Schedule

Legendary free jazz pianist Burton Greene rose to fame in New York City's free jazz scene of the 1960s. Exploring various spontaneous improvisational styles, Greene performs live at Cafe OTO in London, UK.

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.

Annual trade fair, exhibition, and festival jazzahead! is one of the international jazz community's most important events. Hosted in Bremen, Germany, jazzahead! brings together musicians, bookers, agents, organizers, jazz experts, and music enthusiasts at the world’s largest jazz event. In 2022, jazzahead! paid special attention to Canada’s jazz scene and invited forty jazz acts from all over the world to perform over the course of three days. Among the artists presenting themselves at jazzahead! 2022 are the seven brightest young talents of Polish jazz, appearing under the name Jazz Forum Talents. These rising stars were selected from among the musicians who took part in 2019’s Jazz Forum Showcase powered by Szczecin Jazz. Kasia Pietrzko (piano), Kacper Smoliński (harmonica), Maciej Kądziela (alto saxophone), Tomasz Chyła (violinist), Jakub Mizeracki (guitar), Roman Chraniuk (double bass, bass guitar), and Adam Zagórski (drums) worked out the compositions and arrangements for this joint project together.

Annual trade fair, exhibition, and festival jazzahead! is one of the international jazz community’s most important events. Hosted in Bremen, Germany, jazzahead! brings together musicians, bookers, agents, organizers, jazz experts, and music enthusiasts at the world’s largest jazz event. In 2024, jazzahead! paid special attention to the jazz scene of the Netherlands and invited over forty jazz acts to perform over the course of three days. Among the ensembles presenting themselves at jazzahead! 2024 is the trio of harmonica player Ariel Bart. The New York-based harmonica player has a unique ability to convey distinct emotions, ranging from nostalgia to bursts of sheer happiness. According to London Jazz News, her music captivates with its “beautiful and haunting” clear tone. At jazzahead!, Ariel Bart (harmonica) is accompanied by Talia Erdal (cello) and Arseny Rykov (piano).

The MotorMusic Studios in Mechelen, Belgium, attract many great musicians to the city. A wide variety of visiting international jazz musicians share their art of making jazz music with us in the DJAZZ series ‘Belgium Sessions’. In these sessions, some of Europe’s finest musicians perform their own, original music. Saxophonist Ben Sluijs and pianist Erik Vermeulen both had a classical training. Both musicians have a strong melodic and harmonic approach. Their music offers no room for showing off: it’s all about the music itself. Sluijs’s fascination for jazz grew after he graduated cum laude. This led to him taking lessons with David Liebman in the US. His colleague, Erik Vermeulen, entered the Belgian jazz scene at age 22, playing with his trio. He performed with international stars such as Clark Terry, Joe Lovano, Steve Grossman, Art Farmer, Bob Mover, Toots Thielemans, and Michael Moore. This MotorMusic episode shows the fruits of this inspiring collaboration between these two classically-trained jazz musicians.

After Dutch singer Kim Hoorweg landed her first record contract from Universal Music at the age of 14, her musical career took off and she became a well-known name in the Netherlands jazz community. Famous artists such as Candy Dulfer, Raul Midón, Metropole Orkest, and Gino Vannelli, to name a few, have already performed with the singer on numerous occasions. This time, Kim Hoorweg performs at BIRD in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, together with fellow Dutch musicians Anton Goudsmit on guitar, Niels Broos on keyboards, and Yoran Vroom on drums.

Every year since 1970, the German city of Burghausen has been hosting one of the largest jazz festivals in the world. During Burghausen International Jazz Week, Burghausen becomes a 'Bavarian jazz mecca': guests from all over the world join the Burghausers to enjoy the most wonderful jazz performances as the colorful hustle and bustle of spectators and musicians shake up the city. One of the artists performing here in 2019 is Al Di Meola. This pioneering guitarist blends world music, rock and jazz. His ongoing fascination for complex rhythmic syncopation, combined with provocative lyrical melodies and sophisticated harmony, has been at the heart of his music throughout a celebrated career. The Grammy Award-winner has achieved international fame both as a solo artist and due to his collaborations with the world's biggest artists.

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. Discover the special bond between pianist Carla Bley and bassist Steve Swallow. The two have performed in the same bands since the '60s and have been romantic partners for more than two decades. Watching them perform is the definition of musical telepathy. Together with musicians Wayne Krantz, Victor Lewis, Larry Willis, and Don Alias, they form an amazing sextet at Estival in 1986.

Pianist Kenny Barron’s June 27, 2019 appearance at the Alfa Jazz Festival in Ukraine’s Lviv was a celebration of sublime jazz virtuosity. The revered elder statesmen of jazz piano brought his regular working trio of Kiyoshi Kitagawa (bass) and Jonathan Blake (drums), augmented by stellar jazzman Marcus Strickland (tenor saxophone) and young lion Riley Mulherkar (trumpet). Their seamless blend of classic bebop and modern explorations spoke of a deep, emotive connection to each note, captivating the Ukrainian audience with lyrical improvisations during this unforgettable concert.

Every year, the Jazz en Baie festival takes place in the beautiful bay of Mont Saint-Michel Today’s broadcast shows a special gathering between two grandmasters of French jazz: pianist Jacky Terrasson and trumpeter Stéphane Belmondo. The two team up for an amazing concert in which jazz is combined with soul and a touch of chanson française. The Franco-American pianist Terrasson delights in travelling the world, collaboration with others and leading his own trio, quartet, or quintet. With his long-time friend, Stéphane Belmondo, Terrasson has produced wonderful CDs and beautiful concerts. One then finds the trumpeter on the pianist’s album ‘Gouache’; on another, the pianist guests on Belmondo’s ‘Ever After’. At the Jazz en Baie festival, the duo plays its amazing piano and trumpet music. Highly recommended!

Count Basie is one of the most important bandleaders of the swing era. With the exception of a brief period in the early '50s, he led a big band from 1935 until his death almost 50 years later. Basie's orchestra was characterized by a light, swinging rhythm section that he led from the piano, lively ensemble work, and generous soloing. Basie was not a composer like Duke Ellington or an important soloist like Benny Goodman. His instrument was his band, which was considered the epitome of swing and deeply influenced jazz. In this 1961 concert recording, Count Basie takes the stage in Charleroi.

No early breakthrough rock & roll artist is more important to the development of the genre than Chuck Berry (1926-2017). Influenced by jazz and rhythm and blues, he was rock & roll's greatest songwriter, the main shaper of its instrumental voice, one of its greatest guitarists, and one of its greatest performers. In this 1965 Face au Public TV episode, Chuck Berry plays a string of hit songs, including his 1956 smash hit “Roll Over Beethoven”, “Promised Land” and “Johnny B. Goode”. Chuck cuts loose on guitar and the conservative crowd finally gets it.

In the 1960s, composer Michel Magne transformed the Château d'Hérouville, an 18th-century country house north of Paris and former home of lovers George Sand and Frédéric Chopin, into the first residential recording studio. In addition to its excellent facilities, the complex featured a swimming pool and a beautiful garden, allowing artists to stay for weeks or months at a time. From David Bowie and Iggy Pop to Pink Floyd and Chet Baker, countless stars recorded unforgettable music here until the studio closed in the 1980s. Three decades later, Château d'Hérouville has reopened its doors. This program follows American baritone Gregory Porter as he collaborates with the British electro-pop band Metronomy. The former American football player, who later dedicated himself entirely to music, gives an interview at Hérouville and performs songs including ‘Don't Loose Your Steam’, ‘In Fashion’, and ‘Sunny’. The British band Metronomy contributes songs such as ‘The Look’, ‘Night Owl’, and ‘Mick Slow’. Metronomy consists of Joseph Mount (drums), Oscar Cash (saxophone, keys), and Michael Lovett (keys). Gregory Porter’s own band consists of Lakecia Benjamin (saxophone), Chip Crawford (piano), Jahmal Nichols (bass guitar), and Emanuel Harrold (drums).

Nordic afro jazz project 'We Are Birds' saw the light between Finland and Africa, during a 2010 jam session in which Finnish jazz pianist Tuomas A. Turunen met African drummer-percussionist and urban griot Dimitri Reverchon. The two composers set their mind to exploring this hybrid genre, and found their perfect complement in bassist Emmanuel Soulignac, who brought his pop influences to the table. Today, We Are Birds explores an accessible mix of jazz and world pop that is based on sharing, listening, understanding, paying attention to each other, and believing in unity.

Annual trade fair, exhibition, and festival jazzahead! is one of the international jazz community’s most important events. Hosted in Bremen, Germany, jazzahead! brings together musicians, bookers, agents, organizers, jazz experts, and music enthusiasts at the world’s largest jazz event. In 2024, jazzahead! paid special attention to the jazz scene of the Netherlands and invited over forty jazz acts to perform over the course of three days. Among the projects presenting themselves at jazzahead! 2024 is the collaboration of the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra with Greek/Norwegian vocalist, lyricist, and composer Marianna Sangita Røe. Annually, the Molde Jazz Festival offers a Norwegian musician or band the opportunity to create a new project with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. Marianna Sangita Røe was the recipient in 2021. Her commissioned work, ‘Spiti/Hjem’, blends diverse musical elements and features an array of instruments including the oud, saz, tablas, joik, accordion, saxophone, tuba, drum kit, cello, fiddle, cajon, and various frame drums. The jazzahead! 2024 lineup includes Marianna Sangita Angeletaki Røe (vocals, percussion), Efrén Lopez (oud, hurdy gurdy, laouto, guitar, percussion), Ina Sagstuen (vocals, effects, percussion), Risten Anine Gaup (vocals, joik), Mira Tiruchelvam (flute), Sissel Vera Pettersen (alto saxophone, vocals), Jonas Cambien (saxophone, synthesizer), Inger Hannisdal (violin), Oluf Dimitri Røe (violin, vocals), Jovan Pavlovic (accordion), Joel Ring (cello, bass), Heida Karine Johannesdottir (tuba), Sanskriti Shrestra (tablas, percussion), and Martin Langlie (drums).

Majamisty TriO, an ensemble from Novi Sad in Serbia, explores the space between jazz and classical music, occasionally expanding the possibilities of the traditional jazz piano trio by adding a vocal part which is treated as an instrument equal to the others. The trio’s lyrical style originates in pianist Maja Alvanović's long experience in classical music and her affinity with jazz, thus finding an original path that paints subtle moods and emotions. Inspired by the beauty of her hometown, Alvanović’s impressionistic compositions are spiced by hints of a Balkan musical heritage.

Innovative contemporary jazz and improvised music, the search for modernity, mind blowing sounds, rock and pop… Indeed PARADOX Tilburg goes beyond jazz, crossing musical boundaries into the unknown soundscapes of electronic music. Indie artists, blues veterans and jazz superstars all pour their hearts and souls at the Paradox. From young, local talents to top national and international artists, PARADOX Tilburg is the most intimate jazz club in the Netherlands, with a devoted audience from all across Europe. In the TV show PARADOX LIVE you get a taste of the greatest concerts and interviews with artists from all around the world. This episode of PARADOX LIVE presents the amazing Dutch pianist Jeroen van Vliet.

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 Jazztet, a legendary hard-bop sextet founded by trumpeter Art Farmer and saxophonist Benny Golson, reunited after a twenty-year separation at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague. They are joined by original member Curtis Fuller on trombone and newcomers Rufus Reid on bass, Mickey Tucker on piano and Albert Heath on drums.

Rotterdam’s ‘ BIRD’ is a club, café and restaurant with a live music programme that's deeply rooted in jazz, and also branches out towards soul, funk, hip-hop and electronic music as well. Its name ‘BIRD’ refers to the nickname of the legendary New York jazz saxophonist, bebop co-founder Charlie Parker (1920-1955). BIRD serves Neapolitan pizzas, good wines, no-nonsense beers and an all-round metropolitan rawness. Since 2014, this urban jazz club and DJAZZ.tv have been collaborating for a series of music programmes: ‘BIRD.tv’, allowing you to experience the best BIRD concerts and interviews as from a first row seat! This episode is reserved for ‘De Deeldeliers’, featuring poet and so-called ‘Night Mayor of Rotterdam’ Jules Deelder (*1944). His poems cover Rotterdam city life, drug use, and jazz. In De Deeldeliers, he is accompanied by Hammond organist Bas van Lier, tenor saxophonist Boris van der Lek, and drummer Erik Kooger.

The term "jam-session" was born in the 1920s, when black and white musicians gathered in smoke-filled bars after their respective concerts to enjoy the kind of jazz they could not play in traditional sets. Bing Crosby was a regular at these sessions, and had fun marking the first and third beats of musical phrases by clapping hands, which the musicians call "jammin 'the beat". Today, the Seine Sessions revive the happy years of "jam sessions", while the cream of jazz, blues, gipsy and funk Parisian scenes occurs on the boards of the legendary restaurant and jazz club Le Réservoir. Entitled "Free & Afro Jazz," this episode hosted by Eddy King features unique performances by artists playing together for the first time, and interviews with Fantazio, Eddy Lopez, Banoit Savard, and many others.

Salif Keita’s music is a rich combination of traditional Malian music with European and American influences. We can hear this in the instrumentation of Keita’s music, which varies from traditional West-African instruments to Western European ones. The Malian singer was cast out by his family because of his albinism. In 1967 he moved to Bamako, where he started his musical career and joined Les Ambassadeurs (Internationaux). He achieved international acknowledgement with this band in the 1970s. After spending a couple of years in Ivory Coast, Salif has found his home base in Paris since 1984. During this 2010 concert, he proves to be rightfully referred to as “The Golden Voice of Africa”.

Pianist Frédéric Gassita studied classical music and jazz, the latter at the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston. Apart from French impressionists, such as Ravel and Debussy, Gassita’s main influences are Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, both of whom he met during his studies in Berklee. His body of musical work, however, is rooted in Africa, where the he currently resides. Today he’s a figurehead of jazz in Gabon, Africa. What's more, he scouts young musical talent and owns the local football club.