LAST week’s feature on Abdullah Ibrahim and the previous week on Hugh Masekela serve as curtain-raisers to focus on another, even greater South African hero.

The Hull Freedom Festival will open on Friday, September 5, with a stunning light trail of installations by local artists through the Old Town. Titled The Long Walk To Freedom, it will commemorate the greatest moments and achievements of Nelson Mandela (freedomfestival.co.uk ).

The festival grew out of Wilberforce 2007, the 200th anniversary of the passage of William Wilberforce’s Slave Trade Act of 1807, and the 2013 festival culminated in a spectacular and moving recital of Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream speech, by Lemn Sissay.

The 2014 festival will host the Yellow Bus Stage, organised by J-Night, featuring Ruby Turner, Roland Gift and a Tribute to South African Township Jazz with Claude Deppa and Al Macsween (jnight.org ).

This memorable urban event is a truly festive affair, spilling giddily across the Pier, Nelson Street and Fruit Market with clowns, street performers, pavement cafés and impromptu music at every turn and serves as an invaluable blueprint for any city planning a festival. Unsurprisingly, it was the Freedom Festival of 2009 which was the clincher for Hull being awarded City of Culture 2017.

Tonight in York the Karl Mullen Trio with Trevor King and Paul Baxter will be at Churchill’s Hotel, Bootham, from 7pm (01904 644456). Entry is not limited to diners, you can drop in for an informal drink. Karl revs things up with drummer Neil Scott in the duo madness of Encouraging the Loony at Victoria Vaults, Nunnery Lane, on Saturday 30 August (01904 654307).

Also on Saturday Jazz in the Spa sees the return of American pianist Jeff Barnhart’s Mystic Men (01937 844898). Stride piano master Jeff has chosen a clutch of top UK musicians to join him, including Gordon Whitworth and Richard Leach. Sunday jazz in York features York’s finest, bass player John Marley, with Paul Smith (drums) and guests at one of the City’s longest-standing and classiest venues, Kennedy’s Café Bar, Little Stonegate (01904 620222).

Guitarist Al Morrison’s nine-piece Blues Experience will be one of the main attractions on Sunday at the Chapel Allerton Arts Festival, Leeds, which runs from 12.30pm to 5.30pm. Jazz at the Phoenix Inn, George Street, on Monday will be with the Georgina Barr Quartet. Georgina is a great vocalist, with some excellent musicians, standing in for Kate Peters. The Jazz Jam Session will return on Wednesday to the Phoenix (01904 656401). Fronted by James Lancaster (trumpet) and Chris Moore (piano), all ages and abilities are welcome.

Scarborough Jazz runs every Wednesday at the Cask, Cambridge Terrace, (01723 500570) and next week’s guest will be vocalist Sue McCreeth (“Inventive, sultry and hip” – The Guardian). Bejazzled have found a great place to continue the habit for Thursday jazz, once again alternating with the Mardi Gras Band. The new venue is the Red Lion, Poppleton, on the A59 just as you leave York (01904 781141). Bejazzled will play the first night on September 4, with Mardi Gras following on September 11.