Schedule

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. Jimmy Witherspoon and Rozaa Wortham, two incredible brilliant jazz musicians. Rozaa Wortham starts off the show with the Jimmy Witherspoon Quartet. Swinging and full of energy she performs ‘It Don’t Mean A Thing’. Jimmy Witherspoon, known for the song “Ain’t Nobody’s Business” ends the show with some astounding lean-back blues.

Considered one of the most technically brilliant players in the history of the trumpet, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis is also a master of classical music and a fine composer. Marsalis takes the cameras with him around New York, to his home town of New Orleans, and to his rehearsal studios where he and his assembled band of musicians are seen putting together the album Blood on the Fields. He also talks about his music and his way of working.

Woody Herman: Live in '64 features a blistering one-hour concert from 1964 showcasing one of the very hottest line-ups of the "Swinging Herd," including trumpeter Bill Chase, trombonist Phil Wilson, and the amazing saxophonist Sal Nistico on the front line, as well as drummer Jake Hanna, bassist Chuck Andrus, and pianist-arranger Nat Pierce in the rhythm section. The band roars throughout the entire show which includes standards such as "Lonesome Old Town", "After You’ve Gone", and new originals including Charles Mingus’s "Better Git It In Your Soul."

Coleman Hawkins: Live in '62 presents two incredible concerts featuring stellar European and American legendary side-musicians including Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison on trumpet and drummer ‘Papa’ Jo Jones. Coleman Hawkins, ‘The Father of Jazz Saxophone,’ demonstrates why he is still considered one of the most important innovators in the history of jazz.

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 1979, American singer Ella Fitzgerald gave an unforgettable performance at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague. Fitzgerald, who was noted for her purity of tone, phrasing, "horn-like" improvisational ability and tremendous work ethic, had recorded a live album with the Count Basie Orchestra at the Montreux Jazz Festival the night before. On the program are a number of songs she rarely performed, such as Make Me Rainbows, Some Other Spring, Dindi, and Theme from Love Boat.

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. The Crusaders, an American jazz fusion group that was popular in the '70s employed a two-manned front-line horn section. The group’s sound was rooted in hard bop, with an emphasis on R&B and soul. Their performance at Estival is beyond soulful and an amazing show to watch.

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 George Benson & Kenny G.

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.

Double bassist Avishai Cohen’s trio with Noam David (drums) and Omri Mor (pianist) joined forces with the international Symphony Orchestra ‘INSO-Lviv’, conducted by Christian Schumann. On June 24, 2017 they brought Avishai Cohen’s signature blend of influences from Eastern Europe, American jazz and the Middle East to the Alfa Jazz Festival in Lviv, Ukraine. Cohen, who also supplies vocalizations in the Judeo-Spanish dialect Ladino, came to prominence internationally in the 1990s when jazz great Chick Corea offered him a place in his trio and a recording deal. Thirty years later, Cohen has become a house-hold name himself, leaving his Ukrainian audience enthralled and connected through the universal language of music.

American trumpet player and occasional singer Chet Baker (1929-1988) was one of the most popular exponents of bebop and cool jazz. At the age of 10, Baker was introduced to music in a school orchestra, after which he discovered bebop in the army in 1946. After serving six months in prison in 1953 for drug possession, Baker formed his own quartet with West Coast jazz great, pianist Russ Freeman. His lifelong drug addiction forced him to concertize and record incessantly. Always popular in Europe, Chet Baker (trumpet, vocals) joined Jacques Pelzer (alto saxophone, flute), Luigi Trussardi (bass), Franco Manzecchi (drums), and René Urtreger (piano) for a set in Brussels, Belgium, on May 2, 1964. They performed Bye Bye Blackbird, Isn't It Romantic, Airegin, Time After Time and So What. On September 3, 1979, Baker appeared at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival in Norway. He was joined by Wolfgang Lackerschmid (vibraphone), Michel Graillier (piano), and Jean Louis Rassenfosse (bass) for performances of Blue Train, Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise, Five Years Ago, and Love For Sale.

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.

Jazz à Vienne is one of the world's most prestigious jazz festivals. Ever since 1981, it has attracted a mix of jazz legends and exciting newcomers, with many of them playing return engagements. Each year welcomes outstanding international stars to the historical Le Théâtre Antique to impress and inspire their audiences. In 2018, French pianist Gauthier Toux performed with his trio of bassist Kenneth Dahl Knudsen and drummer Maxence Sibille at Jazz à Vienne. Having just released his third album Whatever The Colours You See, Toux amazes with his contemporary take on jazz.

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 1978, the famed Chicago Blues All Star Band put on an electrifying performance at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague. In this short clip, they are joined by guitarist Eddy Clearwater who plays a stunning cover of "Everything's Gonna Be Alright."

Legendary Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés brought his band ‘Jazz Batá 2’ to the Malta Jazz Festival on July 19, 2019. The air was thick with anticipation as Valdés took to the stage, revisiting the small-group concept of his mythical 1972 Cuban album ‘Jazz Batá’. The batá repertoire – the deep classical music of West Africa – permeates Valdés’ piano solos throughout the concert. Valdés’s band consists of Dreiser Durruthy (Batas and vocals), Yaroldy Abreu (percussions and vocals), Abraham Mansfarroll (percussion), Ramón Vazquez Martirena-Bajo (bass guitar). They delivered a performance that reverberated through the historic island.

When renowned jazz pianists of the old and new school meet at a "Solo Piano Summit," audiences are treated to many an interesting musical surprise. The "Solo Piano Summit" brings together a handful of top pianists with different musical backgrounds: Jacky Terrasson, Junior Mance, Geoff Keezer, Bill Charlap and Alex Wilson. Besides solo performances the all-stars used the occasion for spontaneous interplay, improvisation and a fantastic finale - in short for the pleasure of virtuoso jazz piano playing.

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.