Sutton Coldfield Festival of Arts

• Venue: Pizza Express

Sally Minchin and Mike Fowler will play their own brand of jazz at Pizza Express in Birmingham Road on Thursday July 10 at 7pm, as one of the Festival’s first events.

The flexible duo, from Wylde Green and Boldmere respectively, will be making their debut at the venue, which is staging the performance as a special addition to its regular Wednesday night concerts.

Sally and Mike, who appeared at Sutton Town Hall as Duo Con Brio five years ago playing classical music, will forego the Brahms, Beethoven, Chopin and Debussy in favour of a wide range of standards.

Mike, a connoisseur of modern South African jazz, said: “We will be playing jazz from the early days - Fats Waller and such - through the beautiful ballads of George Gershwin and the Great American Songbook, to some jazz-flavoured ballads of the last decade, including Christina Aguilera’s song Beautiful.

“We can cover the whole field of jazz.”

Sally has plenty of experience in the jazz sphere, having resurrected classics by Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt with guiatrist Andy Bole, in superb, fluent style.

To book a table, call 0121 354 9261.