bars, and a plethora of good food stalls.

But, it is about the music, and Love Supreme, after a shaky first year (saved by the truly memorable appearance of Chic), has found its footing, thanks to its impressive and adventurous programming, that mixes up big, commercial names, with much lesser known, but almost invariably outstanding/interesting acts from around the globe. It's jazz in name, but jazz in the broadest sense of the word, some of it’s not jazz at all. In fact it's much in the spirit of the John Coltrane classic album of the same name, a work that reached out to rock and pop fans when it first came out in 1965, and which to this day is often to be found in the collections of those who don't normally do jazz.

Friday

Really, the Friday is all about getting there, setting up, and flexing those drinking and partying muscles. Entertainment is minimal. There's The Bandstand, as well as The Arena, from late afternoon onwards, and there's the Blue in Green bar area which hosts some late night clubbing action. If you have kids in tow, it's all about the rides and the food and drink stalls at first, like the veritable kids in a sweet shop clique. But one of the beauties of the festival is that, despite the relative lack of activities for the young 'uns, there are hundreds, maybe thousands here, able to provide and invent their own entertainment, in a very relaxed, yet secure environment.

Jazzy FM's Funky Sensation is the main focal point for the entertainment on the Friday night, with jazz-funk, jazz-dance, disco and soul classics getting an airing, as well as an extended segue of some of Prince's finest moments, courtesy of DJ Chris Philips. Just a few metres away in the Blue in Green bar are a number of locally-based labels and DJ crews over the weekend. Friday night featured the hugely respected Mr Bongo, a label based in Brighton but with a truly global reach, releasing a stream of vintage re-issues, as well as contemporary music, although largely of a Brazilian bent. Samba, bossa, funk, hip hop, jazz, soul, and psychedelic sounds permeated the site as well as drifting into the camping areas until 2am. Saturday and Sunday would feature Soul Casserole vs Jazz Rooms, and Tru Thoughts (a Brighton-based label) respectively.

Saturday

Today features possibly the worst weather ever at Love Supreme; an inclement and unpredictable mix of wind, cloud, sun and rain. But still, it's not too bad, and certainly not enough to stop the crowds streaming in through the gates for the big day of the weekend, always the Saturday, when weekenders and day trippers converge in their droves, many from London and the Home Counties. Indeed, by the early afternoon, long queues are developing to get in, the weather isn't deterring the hopeful who are dressed for glorious sunshine.

The little Bandstand stage has been a feature since the beginning, benefiting from being re-located to the centre of the site, near all the food stalls, ready to ensnare passers by and those on food missions. Programmed by Brighton-based Eddie Myer, the line-up mainly consists of true jazzers, mostly local, with a smattering from further afield. It is, according to Eddie, a rare opportunity for jazz musicians to play at a large, outdoor event, away from the niche confines of the very small jazz circuit, a circuit sometimes bedevilled by musical snobbery and misplaced expectations. After all, what is jazz, if not a progressive music, that doesn't hinge on classical patterns of music; verse, chorus, bridge, repitition and orthodox structures? Much like modern post-rock! So, first up is the tongue-twisting Chris Coul's Brownie Speaks, Coul being the leader of a band that is a tribute to cult trumpeteer Clifford Brown (who died in 1956 aged just 26). A very fine outfit that effortlessly groove and swing, finishing off with the appropriately titled 'Swinging'! Indeed, heads are nodding, and feet are tapping. Thankfully, I cannot see anybody stroking their chin.

Now, a band in tribute of a true jazzer like Clifford Brown, performed with laid back but swinging aplomb is one thing, but a set devoted to jazz standards is another. That's not to decry Lianne Carroll and her outstanding ability as a vocalist and pianist – not to mention her wholly infectious and warm onstage persona (she drops a close-to-the-bone gag about Rolf Harris, but gets away with it) – but as my partner-in-jazz put it, 'this is a commercial set'. She's a big fan of Carroll and we have seen her in intimate environments where she literally brings the house down, but on the big stage, covers of ‘Fever’, ‘Say A Litle Prayer’, ‘My Baby Don't Cry For Me’, et all, are a little too safe, although the job is extremely well done, as is her marvellous scatting, which she deploys liberally throughout the set.

More crowd pleasing jazz comes in the form of the Riot Jazz Brass Band, who kick off the Main Stage with a, er, riotous and irreverent mash-up of funk, soul, hip-hop and jazz, fronted by MC Chunky, and getting the party in full swing, before finishing off with their idiosyncratic take on Bon Jovi's rock classic ‘Living On A Prayer’. This is jazz, Jim, but not as we know it.

The fun factor is one of the keys to Love Supreme. It may have taken some persuading to get people here, to blank out those preconceptions of what jazz is, but the programming is littered with acts who bring a warming and winning personality to the festival. As evidenced by the slightly bonkers Esperanza Spalding, the bass player extraordinaire, but also a show-woman, dressed in white, wearing over-sized white glasses and a crown of sorts, and accompanied by a trio of backing vocalists who all partake in a piece of conceptual, but fun theatre. Musically, it's 'fusion' music, incorporating soul, jazz and prog rock, where Kate Bush meets Weather Report via Captian Beefheart, and somehow she manages to transmit this idea of an alter-ego, Emily (her middle name), as can be heard on her recent album Emily's D+Evolution, an impressionistic, conversational work that is spirited, and quite dope.

Over on the main stage Skye/Ross, from Morcheeba, is made up of singer Skye Edwards and guitarist/producer Ross Godfrey, founders of the original downtempo trip hoppers Morcheeba, back in action with a batch of news songs as well as digging deep into their back catalogue, including The Sea, and a cover of David Bowie's ‘Let's Dance’. Also looking magnificent in white, this was another inspired booking at this increasingly outward-looking festival. As was Lianne La Havas, simply stunning in a long and flowing flower-print robe delivering a beautifully paced set of modern and urban-inflected soulful gems, finishing off with the rousing ‘Midnight’, a track taken from her excellent last album, Blood.

But the big attraction of today, the whole festival even, is the one and only Grace Jones. Another singer with tonnes of personality and character, she could teach Lady Gaga a thing or two about loopy sophistication and theatre, and is a possessor of some fine inter-song conversation, much of it about drinking whiskey ("I’m going to have to drink some whisky, it’s fucking cold!") and the immortal line: "They haven't redone the red dust on my nipples.. I'll be right back!" She may be (whisper it) 68, but by golly she's as lithe as a 20-year-old, judging by her pole dancing antics and looking more towering than ever, resplendent in not much more than body paint and a golden mask. With a set that included many of her best known songs (‘Nightclubbing’, ‘Pull Up To The Bumper’, ‘Walking In The Rain’, ‘My Jamaican Guy’, ‘Love Is The Drug’, ‘I've Seen That Face Before’ (Libertango), and ‘Slave To The Rhythm’), she and the band are faithful to the original recordings, eschewing the possibility of turning them into watered down cabaret re-runs. A highlight of the festival for many, and a fitting way to end the live action on day two.

Sunday

Glancing at the weather report late on Saturday night, the BBC assured me it would be dry throughout the night and into the morning. Wrong! But thankfully, the rain abated as the festival stirred into action, the porous chalk grounds of Glynde easily able to cope, the sun fighting through the clouds before appearing in all its firey glory for the rest of the day. It was going to be a fine, fine day, a tonic for the bruising hangovers that no doubt were afflicting a large number.

And, could you programme a better act, in name and music, than Avery Sunshine? This was archetypal good-time soul and funk music, fronted by Miss Sunshine herself, with a band wearing 'Time To Shine' t-shirts; a whirlwind of radiant vibes, and super-bubbly positivity, in that inimitable U.S. of A. fashion. Utterly engrossing, this superb pianist and possessor of big soul-gospel tones easily won over the audience with her enagaging, and often very funny, inter-song chat, her subtly choreographed showwomanship, and a bag of great songs, that steer just the right side of cheese. Later, she performed a private set, solo and on grand piano, in the VIP lounge. There was no one more engaging at this year's festival.

The Scottish funk and R'n’B band Average White Band don't quite do it for me though, despite running through the hits, including ‘Queen of My Soul’. While they can really set the stage alight when they get really funked up, some of it sounds a little tepid today, perhaps because they are literally surrounded by some of the greatest left-field dance music congregated in one 'field', with instrumental jazz-groovers GoGo Penguin showing the way forward. A feature of last year's festival (hence, quite an honour to be asked back), this Mancunian three-piece are an incredibly inventive, propulsive and polyrythmic outfit who operate on the edges of jazz, trip hop, electronica, inducing a trance-like state at times as they lock in multiple grooves at once.

Indeed, the youngsters are here in force, the new generation of artists rubbing shoulders with old hands. Such as the intoxicating, and relatively unknown 18-year-old Mahalia, best known for providing the vocals for Rudimental's ‘We The Generation’. She recently spellbounded The Great Escape with a solo performance of maturity and poise, and here she is joined by a guitarist and drummer, showcasing her blossoming song-writing talent that stretches back to 12 years of age, when she wrote her first ever song, ‘Let The World See The Light’, which she plays here, along with a youthful lament for the end of her 'teenage' years, in the form of the rich acoustic-soul ‘Seventeen’. The future is very bright for this artist.

Almost as young is the boyish 'jazz's new messiah' Jacob Collier, an extraordinary solo artist who has been taken under the wing of none other than Quincy Jones. And, it's very hard not to see why, as he darts around the stage between keys, guitars, drums and computer, and multi-tracking his voice in creating cutting-edge, digitalised, beatbox-synth-funk-dance-old-school vocal harmony music of remarkable and dizzying invention. All with a smile on his face.

Back to the old school with another interesting addition to the line up, in the form of Kelis, now a mother of two and a burgeoning celebrity chef. Again, looking great in a computer-animated print dress, orange nail varnish, big red sunglasses and a mass of curly-afro hair, there's an oddly refreshingly unshowy way about how she performs and sings, her slightly deep and husky tones never straining, but complementing the party pop-funk-dance tunes on offer, including ‘Jerk Ribs’ , Calvin Harris' smash hit ‘Bounce’ (which originally featured Kelis on vocals), and the still rousing ‘Milkshake’.

Jazz is, of course, older than rock'n'roll, and the legendary Verve label are celebrating 60 years in existence this year. The Verve Jazz Lounge was a quiet oasis within the live action (indeed a place for some punters to snatch forty winks) with a programme of talks, film screenings, guest speakers, playbacks and artist interviews throughout the weekend. Looking for that little bit of calm, I stumbled upon a 'classic album playback' session of the 1964 Getz/Gilberto album (the one that features ‘The Girl From Ipanema’), enjoying the gentle washes of easy listening and bossa nova grooves, having previously been informed that this particular version of the record corrected the initial 'tracking' mistake of the original. Well, it still sounded good to these ears, giving me the fillip to enter the final stretch of the festival, firstly for an eager look at tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington. Looking for all the world like the veritable spiritual world- jazzer, Washington and his incredible band were on fire, helped along by the simply out-of-this-world piano and keetar playing of Brandon Coleman, Washington's 'soul brother number one' Ryan Porter on trombone, Washington's Dad on flute, and manic dual drumming action, the band devoting the set to their appropraitely entitled Epic album. Both musically seismic and deeply holistic, soul-jazz, afro-beat and jazz fusion lies at its beating heart.

Of an almost altogether different hue, the mega-selling Dutch singer Caro Emerald is one of those acts whose rise to relative fame and fortune is a little bit of a head scratcher, but there's no denying she packs a punch with her band's swing grooves, that smartly tacks on modern beats to vintage swing, a la electro-swing. It's a crowd pleasing set, as is the mega-star turn of Burt Bacharach, just turned 88.

With 52 UK top 40 hits under his belt, there was always going to be an embarrasement of riches on offer here, a chance for the large crowd to get their best lungs out for some big sing-a-long action, and to guess which classic would be wheeled out. And so it proved; ‘The World Needs Love’, ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’, ‘Say A Little Prayer’ (but this time done by the writer himself), ‘Walk On By’, ‘This Girl's In Love With You’, (There's) Always Someone There To Remind Me et al. Love songs of the highest order. And while the party continued into the wee hours, Bacharach's superlative band and collection of singers sealed what was another memorable and spirited festival, where the boundaries between pop, jazz, dance, funk, soul and fusion music of all varieties, are being continually broken down. Yes, there were gentle jokes aplenty about the number of folding chairs, shooting sticks, buckets of the sparkling stuff, and Pimm jugs on offer, but Love Supreme has managed to walk that invisible thin line, enticing music and festival lovers, young and old, purists and hedonists alike, thank to its adventurous and clever programming, and the wonderful environment of Glynde Place. And I didn't see one chinstroker all weekend.
Jeff Hemmings

As John Coltrane would insanely blow that saxophone with much fervour and dynamic charm alongside certain incredible musicians inside certain incredible clubs in such places as Philadelphia and New York we, with a smidgen of irony, find ourselves nestled in the rather quiet and subdued surroundings of a warm and sometimes rainy Sussex countryside.

A Love Supreme was the title given to one of the most iconic and ground-breaking jazz albums of all time and so the name lends itself in homage to a small if rather extraordinary music festival that finds itself in its forth year and, although young, it packs a punchy lineup worthy of that name of the great Trane's sublime 1965 Van Gelder studio album.

Upon entry you are greeted with the usual no nonsense requests and searches that are expected at most other music festivals "wristbands please and no glass bottles!" are calls from the smiling security clerk at the entrance stiles. Friendly and efficient would describe this process. In the background on a sunny Friday eve are faint drum sounds and trumpets sound checking with DJ's spinning club and disco classics into the night, all the while the vibe is inviting the bewildered hordes to settle and find a pitch for their tents at their designated hive of activity. The throng of avid festival goers arrive long into the night.

And so parking is easy, straight forward and organised. Inside, the arena is logistically laid out for easy vantage and access to stages and music tents. Food stalls line the surrounding perimeter of the festival and there is a wealth of food to choose from. Be your taste meat, vegetarian, pasta, Asian, wholesome, sweet or greasy, with the likes of gourmet ice cream and fresh sushi, all is catered for. Conveniently stationed info tents and cash points are available, although being charged £3.50 to draw your own pounds is a little steep. A great VIP area is provided near the main stage for those lucky enough to don such wristbands. A fairground, although small, lights up the night sky and provides highjinks and fun for children and parents alike. Stalls selling merchandise range from the normal stock festival fare to the outrageous and back again. A good corner shop exists for those who, in their rush to arrive, forgot their hay fever tabs and toothpaste. The showers and toilets provided are of a high standard and well maintained. The only slight complaint may be the lack of seating but really we are just splitting hairs here as people are so friendly they make room for you!

So the line up, over three days you have acts for the true jazz fanatic and then acts that are more mainstream. On Friday eve acts such as J-Felix, Sumo Chief and Ezra Collective warmed up the crowds delightfully and later Funky Sensation paving the way into the early morn with house music for the hardened or late arriver. On the Saturday Cecile Mclorin Savant graced the stage at the Big Top with a hypnotic and simply beautiful set of songs in a style that has to be experienced to be believed. Her band are poised and accompany her as naturally as the deco spectacles that fashion her person. Cecile inquires from her crowd with every expression and with her unique take on certain jazz standards she owns the stage and quite rightly earns the crowds applause. Skye and Ross of Morcheeba take to the main stage and instantly transport the crowd in a swirl of trip hop with 90s hits such as ‘Shoulder Holster’ and ‘The Sea’ from the album Big Calm. Skye's voice carrying over the wind, smooth and delicate, serenely taking the crowd on a journey of sound. St Germain in the big top play out the eve with trad house beats and show true style onstage with an eclectic mix of instruments deftly played by musicians who are equally skilled at hyping the crowd to much effect. Headlining the main stage is Grace Jones. This is theatre and cabaret, pop and reggae and with costume changes between each song, great wit and rapport with the crowd, this truly unique artist is a coup for Love Supreme. Truly magnificent as Amazing Grace hoola hoops her way through the entire last song of a set that, like its writer, does not age. Sunday in the Big Top saw Melody Gardot who after a slight technical glitch involving her guitar and amplifier shows real class in defining her sleek style in front of the yearning Love Supreme crowd. Being from Philly in the US she makes that Coltrane connection and having been influenced by greats such as Nina Simone and Miles Davis, Melody is able to work the crowd into a frenzy and then shoot them with raw emotion filling the watchful eyes with the salty rapture of the blues.

And so those are just a handful of the stand out acts that made this year's festival a success. With a myriad of other acts that contributed to a vibe that was immensely enjoyable, friendly and equally as inviting as you can ask was "Love Supreme?" well yes it was.
James McKenzie