AS THE title suggests, The York Mystery Soul Festival ties in with this summer’s York Mystery Plays. “It’s about soul and it’s about passion, and there’s really not a lot of point putting on a music event unless there’s emotional passion in it,” says promoter David Porter, director of the J-Night jazz nights in York and Hull, whose company’s new HQ is in the York Theatre Royal offices in the De Grey Rooms.

“For the festival, we wanted not just to put on gigs when the Mystery Plays were running in the Museum Gardens, but to do something alongside them, so we’ve taken the spirit of the Plays and put them in our programme,” says David.

He is mounting the festival in conjunction with the Theatre Royal, where six summer nights of “the hottest jazz, gospel and soul music around” will run from August 10 to 25.

In the line-up of 8pm concerts will be soul, gospel and R&B diva Ruby Turner on the opening night; saxophonist to the stars Snake Davis on August 11; York musician The Al Morrison Blues Experience, August 17; Jazz Jamaica: Tighten Up!, August 18; American saxophone legend Pee Wee Ellis’s Funk Assembly, August 18; and the festival finale of The South African Gospel Singers, August 25.

As you will have noted, David may be a jazz promoter – most noted for programming the Hull Jazz Festival in July, now in its 20th year – but the York Mystery Soul Festival spans gospel, Northern Soul, blues, reggae and funk.

“I’ve always had a wide definition of jazz or music that comes out of the spirit of jazz: it could be soul, gospel, ska, reggae – even flamenco, tango and fado music, though not in this festival,” says David, who first made his mark in York as artistic director of the now-defunct York Arts Centre in Micklegate from 1989 to 1991.

“I see this music as improvised music that comes from the heart, and that’s the route we’ve always taken with our shows – which is reflected in the audiences we get, who enjoy engaging with the artists.

“Our philosophy has always been to build bridges between the artist and the audience that wants to see them – and sometimes audiences who don’t even know they want to see the likes of Roberto Fonseca or Camille O’Sullivan at the Theatre Royal this year, but once they have, they’ll be back.”

The festival came to fruition after Theatre Royal chief executive Liz Wilson approached David a year ago about “moving into the theatre family” in the De Grey Rooms.

He first staged the Dune Jazz Festival at the Theatre Royal in 2006, since when he has regularly presented jazz there.

“At the Theatre Royal, it feels a very compatible relationship with Liz Wilson and artistic director Damian Cruden, bringing artists there that wouldn’t fit comfortably anywhere else in the city.”

He points to two significant factors boosting J-Night last year. “First, we received National Portfolio Funding from the Arts Council that will cover 2012 to March 2015,” says David.

“It’s regular funding, a five-figure sum that mostly relates to the work we do for the Hull Jazz Festival, which will run from July 20 to 29 this year and will generate £100,000 in income.

“Then we also wanted to move from our base in Pocklington to York, so the discussions happened with the Theatre Royal when the De Grey Rooms were coming on stream. There’s now a cluster of arts activities gathering there: J-Night; Aesthetica magazine; Pilot Theatre; the Mystery Plays; the Theatre Royal’s education and communications departments.

“So, it’s really exciting for us, because we also run an organisation called the National Rural Touring Forum from our office. We’re the office for the whole of the UK, including Rural Arts North Yorkshire.”

From this new base, David has put together the York Mystery Soul Festival. “As well as the big gigs, it’s going to be a bit like a club for a festival with a Friday and Saturday Festival Club from 7pm till midnight with local jazz musicians playing in the foyer – and hopefully star names will pop in too.

“If any musicians from the York area want to take part, they can contact us now by emailing admin@jnight.org.”

David has worked with all of his festival line-up on previous occasions, hence their enthusiasm to embrace the spirit of the event.

“They all understand the concept, so Ruby Turner is doing her gospel show, and that’s something she’s becoming more and more comfortable with, away from doing Jools Holland’s big band shows,” says David.

“Snake Davis will be tailoring his show especially for us. He’ll be giving the world premiere of The Snake Has 9 Lives, in which he’ll start alone and end up with the nine-piece Snake Davis Big Band playing sax versions of Stax, Motown and Atlantic Records classics.”

In between, Snake will double up with Scarborough world musician Chris Parkinson in a duo, lead the Snake Davis Trio, Quartet and Quintet and re-form his Northern Soul Revue band, Snake Davis And The Suspicions, complete with brass section and girl singers.

“This world premiere is expressly for this festival,” says David. “I’ve been promoting Snake since I was at York Arts Centre in 1989 and he was still in Zoot And The Roots!”

Keen to turn the spotlight on a York musician in the festival, David picked out Al Morrison, a “brilliant, brilliant blues guitarist”, whose 11-piece Blues Experience will celebrate the music of BB King, Robert Johnson, T Bone Walker and Ray Charles in the guest company of Working Week and Jazz Jamaica singer Juliet Roberts.

Gary Crosby’s ten-piece Jazz Jamaica’s Tighten Up! show will be a Jamaica 50 Independence Special.

“They’re bringing over from Jamaica the legendary queen of lovers’ rock, Myrna Hague, to mark 50 years of Jamaican independence,” says David. “They’ll be playing music that came over with the Windrush immigrant generation in the Fifties and Sixties, music from the Trojan Records years.”

Pee Wee Ellis is billed as the man who invented funk. “He’s just turned 70, and he’s the guy who wrote 26 hits for James Brown. He worked with him for 14 years or as he says, he ‘put up with James Brown for 14 years and then came over and worked with another difficult soul, Van Morrison for 13 years’. Now he wants some ‘Me Time’,” says David.

David first brought the South African Gospel Singers to York in 2000 and Paul Sinise’s African super-choir now return with Lucky Ranku leading their soulful band. “We wanted to finish the festival with something that’s more directly related to the Mystery Plays and this gospel concert fits that bill perfectly,” concludes David.

• J-Night and York Theatre Royal present The York Mystery Soul Festival at York Theatre Royal from August 10 to 25. Tickets, including a 3 Shows For The Price Of 2 deal, can be booked on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk