Schedule

Since 1977, Estival is a summer jazz festival in Switzerland, Lugano. Estival offers a thrilling and particularly surprising line-up that explores the rich world of contemporary music whilst promoting the understanding of different cultures, tolerance, and co-existence. The composer, trumpeter and bugle player Franco Ambrosetti performs with his quintet in his native Lugano as part of the Estival.

Forq is an instrumental quartet with an aggressive sound and a penchant for sonic exploration. Originally founded by keyboardist Henry Hey (David Bowie, Empire of the Sun, and Jeff "Tain" Watts) and bassist Michael League (Grammy-winning founder of Snarky Puppy), Forq is joined by guitarist Chris McQueen and drummer Jason "JT" Thomas. Their group sound draws from various musical paths of its members, whether it’s Jason’s swampy grooves and shuffles, Chris’ singular sonic approach to guitar, Henry’s zeal for unique keyboard sounds and twisted ear candy, or Michael’s driving world-influenced grooves. The band pushes further down the sonic rabbit hole with their stunning music. This concert was filmed during Mondriaan Jazz Festival 2017, The Hague.

The Da Pá Virada Sessions series presents the best musicians of contemporary Brazilian jazz, and beyond. Filmed in São Paulo, each session offers a unique experience by giving a fresh look into Brazil's music scene. The artists for each session are selected in consultation with Stingray DJAZZ's music editor. One of the bands taking part in this episode is a foursome that pays tribute to pioneering música popular brasileira vocalist Elis Regina: vocalist Vanessa Moreno, bassist Fi Marostica, Rhodes and keyboard player Tiago Costa, and drummer Jonatas Sansao honor the legendary Brazilian singer by performing famous pieces and hidden gems from her repertoire.

Since 1977, Estival is a summer jazz festival in Switzerland, Lugano. Estival offers a thrilling and particularly surprising line-up that explores the rich world of contemporary music whilst promoting the understanding of different cultures, tolerance, and co-existence. The Crusaders, an American jazz fusion group that was popular in the '70s employed a two-manned front-line horn section. The group’s sound was rooted in hard bop, with an emphasis on R&B and soul. Their performance at Estival is beyond soulful and an amazing show to watch.

World-class Dutch jazz pianist Peter Beets has shared the stage with jazz greats Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, “Toots” Thielemans, Elvin Jones, George Coleman, Johnny Griffin, Benny Golson, and John Clayton. His mother a music teacher and his father an Oscar Peterson and Art Blakey enthusiast, Beets was surrounded by music from an early age. And though music was in their blood, neither parent associated the word “musician” with a career. In this broadcast, Peter Beets teams up with gipsy jazz heros Stochelo Rosenberg, Martin Limberger and Frans van Geest. The strength and precision of Van Geests' rhythms and tempo, and the ease with which Stochelo's lead guitar soars above them, make this band a cohesive collective - unique in their renditions of standards, Django's classic compositions, and original tunes composed by Stochelo himself.

A jazz festival named after the inventor of the instrument most associated with the genre, Adolphe Sax, would be incomplete without the man who laid the groundwork for how the instrument is played today. This must have been the reasoning of the organizers of the Festival International de Jazz Adolphe Sax in Dinant, Belgium, when they invited tenor saxophone giant Coleman Hawkins to perform there in June 1962. Appearing with a group that includes the French pianist George Arvanitas, one-time Duke Ellington bassist Jimmy Woode, and expat drummer Kansas Fields, the musician also known as ‘Bean’ and ‘Hawk’ serves up an hour-long set of familiar standards bookended by Hank Jones’ “Chant” and J. J. Johnson’s “Wee Dot”.

Estival Jazz Lugano is an annual, open-air music festival that takes place over five days in the picturesque city of Lugano, Switzerland. Since 1979, this musical Mecca has been a must-attend event for all jazz and world music fans worldwide. In July 1996, renowned American saxophonist Wayne Shorter and his quintet performed at Estival Jazz Lugano. Together with pianist Jim Beard, guitarist David Gilmore, bassist Alphonso Johnson, and drummer Rodney van Holmes, Shorter shows he is still at his best.

Sarah Vaughan: Live in '58 & 64 features the ‘Divine One’ in her prime, wrapping her sultry voice around jazz standards such as ‘Lover Man’, ‘Misty’ and ‘I Got Rhythm’ and soaring on popular showtunes such as ‘Over The Rainbow’ and ‘Maria’. One of the greatest voices of the 20th Century, her renditions of songs by Harold Arlen, Leonard Bernstein, Johnny Burke, the Gershwins and Stephen Sondheim are pure diva magic. These three performances demonstrate why Sarah Vaughan is invariably mentioned in the same breath as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.

In 2013 it is 25 years ago that singer and trumpet player Chet Baker mysteriously died, caused by a fall from the window of his hotel room in Amsterdam. His music is more popular than ever. This concert is performed by Fay Claassen, who became internationally known through her album ‘Two Portraits of Chet Baker’. In the U.S. this album was the ‘Best Vocal Album of the Year’. In this concert Fay Claassen brings a tribute to Baker with the most beautiful songs and improvisations.

Legendary African-American folk singer Odetta (1930-2008) sang her spirituals with immeasurable sorrow and anguish. Her spiritual music expresses the horrific impact of slavery on millions of African people stolen from their homeland. For Odetta, folk music—be it spirituals, blues or field songs—was a vehicle for expressing the racism and injustice experienced by black people dating back to the days of slavery. This 1964 episode of Face au Public shows the melancholy of the era.

American trumpet player and occasional singer Chet Baker (1929-1988) was one of the most popular exponents of bebop and cool jazz. At the age of 10, Baker was introduced to music in a school orchestra, after which he discovered bebop in the army in 1946. After serving six months in prison in 1953 for drug possession, Baker formed his own quartet with West Coast jazz great, pianist Russ Freeman. His lifelong drug addiction forced him to concertize and record incessantly. Always popular in Europe, Chet Baker (trumpet, vocals) joined Jacques Pelzer (alto saxophone, flute), Luigi Trussardi (bass), Franco Manzecchi (drums), and René Urtreger (piano) for a set in Brussels, Belgium, on May 2, 1964. They performed Bye Bye Blackbird, Isn't It Romantic, Airegin, Time After Time and So What. On September 3, 1979, Baker appeared at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival in Norway. He was joined by Wolfgang Lackerschmid (vibraphone), Michel Graillier (piano), and Jean Louis Rassenfosse (bass) for performances of Blue Train, Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise, Five Years Ago, and Love For Sale.

The Dutch world-class jazz pianist Peter Beets has shared the stage with jazz greats like Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, “Toots” Thielemans, Elvin Jones, George Coleman, Johnny Griffin, Benny Golson and John Clayton. From birth, Beets was surrounded by music: he heard classical music from his mother, who is a music pedagogue, and he heard jazz from his father, who has a great fan of Oscar Peterson and Art Blakey. Although Beets’ parents originally did not associate the word “musician” with the word “career”, music is definitely in the family’s blood. At this concert at the Kurhaus in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, Peter Beets teams up with the world-famous guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. With a career spanning almost twenty-five years and including collaborating with dynamic peers like Brad Mehldau, Brian Blade, Mark Turner, Joshua Redman, Chris Potter, as well as esteemed jazz legends like Joe Henderson, Paul Motian and Gary Burton, Rosenwinkel’s indelible mark in music is the consummation of being steeped in the rich and deep traditions of jazz, springing off of the shoulders of such vital underpinnings to elevate his own art to new heights, evolving the language in a way no other guitarist has since his arrival. This collaboration between Beets and Rosenwinkel guarantees brilliant music.

Lugano Estival Jazz is an annual open-air music festival that takes place over five days at the picturesque city of Lugano, Switzerland. Since 1979, this musical Mecca has been a must-attend event for all jazz and world music fans worldwide. On July 3, 1986, American pianist and composer Keith Jarrett is joined by bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette at Estival Jazz Lugano. Known as the Standards Trio, they put on an enthralling performance that shows these master musicians at their best.

In 2019, the vibrant city of Sofia, Bulgaria, hosted the International A to JazZ Festival. Among the featured acts was the trailblazing jazz trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. This genre-defying artist captivated the audience with his eclectic “stretch music”; an approach that incorporates hip-hop and reaches back through the American canon into African percussion and its rich melodic content. Trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s quintet, which includes drummer Corey Fonville, percussionist Weedie Braimah, pianist Lawrence Fields, and bass guitarist Max Mucha, delivered a performance that defied boundaries and expectations.

The North Sea Jazz Festival is the largest indoor music festival in the world, known globally as the event where the past, present and future of jazz are featured within three days. Next to a firm base of jazz as the festival’s staple music genre, many others, such as blues, soul, funk, or hip hop, pass by. In 1982, the Superstar Quintet, which consists of the otherworldly American trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, saxophonist Joe Henderson, drummer Tony Williams, bassist Ron Carter, and pianist Kenny Baron performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague. The star-studded fivesome put on a concert of cosmic proportions.

Recorded in 1971 in Paris, France, Brazilian, classically trained bossa nova guitarist Baden Powell and his quartet play Pai, Lotus (written by Baden Powell), Tristeza (by Haroldo Lobo/Niltinho), Round Midnight (by Thelonious Monk), Nega do cabelo duro (by David Nasser/Rubens Soares), and Aos pes da cruz (by Zé da Zilda/Marino Pinto). Powell is joined by Ernesto Ribeiro-Gonçalves on double bass, Helio Schiavo on drums, and Alfredo Bessa on percussion.

Despite his advanced age, the legendary jazz pianist Earl Hines was at the top of his game when he performed in the Belgian town of Spa in 1977. With a band consisting of Rudy Rutherford (reeds), Jimmy Leary (bass), and Eddie Graham (drums), Hines livens up the room with his interpretations of “I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me” and “The Man I Love.” Marva Josie joins the group for soulful renditions of “A Sunday Kind of Love” and the well-known classic “Kansas City” before the set comes to a close with “Caravan,” which features a lengthy drum solo by Graham.

This documentary shows a song cycle by the Danish singer-songwriter Trinelise Væring and pianist Jonas Berg, featuring the Scandinavian Barokksolistene ensemble headed by solo violinist and artistic director Bjarte Eike. Væring’s songs possess a timeless quality with their gracefully swung melodies, while they are truly modern at the same time with their ‘in your-face’ approach to catchy hook lines and the largely groove-based arrangements. The music balances intelligently between being clever and being emotional. It is executed brilliantly by some Europe’s finest baroque musicians of the Barokksolistene ensemble. Væring is a remarkable vocalist who masters both the intensely fragile and the more powerful nuances. She is complemented by a pianist whose exquisitely tasteful playing builds on the great Scandinavian piano tradition, adding a pinch of Swedish folklore, pop music and free jazz. In combination with Trinelises unvarnished voice, the unique timbre of the baroque instruments, the vibrato-less sounds, and the ‘on the beat’ approach to groove, the music is far removed from the usual romantic setting of sweet pop songs. This music has edge, and is performed with engrossing vitality.

The Da Pá Virada Sessions series presents the best musicians of contemporary Brazilian jazz, and beyond. Filmed and curated in São Paulo by director and presenter Dani Gurgel and producer and engineer Thiago Rabello, each session offers a unique experience by giving a fresh look into Brazil's music scene. The artists for each session are selected in consultation with Stingray DJAZZ's music editor. Drawing from her Brazilian roots, upcoming vocalist Fran Nóbrega is poring today’s underground scene to bring us the latest trends in forró and popular Brazilian music. Her album “A flor e o Tempo” has won her a strong cult following, and her performances exude positive energy: get ready to dance to Nóbrega’s exciting set!