Written by Bringing together inspirational women from across the globe, the award-winning Women in Jazz Media organisation in partnership with Black Mountain Jazz Club brings their exclusive photography exhibition: Women in Jazz Photography: Her Frame. Her Sound to The Melville Centre, Abergavenny, Wales.
A unique opportunity to celebrate women working in jazz both behind and in front of the camera. Inspirational moments in jazz captured by some of the incredible female photographers leading the way in jazz photography. Exhibiting legends such as Geri Allen, Abbey Lincoln, Alice Coltrane, Nina Simone to contemporary artists including Lakecia Benjamin, Nubya Garcia, Brandee Younger and Hannah Horton, there has never been an exhibition like this. Legendary and award-winning photographers from South Africa, New York, Poland and the United Kingdom, this breathtaking exhibition features the work of Monika S Jakubowksa, Vuyo Giba, Tatiana Gorilovsky, Enid Farber and Kasia Ociepa. The exhibition debuted in April at London’s award winning Karamel Club for three months, and the exhibition is now going on tour, with Wales as the first stop.
The Black Mountain Jazz club was formed in 2006 by Mike Skilton, a jazz lover, with the aim to bring quality live jazz to the heart of Abergavenny. The club has had variety of venues, but settled at The Melville Centre for the Arts, an old Victorian Grammar School building with a fabulous black out theatre with raised seating for 73 jazz lovers, the acoustics at The Melville are exceptional and musicians love to play here.
In 2023 Black Mountain Jazz became a charitable trust, working with 5 trustees and a range of volunteers who are all passionate about developing the club and widening its community links. The club nights and headline wall2wall Festival acts are at The Melville Theatre, but the community Sunday afternoon, goes into town to coffee shops, bistros and lunch venues for a wide variety of performances, along with some covered busking areas. These events are supported by the town council and the rotary club and the concept is growing year on year. The festival is a truly beautiful community affair.
Debs Hancock by Kasia Ociepa
We spoke to Debs Hancock trustee, promoter, curator and vocalist, about the history of the festival and how she became involved.
I became involved about 10 years ago and am now directly linked with selecting the music performed at the club. The aim is providing as wide a variety of jazz styles and music as possible to our audience, with just one premiss, we want the audience to say “wow” when they leave the theatre and generally they do! There is so much talent out there. Mike is also passionate about “handing the baton of jazz “ to the next generation and we have a programme called the BMJazz Katz where we provide quality jazz musicians as tutors to encourage a love of all things jazz and improvisation and we currently are working with 18 young musicians, many of whom will perform, some for the first time, at our upcoming wall2wall Jazz Festival as part of the community afternoon.
Every monthly Jazz Katz session ends with a tutor and guest concert for their students and wider community. This has included a huge variety of musicians and styles from Nigel Price and Dom Pipkin to Alex Clarke and Hilary Cameron and are always popular. The aim is to INSPIRE our young musicians.
The wall2wall Jazz Festival is now in its 13th year. It has taken a variety of forms but now celebrates jazz at the Melville Centre with a headline act for 3 nights and a Sunday community afternoon in Abergavenny in as wide a series of venues as possible. All community events are FREE to the public. This includes a piano trail of talented piano led duos , child friendly art sessions, a samba band, busking, choirs, ukelele bands, the BMJazz Katz and a series of Kasia’s photographic exhibitions from previous years.
Past performances include Laura Jurd, Hannah Horton, Kim Cypher, Zoe Gilby, Sarah Brown. Julie Campiche, Sarah Gillespie and this year’s highlights include The Misha Mullov-Abbado Group, The Siglo Section featuring Kat Rees, and Ian Shaw performing the songs of Joni Mitchell and David Bowie and, the Women in Jazz Media photography exhibition: Her Frame. Her Sound. Resident photographer Kasia Ociepa, one of the photographers being exhibited explains “I feel proud, humbled, and grateful — seeing my work on the wall is surreal but a real confidence boost. It reassures me I’m good enough and inspires me to keep creating and trust that my perspective belongs here.”
Ursula Harrison by Kasia Ociepa
Debs explained We are delighted to host the Women in Jazz Media photographic Exhibition as part of this weekend celebration. We are so proud that Kasia has been a part of this project and are excited to both see and celebrate the exhibition in full at The Melville Centre as a part of this year’s wall2wall Jazz Festival. We have many women involved with this club, from lighting, to photography, our graphic designer for our logos and banners, many volunteers and our front of house. We are proud of the number of women performers that have graced our stage over the years, most recently Double bass/ vocal duo Ursula Harrison and Sylvie Noble who wowed us all with esoteric and deeply soulful original compositions leaving us spellbound. Having Kasia capture and sharing these moments is priceless. We have featured her photographs in previous years as part of our wall2wall Jazz Festival celebrations, but this year we are so proud to have her represent us in your exhibition and are delighted to be the first location on tour for this important exhibition.
The exhibition runs from 20th September -4th October at The Melville Centre and the festival itself runs from Friday 26th September-Sunday 28th September
‘Black Mountain Jazz Club is a friendly club sharing their passion for live jazz with Abergavenny. The community afternoon is just a small thank you to the town and provides a smorgasbord of free music around the town with something for everyone to enjoy. The headline acts at The Melville Theatre are widely differing, but each event is of high quality. Why not come and find out for yourself and while you are there peruse a fabulous photographic exhibition that shares the passion of performing live jazz at close hand.’ Debs Hancock
Title photo by Kasia Ociepa
Last modified: October 6, 2025
