Schedule

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 1986, the acclaimed jazz fusion group Mahavishnu Orchestra led by guitarist John McLaughlin took the stage at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague. This third incarnation of the group featured an outstanding lineup, with Jim Beard on keyboards, Jonas Hellborg on bass, Danny Gottlieb on drums, and Bill Evans on saxophone.

Lex Jasper Trio: Happy Days Are Here Again - the title says is all… After an automobile accident and 15 years of revalidation, he is back! Together with his musical pals Edwin Corzilius (double bass) and Frits Landesbergen (drums), pianist and composer Lex Jasper celebrates his return to jazz club The Duke in the Dutch village of Nistelrode. Following his car accident, Lex nearly joined the leagues of Netherland's “forgotten” jazz heroes, though he is still considered one of the most important artists and composers of his generation and Dutch jazz history. Jasper played and recorded with all the greats, including Toots Thielemans, Clark Terry, Joe Pass, and Rita Reys.

Hailing from a long tradition of Malian kora players, Ballake Sissoko has worked with renowned musicians such as Toumani Diabaté and Taj Mahal. He met the French born Vincent Ségal by chance, and the two began jamming together, uncertain of what kind of music might result. As a former member of the French National Orchestra, Ségal's Western classical training does not prevent him from exploring a wide variety of extended techniques, rendering his cello a flexible partner to Sissoko's kora. A childhood spent in the Pigalle district of Paris surrounded by immigrant communities exposed Ségal to African music from an early age. As such, he possesses a natural sensitivity to Sissoko's West-African style. The concert shows a brilliant interplay between the two musicians and combines the several worlds of jazz, Malian and classical music.

World-renowned American blues singer and guitarist Magic Slim performed an electrifying set at the French festival Jazz à Vienne 2012. With bandmates John McDonald (guitar & vocals), Andre Howard (bass), and Brian Jones (drums), the blues giant played a string of classic Chicago blues hits. Ever energetic, the veritable blues veteran put on a dynamic show for an enthusiastic audience in the atmospheric ancient Roman theatre of Vienne.

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. Miriam Makeba, also named Mama Africa, was a South African singer, actress, United Nations goodwill ambassador, and civil-rights activist. Her career flourished in the US, where she released several albums. Makeba was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. She brought African music to a Western audience, and popularized the world music and Afropop genres. Her performances at Estival Lugano is beyond incredible. Her voice, the power and the soul summarizes her musicality in 40 minutes, together with her band and extremely talented backing-vocals.

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, Oslo serves as a backdrop for sets by pianists Tord Gustavsen and Bugge Wesseltoft, as well as Jaga Jazzist collective.

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.

What Jamie Cullum is to England, Wouter Hamel is to the Netherlands: a performer who knows the difference between jazz and pop! Hamel is backed by big band Sven Happel (double bass), Jasper van Hulten (drums), Gijs Anders van Straalen (percussion), Rory Ronde (guitar), Benjamin Herman (saxophone), and a string ensemble. Hamel plays the guitar, piano, sings, and writes many of his own songs. He made his debut in 2007 with the eponymous album Hamel on Dox Records; it was a hit on the Dutch albums chart, remained on the Top 20 for over a year, and spawned the hit "As Long as We're in Love”. The show was recorded at the legendary venue Paradiso, a former church considered the "pop temple" of the Netherlands. Hamel's performance of "One More Time on the Merry-Go-Round" perfectly connects the beautiful venue in the heart of Amsterdam and the enthousiastic audience.

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 Etienne Mbappé. This talented Cameroonian bassist and singer songwriter Etienne Mbappé surrounds himself with upcoming jazz talent from Paris in his band The Prophets. Their extremely melodic music is full of soulful, spirited grooves.

As part of the International Duke Ellington Conference 2014, we welcome the Concert Big Band of the Conservatory of Amsterdam for a special concert. Under the direction of David Berger, they will play Duke Ellington’s only written big band symphony, ‘Black, Brown and Beige’. It has been more than 70 years since Ellington’s “B, B & B” was played in its entirety during its premiere at Carnegie Hall (New York). Duke Ellington said the following about it: “We thought we wouldn’t play it in its entirety tonight because it represents an awfully long and important story and that I don’t think too many people are familiar with the story. This is the one we dedicate to the 700 Negroes who came from Haiti to save Savannah during the Revolutionary War.” Jazz composer, trumpeter, arranger and conductor David Berger is internationally recognized as the expert on Duke Ellington's music and music from the swing era. From 1988 to 1994, he worked for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra where he transcribed more than 500 pieces by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.

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. Saxophonist Ben Sluijs received a classical training. He has a strong melodic and harmonic approach to music. His music offers no room for showing off: it’s all about the music itself. Sluijs’ fascination for jazz developed after his cum laude graduation, inspiring him to take lessons with the American saxophonist and flutist David Liebman in the USA.

As a 25-year-old saxophonist, Maceo Parker played in the band of James Brown, but he is also known for his collaborations with George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic and Bootsy Collins' Rubber Band. Maceo has proven his star quality by creating a special chemistry between all the different styles of American black music. As a pioneer in the ‘groove’, he blends funky jazz with roots and blues with gospel. The result? Overheated concert halls, with enthusiastic audiences that completely surrender themselves to the music's boundless energy.

Jazz in Duketown is the largest free outdoor jazz festival in the Netherlands. It's a real gathering for jazz addicts, inviting internationally renowned artists. The talented American singer Michelle David performs pop and gospel music that feeds the heart and soothes the soul. Having grown up with the church, she started singing at the age of four. A year later she joined her first band, The Mission of Love. In 1980 she enrolled at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City, known from the film 'Fame'. During this time, she appeared as an extra in the legendary comedy film 'Ghostbusters'. Musicals and tours with the bands of Diana Ross and Michael Bolton followed.

Since 2005, the Morgenland Festival, held in Osnabrueck, has dedicated itself to the fascinating music culture of the Near and Middle East. From traditional and classical music to avant-garde, jazz, and rock, the festival program also features art, such as visual arts, dance, and theatre of interdisciplinary projects. Jivan Gasparyan Jr has always been inspired by the folk melodies of his native Armenia. His grandfather, also a musician, taught him the art of duduk, an instrument of Armenian origin.

Jazz in Duketown is the largest free outdoor jazz festival in the Netherlands. It's a real gathering for jazz addicts, inviting internationally renowned bands. In 2019, one of them is the Amsterdam-based Dutch instrumental collective Jungle by Night. The band plays a mix of various styles, inspired by funk, jazz, dub, rock, and others. The ensemble made its debut in 2010 and has played at numerous festivals. Their December 2010 performance with former backing musicians of Afrobeat founder Fela Kuti in Paris saw them hailed as "the future of Afrobeat".

The Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) was composed of Milt 'Bags' Jackson on vibraphone, John Lewis on piano, Percy Heath on bass, and Connie Kay on drums. Milt Jackson and John Lewis were pioneer bebop musicians who had played together in Dizzy Gillespie's 1948 big band. They pursued separate careers before adding Heath and Lewis to form the Modern Jazz Quartet in the 1950s. Noted for its delicate percussion sonorities, innovative jazz forms, and high performance standards, the MJQ was an immensely popular jazz and “third stream” ensemble until its final concerts in the early 1990s.

This broadcast is the first part of a concert performed by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, recorded at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris in December 1959. Co-founded in the early 1950s by American jazz drummer Art Blakey and pianist Horace Silver, this hard bop ensemble performed and recorded until Blakey died in 1990. Many jazz greats got their start in this band, including trumpeters Lee Morgan and Wynton Marsalis, saxophonists Benny Golson and Wayne Shorter, pianists Joanne Brackeen and Keith Jarrett.

The Newport Jazz Festival, first established in the North-American town of Newport, Rhode Island in the summer of 1954, has now grown to become one of the largest multi-day celebrations of jazz worldwide. It has resulted in numerous famous live albums from top-rate jazz stars, and has spawned several worldwide tours, including editions of the Newport Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. In October 1972, the Newport Jazz Festival in Rotterdam welcomed the Giants of Jazz, an all-star band featuring drummer Art Blakey, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, bassist Al McKibbon, pianist Thelonious Monk, saxophonist Sonny Stitt and trombonist Kai Winding. Part 2.

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 November 2, 1958, American jazz titan Duke Ellington and his Orchestra performed two concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Among the many talents in the Orchestra were trumpeter Clark Terry, trombonist Quentin Jackson, saxophonist Johnny Hodges and violinist Ray Nance.