Schedule

Since 1994, World Music Expo (WOMEX) has been attracting musicians, agents, a great number of press agencies, as well as media companies from all over the world. Its main exposition event has been held in various locations throughout Europe, including Berlin, Brussels, Marseille, Stockholm, Seville, Cardiff, and Budapest. In 2018, WOMEX was held in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. One of its showcase participants, The Garifuna Collective, carries the legacy of Andy Palacio who not only put the music of Belize on the world stage, it also inspired a generation of Belizean musicians to look to their roots. Featuring an intergenerational line-up and the rousing vocal prowess of the Umalali women singers, they celebrate the deep cultural roots of Garifuna music, with the emblematic sound of the two traditional Garifuna drums – the primero and the segunda – along with maracas, turtle shells, jawbones and acoustic and electric guitars and bass grooves.

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 2023, jazzahead! paid special attention to Germany’s jazz scene and invited thirty jazz acts from all over the world to perform over the course of three days. Among the artists presenting themselves at jazzahead! 2023 is Finnish composer Jussi Reijonen. Reijonen’s ensemble promises a transient experience "unlike anything in memory.” For his long-form suite “Three Seconds | Kolme Toista” for a new transcultural 9-piece ensemble, Reijonen collaborates with musicians from Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Turkey, Japan, and the United States.

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. Due to COVID-19, only half of the scheduled performances of the 2021 edition were actually recorded in Bremen. The other performances were captured by the artists themselves on various locations of their own choosing. Among the performing artists is Swiss pianist and composer Luzia von Wyl. She presents her own Luzia von Wyl Ensemble, a small contemporary jazz orchestra of strings, woodwinds and rhythm section. The music of Von Wyl, who is passionate about larger jazz ensembles, takes rhythms, odd meters, unexpected colors and sincere emotions as its starting point. Luzia von Wyl is joined by flutist Amin Mokdad, clarinetist Nicola Katz, bass clarinetist Marcel Lüscher, bassoon player Maurus Conte, violinist Vincent Millioud, vocalist Jonas Iten, double bassist Christoph Utzinger, marimba player Fabian Ziegler, and drummer Lionel Friedli.

Jazzed Out proves that a jazz session can take place anywhere. Unusual locations, such as garage buildings, multi-storey car parks, street corners, subway trains, and parks, in several of the world’s metropoles, provide the setting for brief jazz performances. The sheer rawness of the metropoles merge with the musical creations of various artists in search of the perfect ‘urban stage’. In this episode, London serves as a backdrop for sets by trumpeter Matthew Halsall, saxophonist Soweto Kinch, and pianist Neil Cowley.

Arguably the greatest lady vocalists of all time are featured in this superb compilation. These historic recordings from the 1950s and 1960s offer a unique overview of different approaches to jazz singing that helped define the genre. Watch Billie Holiday’s performance of “God Bless The Child” closely and learn what made her such an influential jazz and pop singer. Enjoy Anita O’Day’s matchless rhythmic sense in a performance of “Honeysuckle Rose” recorded at the Arenateatern in Stockholm, Sweden on November 1, 1963. Marvel at Nina Simone’s December 1968 performance of “Ain't Got No, I Got Life” from London. Let Sarah Vaughan’s rendition of “Tenderly” sweep you off your feet – ‘Sassy’, or ‘The Divine One’, recorded this romantic evergreen in a television studio in Sweden on July 9, 1958. Last but not least, revel at the ‘First Lady of Song’: Ella Fitzgerald swung “Mack The Knife” in a December 4, 1960 appearance at The Embers in suburban Melbourne, Australia. Get to know the greatest lady vocalists in jazz history with this unique compilation of historic recordings!

Since 1994, World Music Expo (WOMEX) has been attracting musicians, agents, a great number of press agencies, as well as media companies from all over the world. Its main exposition event has been held in various locations throughout Europe, including Berlin, Brussels, Marseille, Stockholm, Seville, Cardiff, and Budapest. In 2018, WOMEX was held in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. One of its showcase participants, Bakolo Music International, represents the pioneers of the golden age of Congolese rumba. The singer, guitarist and grand survivor Nzofu Moko Buele, known to all as Bikunda, is carrying on a torch first lit in 1948 by ‘Papa’ Wend Kolosoy, the ‘father of Congolese Rumba’ and composer of the first Rumba hit song, ‘Marie-Louise’.

Moondog, a gaunt, mysterious and extravagantly-garbed blind street musician was celebrated among New Yorkers for two decades before gaining acclaim in Europe as an avant-garde composer conducting orchestras before royalty. Artists such as Charlie Parker, Leonard Bernstein, Steve Reich and Philip Glass have called him one of the great musical visionaries of our century. Day in and day out, the man whose real name is Louis T. Hardin, was as taciturn and unchanging a landmark of the midtown Manhattan streetscape as the George M. Cohan statue in Duffy Square. No matter the weather, he invariably dressed in a homemade robe, sandals, a flowing cape, and a horned Viking helmet - the tangible expression of what he referred to as his “Nordic philosophy”. For this show, he teams up with renowned saxophone ensemble London Saxophonic for an eccentric performance.

Instead of children’s songs, the sound of jazz standards was always present. They practiced intricate drum rhythms instead of Bach etudes: Simon Oslender and Jérôme Cardynaals have jazz running through their veins! Under the name ‘Twogether’ both youngsters celebrate a very unique and soulful style of funky blues-jazz. They create a sound that leaves even renowned jazz artists speechless. The two, exceptionally talented boys met in a youth big band, and before long they became a musical team. Immediately after that, they won the first prize in the Prinses Christina Jazz Concours in Amsterdam, which got the whole thing started. In this concert, they perform with wonderful artists such as the Dutch saxophonist Benjamin Herman and the American vocalist Madeline Bell.

Dionne Warwick’s vocal artistry ranges from voluminous deep register to soft, fragile high notes. She masters the entire range with almost unnerving ease. But more than her strong, warm voice, Dionne’s magic is in the silky elegance and the secure delivery with which she tells a story. That’s how her, along with composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David become pioneers of the brand of pop music called “Middle of the Road”, meaning pop that is grippingly simple, but never trite. Sixty of her hits made it into the American charts and sold over 100 million albums worldwide. This amazing 1964 recording from the 27 Club in Knokke, Belgium showcases the 23-year-old star vocalist at the start of her career.

This live recording is celebrating 50 years of West Coast Jazz. The West Coast Jazz movement had its origins about 50 years ago in Los Angeles. It was essentially a "cool" form of jazz played mostly by studio musicians as a break from their studio work. The West Coast All Stars are specially brought together for this West Coast Night. The performance shows some of the most important early pioneers of this style of jazz - including legends such as Conte Candoli, Carl Fontana and Teddy Edwards. Jazz writer and critic Alun Morgan about this concert: “Altogether a very impressive experience. These guys are all real jazz pros who can turn in a masterly performance at the drop of a hat. Who said West Coast Jazz was cold and sterile? These guys can churn up enough excitement to bring any audience to its feet."

Under the Surface is an improvisational jazz band formed by drummer Joost Lijbaart, vocalist Sanne Rambags, and guitarist Bram Stadhouders. Sanne Rambags, the youngest artist of the trio, is one of the few vocalists of her generation who able to improvise effortlessly, be it by using her voice as an instrument blending with the sounds of the band, or by performing her own poetry. Joost Lijbaart, known from bands by Yuri Honing, is one of the top artists of the Dutch jazz scene. Guitarist Bram Stadhouders is one of the most renowned musicians of improvisational music in Europe. Together, the three Dutch musicians have developed their own “universal language” within the genre. Their performance at Bimhuis showcases their unique intergenerational chemistry and hypnotizing sound. Bimhuis Amsterdam provides a platform for pioneering national and international musicians by hosting over 300 concerts a year.

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 bands performing here in 2019 is The Earth, Wind & Fire Experience. In this concert, original Earth, Wind & Fire guitarist, writer and musical director Al McKay performs the band's timeless disco and soul. Together with seven of the thirteen original Earth, Wind & Fire members, he keep hits such as Boogie Wonderland and September alive, touring all over the world.