Schedule

The Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam is a world-renowned concert hall, known for its first-rate acoustics. It has attracted many famous performers over the years and is one of the Netherlands' most treasured musical institutions. On May 5, 1957, jazz impresario Norman Granz presented his Jazz at the Philharmonic tour at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson and his trio of guitarist Herb Ellis and bassist Ray Brown are later joined by trumpeter Roy Eldridge and drummer Jo Jones. As an added attraction, American violinist Stuff Smith joins the proceedings. American singer Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by pianist Don Abney, Ellis, Brown and Jones, hits her vocal peak in a stunning set that culminates in a jam session of It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) with the entire ensemble.

‘Jazz a Vienne’ is one of the world's most prestigious jazz festivals. Ever since 1981 it has attracted leading jazz artists, with many of them playing return engagements. Unsurprisingly, the festival's 2012 edition did not fall short of expectations: the lineup was filled with the biggest names in music. Among them was vocalist Gregory Porter transcends the jazz bubble. His magnificent, burnished baritone can sink into a lyric with luxurious ease, the melody gently sculpted into new shapes at every turn, with the rhythm tugging subtly back and forth across the bar line.

The world-renowned North Sea Jazz Festival features a wide variety of genres, including traditional New Orleans jazz, swing, bop, free jazz, fusion, avant-garde and electronic jazz, blues, gospel, funk, soul, R&B, hip hop, world beat and Latin. The festival was founded by entrepreneur and jazz fan Paul Acket, who sold his highly successful pop magazine publishing house to organize and fund the first edition of the festival in 1976. This broadcast from the North Sea Jazz Archives presents the great Wayne Shorter Quartet. Shorter’s maxim is to reinvent his music during each concert. He means to give his music a radical originality.

This vintage program, ‘Jazz Marmalade’, shows expatriate American musicians plying their trade in two Parisian jazz clubs in 1962. First, American stride pianist Joe Turner (often confused with blues shouter ‘Big’ Joe Turner) opens this atmospheric broadcast with a swinging piano-bass duet recorded at the Mars Club. Joe Turner (1907–1990) would remain in Paris for the rest of his life. From the American-owned Mars Club just off the Champs-Élysées, a hangout for showbiz people and expatriate Americans in Paris, the program cuts to the Blue Note. There, a Paris-based American quartet that includes drummer Kenny Clarke, organ player Lou Bennett, and tenor saxophonist Don Byas performs ‘Salut Les Copines’. Returning to the Mars Club, the American jazz trio of house pianist Art Simmons (1926–2018) performs a jaunty take on ‘C-Jam Blues’. Rounding off the program at the Blue Note, the quartet of drummer Kenny Clarke, organist Lou Bennett, and tenor saxophonist Don Byas returns for a swinging ‘April in Paris’. These recordings offer an invaluable glimpse into expatriate American jazz-making in Paris in the early 1960s.

'Münchner Klaviersommer' was an annual concerts series that took place from 1981 to 1998 in Munich, Germany. Although the festival's name suggests a strong focus on piano music, it featured countless famous musicians from jazz and classical music – not just pianists. The concerts were usually held in July at The Gasteig, home of the Munich Philharmonic. In 1997, American pianist Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea was one of the artists appearing here. He performed a set with longtime duet partner, vibraphonist Gary Burton. This concert was a reunion of sorts for the two, who had not appeared as a duo for many years, and the first of many more joint performances to come. Today, both musicians have more than earned their jazz legend status.

The world-renowned North Sea Jazz Festival features a wide variety of genres, including traditional New Orleans jazz, swing, bop, free jazz, fusion, avant-garde and electronic jazz, blues, gospel, funk, soul, R&B, hip hop, world beat and Latin. The festival was founded by entrepreneur and jazz fan Paul Acket, who sold his highly successful pop magazine publishing house to organize and fund the first edition of the festival in 1976. This broadcast from the North Sea Jazz Archives presents a compilation with music of Betty Carter, Anita O'Day & Sathima Bea Benjamin.

Antonio Faraò features prominently in the rich group of talented Italian pianists. He is the winner of the 1998 prestigious Concours Martial Solal, awarded by Herbie Hancock, and he has made his mark as a player of elegance and lyricism. This has allowed him to collaborate with the best European and American musicians. In his album ‘Evan’, recorded in the USA, he leads an all-star band, notably starring Joe Lovano on tenor. In this particular recording at Jazz à Ramatuelle, he appears at the Theatre de Verdure in the company of another sax legend - Dave Liebman, a musician of unfailing generosity and himself the repository of more than 40 years of modern jazz history. With refined ballads and feline groove, this meeting sparkles, perhaps even lighting up some new stars in the night above Ramatuelle.

The Danish Radio Big Band joins forces with American vocalist Curtis Stigers to celebrate Frank Sinatra's iconic concerts at The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. Curtis Stigers and the big band present the most popular evergreens from the American songbook of the 1950s and 1960s, one of which is the classic that lend the concert its name: “Fly Me To The Moon”.

The treasured compositions of guitarist Django Reinhardt, the founding father of hot club jazz, are engraved in everyone's memory. Although Reinhardt missed two fingers of his left hand, his virtuoso technique was unrivalled. Dutch guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg and pianist Peter Beets now have the pleasure to bring Django’s music back to life with their infectious improvisations.

Pierre Courbois has been one of Europe’s leading jazz musicians since the mid-sixties. This concert, recorded at the renowned Amsterdam jazz club Bimhuis, sees the drummer playing with his QWINTETT. On the occasion of his 75th birthday in 2015, Courbois hit the road for the Pierre Courbois 75 Years Anniversary Tour. The PC QWINTETT consists of several highly acclaimed Dutch jazz musicians with whom Courbois has worked before in his long and versatile career. Among them are pianist Nike Langenhuijsen, double bassist Egon Kracht, trumpeter Toon de Gouw, and trombonist Ilja Reijngoud. QWINTETT honours the Charles Mingus tradition of thematic and melodic ensemble jazz - but also with an unmistakable Courbois groove! Courbois, known for his own way of combining compositions with improvisations, melodically melts constructions with uneven breaks.

Anita O’Day boasts two wonderful concerts from 1963 and 1970 that present the “jazz singer supreme” in impeccable form. O’Day’s horn-based approach to singing is in full effect throughout both shows including stand-out renditions in each show of audience favorites “Tea For Two” and “Sweet Georgia Brown” (both reprised from her triumphant appearance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.) This show is a fitting testimony to one of jazz music’s true originals and shows unequivocally why she is ranked in the top tier of vocalists along with Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Billie Holiday.

In this DJAZZ Belgium Sessions performance, which was recorded at AED Studios in Lint, Belgium, we witness Europe’s finest jazz musicians at work. A wide variety of international jazz musicians give a creative, up-close and inside insight into their art of playing jazz music. Young talent and established jazz musicians play to their heart’s content: take for instance this unusual performance by the multi-ethnic ensemble Hijaz. This band explores the dialogue between piano and the oud, a pear-shaped stringed instrument from the East. Hijaz is a close-knit quartet that explores the differences and similarities between Mediterranean cultures in order to create moments of harmony, warmth, and great musical beauty.

Rotterdam’s BIRD is a club, café, and restaurant with a live music program that's deeply rooted in jazz, soul, funk, hip-hop, and electronic. Its name BIRD refers to the nickname of legendary New York jazz saxophonist, bebop co-founder Charlie Parker. BIRD serves Neapolitan pizzas, fine 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 programs: BIRD.tv, allowing you to experience the best BIRD concerts and interviews as from a first-row seat! Discover an irresistible live act; STUFF is full of unflagging energy. The Belgian band was founded in 2012 when drummer Lander Gyselinck was asked to play live music between DJ sets at a local bar. He gathered a bunch of friends, who also were musicians. The band could be considered an avant-garde jazz band who play a mix of funk, hip-hop, and electro. Andrew Claes (saxophone), Dries Laheye (bass guitar), Lander Gyselinck (drums), Mixmonster Menno (samples), and Joris Caluwaerts (keyboards) share an exceptional connection in music. They take over every stage and melt the hearts of music lovers.

American keyboard player and bandleader Herbie Hancock (1940) achieved success as an incisive, harmonically provocative jazz pianist in the 1960s, then went on to gain wide popularity as a leader of electric jazz-rock groups. One of these, Hancock’s band The Headhunters, ushered in a new era of jazz that appealed to a far wider audience, making jazz listeners out of rhythm and blues fans, and vice versa. In 1974, The Headhunters appeared on German television, playing Palm Grease, Sly, Butterfly, Spank-A-Lee, and Chameleon. Hancock (keys) is joined by Bennie Maupin (saxophones), Paul Jackson (electric bass), Mike Clark (drums) and Bill Summer (percussion).

Vocalist Jazzmeia Horn’s 2019 Malta Jazz Festival appearance was a celebration of jazz’s future, infused with the soul of its past. Featuring Keith Brown (piano), Rashaan Carter (bass), Irwin Hall (flute and saxophone), and Anwar Marshall (drums), the young singer’s performance was a reminder of jazz’s enduring power to speak to the heart. Situated at the Valletta waterfront outside Our Lady of Liesse Church, Horn’s concert was a truly spellbinding experience.

Well-known for his exuberant style and intimate familiarity with a vast range of jazz and Latin idioms, Michel Camilo has always had a sixth sense for musical adventure. Camilo was one of the most stimulating jazz pianists to emerge in the mid- to late '80s. His powerful two-handed attack (full of impressive technical skills), his knowledge of both jazz and Afro-Cuban music, and his willingness to constantly take chances turn each of his solos into an adventure. This broadcast was taped during the 1999 Münchner Klaviersommer, when Camilo made one of his rare solo appearances. Improvising on a Steinway D grand piano, he drew an astonishing palette of musical colours from his instrument: rich orchestral sounds as well as and a tender lyricism.

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 shows you the four-piece jazz/hip hop ensemble BADBADNOTGOOD, whose collaborators include the likes of rapper ‘Tyler, The Creator’, the Haitian-Canadian electronic musician Kaytranada, the vocalist Kali Uchis, and the rapper Ghostface Killah. BADBADNOTGOOD is endlessly inventive: its four members have ultimately crafted their own, lasting mark on hip-hop and electronic beats.