Schedule

Jazzfest Bonn is an annual festival of modern and creative jazz music. Every May it presents local and international jazz musicians in concert halls all over the German city. Among the artists of the 2017 edition is Bandit 65, a trio of breathtaking virtuosity, great power, boundless breadth, and astounding beauty. Together with Tim Motzer on guitar and electronics, and Gintas Janusonis on drums and percussion, guitarist and band leader Kurt Rosenwinkel explores the intersection of guitars, rhythm, electronics, soundscapes, free improvisation, and telepathic interplay.

Texan pianist Sammy Price (1908-1992) played everything from blues and boogie-woogie to swing and jump-blues. Starting in Dallas as a singer and dancer in Alphonso Trent’s orchestra, he went to Kansas to form the Texas Bluesicians. At the end of the 1930s, and as a house pianist for the Decca label, he backed many stars, including Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Trixie Smith. Price was equally at home playing the blues in a trio, or leading a bigger band playing the jump-blues people loved to dance to. In this 1958 recording, Sammy plays the Comblain-La-Tour Jazz Festival with his band.

Jazz fans in television land have come to the right place for their dose of first-rate world jazz: TorTube! Jazz club De Tor in Enschede is one of Europe’s most authentic jazz venues, with an absolutely unique ambiance. Some of the best musicians from Holland and the rest of the world find their way to De Tor to perform for an appreciative audience of jazz fans. Who’s the Bossa? is a TorTube episode featuring Dutch jazz singer Josee Koning, the leading Brazilian musician in the Netherlands. Inspired by the music of Antônio Carlos Jobim, this grande dame takes you on a musical journey through the streets of São Paulo.

The veritable tombak virtuosos of Trio Chemirani, consisting of Chemirani Senior and Juniors, enrapture the Festival de Saintes. The tombak is a Persian percussion instrument, but its rhythms are universal. The Trio Chemirani’s music is accessible to all and will certainly resound with each listener. The members of the trio, Djamchid Chemirani (born in Teheran in 1942) and his two sons and pupils Keyvan and Bijan, are living in France. Their concert performances bring them all over the world, as they explore the endless potential of their Persian percussion instruments. The trio finds also inspiration in Mediterranean modal music and jazz. These three musicians, who might well be thought of as poets, are in search of a common language that connects several cultures.

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. Curated by its percussionist and leader, Guegué Medeiros, the collective Fuá Do Guegué aims to bring together professionals and artists who identify with and value the rhythms, characteristics, and art of Brazil’s Northeast. With a healthy disregard for preconceived notions and restraints, the collective combines music, film, and dance in their eclectic and highly energetic sets. Fuá Do Guegué consists of Guegué Medeiros (percussion); Salomão Soares (piano); Lau Trajano (bass); Danilo Moraes, Beibe, and Janayna Pereira (percussion and vocals); and Olivio Filho (accordion).

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. One of the ensembles appearing at jazzahead! 2022 is Cologne-based drummer-composer Jo Beyer’s band ‘JO’. Award-winning drummer Beyer is accompanied by Felix Elsner (piano), Sven Decker (tenor saxophone), and Andreas Wahl (guitars and e-bow), playing his snappy compositions with undeniable improvisational flair. JO, which was founded in 2015, lives up to the band’s motto: “fun without compromise”!

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 American jazz pianist, composer and Steinway artist Connie Han. She has been compared to legendary jazz pianists McCoy Tyner and Hank Jones, although her musical direction is associated with the 'Young Lions'-revolution of the late 1980s, which was spearheaded by the likes of the Marsalis Brothers, keyboardist Kenny Kirkland, and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts. She plays a solo recital for jazzahead! 2021.

The Dutch Hammond organ player Rob Mostert develops, in cooperation with DJAZZ, the programme ‘Mostert Meets’. In this series, the Hammond B3 organ takes centre stage. Rob Mostert invites the world’s finest jazz musicians for a musical collaboration, in which the Hammond Organ plays a major role. The Hammond B3 is an electric organ, which generates sound by creating an electric current from rotating a metal tonewheel near an electromagnetic pickup. Initially, the Hammond B3 was at home in churches, until it entered the jazz scene in the mid-20th century. In this episode, Mostert teams up with the Dallas-born vocalist Dede Priest. She’s renowned for her raw sound. She knows how to sing blues and gospel like no other!

Since 1993, the Dutch band New Cool Collective has been happily grooving thanks to its unique mix of jazz, dance, latin, salsa, afrobeat and boogaloo. They are always funky, energetic and dance-worthy. As pioneers in the Dutch jazz scene, NCC has received many awards and the band has toured the great expanses of Europe, Asia and North America. Besides hipster jazz clubs, the band plays huge pop and rock festivals, such as Sziget, Lowlands (Netherlands) and the Aberdeen Alternative Festival. Its members have also collaborated with many Dutch and international artists on tour and in the studio. This concert shows New Cool Collective with special guests Jules Deelder and Anton Goudsmit, live at the Rotterdam Luxor Theatre. Expect energetic, danceable and great music!

'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 1995, vibraphonist Gary Burton and pianist Makoto Ozone, both great jazz players noted for their virtuoso technique and innovative style, came together to give a concert of improvised music. They delighted the audience with their fluid, poetic artistry, which was expressed in a performance of the highest order.

This portrait of Marcus Miller was recorded during his 2009 ‘Tutu Revisited’ tour. Miller looks back on his relationship with Miles Davis. Miller tells us about writing his composition 'Tutu', and shares countless stories of the recording process of the album 'Tutu'. This documentary was filmed in 2009 at the 'We Want Miles' exhibition in Cité de la Musique in Paris.

Guitarist and vocalist Willy Sahel was born in N'djamena, Chad. He mixes traditional rhythms with soul, jazz and gospel, singing in his mother tongue and eight other languages. His quartet performs melodic, harmonious and groovy music at Greve Studios in Berlin, with an extraordinary energy that draws the listener into his universe from the moment he hits the first note. Sahel is joined by keyboardist Adebambo Akinwale, ukelele and electric bass player Noriaki Hosoya, and drummer Ra'fat Muhammad.