JAZZ up Christmas time this season with two exceptional jazz musicians.

Andy Williamson, known for his smooth and soulful jazz tunes on the tenor sax and for his old blues songs, is heading to the Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis to perform on Sunday, December 18.

He has played with his own bands the Honkin’ Hep Cats and Big Buzzard Boogie Band on BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4 and at Buckingham Palace, as well as being a side man with Tom Robinson, Suggs and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

He created Plainsong For the Planet and set up the Jazz Activists – a loose group of musicians who perform at political demonstrations around liberty and the destruction of our ecosystem. He also devised a course with Junior Laniyan on jazz structure and improvisation for tap dancers.

In 2010, Andy joined the Denbone Walkers, with guitarist Denny Ilett, celebrating the centenary of T-Bone Walker. He also co-founded The Organ Grinders with keyboard player Maff Potts (after Maff donated one of his kidneys to Andy in 2007), with the aim of encouraging more people to join the UK Organ Donor Register. Andy also performs regularly with poet Matt Harvey, recently taking the Bridport Literary Festival by storm.

Andy has performed ambitious works with large ensembles at the Bristol Jazz festival; a while ago it was Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert, and this year the Gershwin Spectacular, a jazz oratorio featuring vocalist Jacqui Dankworth.

His versatile style on sax and vocals creates an interesting, eclectic and highly enjoyable performance, which will be complemented by Philip Clouts at the piano.

Philip is a regular on the jazz scene in west Dorset and hosting visiting musicians.

Philip Clouts was born in Cape Town and has loved South African jazz from childhood. He had just finished his studies at Cambridge when he had an epiphany. Realising that he wanted to contribute to his own culture instead of studying other ones, he decided to concentrate on music, and specifically the South African jazz style that had followed him to London, where he grew up.

n Jazz in the Bar on Sunday, December 18 at the Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis at 8pm.