Schedule

In 2019, the vibrant city of Sofia, Bulgaria, hosted the International A to JazZ Festival. Among the featured acts was the trailblazing jazz trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. This genre-defying artist captivated the audience with his eclectic “stretch music”; an approach that incorporates hip-hop and reaches back through the American canon into African percussion and its rich melodic content. Trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s quintet, which includes drummer Corey Fonville, percussionist Weedie Braimah, pianist Lawrence Fields, and bass guitarist Max Mucha, delivered a performance that defied boundaries and expectations.

With his relaxed and clear voice, Belgian-born vocalist Michel Tasky took his French-Waalse roots to Brazil, where he established himself in the jazz scene. His contemporary style, which blends jazz and French chanson with a whole lot of samba, transports audiences to faraway places.

Brazilian artist Gilberto Gil returns to Jazz à Vienne in France with a new round of singing that is inspired by his latest album ‘Fé na Festa’: a mixture of celebration, tradition and even some rock now and then. Gilberto Gil, worldwide known for as musician and the Brazilian minister of Culture, was one of the pioneers of the cultural movement ‘tropicalismo’. This movement, with a strong character of social protest, combines elements of traditional Brazilian culture with modern art forms. Gilberto Gil's new sound clearly has its roots in Brazilian culture, yet it is always inspired by jazz.

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."

Count Basie is one of the most important bandleaders of the swing era. With the exception of a brief period in the early '50s, he led a big band from 1935 until his death almost 50 years later. Basie's orchestra was characterized by a light, swinging rhythm section that he led from the piano, lively ensemble work, and generous soloing. Basie was not a composer like Duke Ellington or an important soloist like Benny Goodman. His instrument was his band, which was considered the epitome of swing and deeply influenced jazz. In this 1961 concert recording, Count Basie takes the stage in Charleroi.

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 “Europe's First Lady of Song”, popular Dutch jazz vocalist Rita Reys, accompanied by husband Pim Jacobs’s trio in a classic 1982 performance.

Rising star of the jazz guitar Scott DuBois leads his quartet, consisting of Gebhard Ullmann (reeds), Thomas Morgan (bass), and Kresten Osgood (drums), in an intimate and atmospheric performance at Munich’s Jazz Club Unterfahrt in March 2016. The group’s telepathy is such that they are able to go from deathly quiet to fiercely avant-garde at the drop of a hat. For this occasion, DuBois and his group gave a full performance of his "Winter Light" album, released a few months earlier, plus his 'Lake Shore Suite'.

The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra commissioned violinist Tim Kliphuis, internationally known for his genre-crossing approach to music, to write a new version of Antonio Vivaldi's ‘Four Seasons’. Kliphuis choose to take improvisation as his starting point; at the same time, he intended to leave the best-known Vivaldi themes and chords in, as they give the piece its wonderful energy. The result is a fresh and exciting interpretation that never loses sight of the original. Each season has a different character: the freshness of spring is reflected by the use of Irish and Norwegian traditional music; the summer heat can be heard in the American jazz and funk rhythms; the autumn includes a galloping safari hunt in South-Africa and the ice-cold winter warms up with the energy of Russian gypsy music. For each movement, Kliphuis has a metropole in mind which he visited on his previous concert tours. You’re about to witness a truly genre-crossing spectacle!

Salif Keita’s music is a rich combination of traditional Malian music with European and American influences. We can hear this in the instrumentation of Keita’s music, which varies from traditional West-African instruments to Western European ones. The Malian singer was cast out by his family because of his albinism. In 1967 he moved to Bamako, where he started his musical career and joined Les Ambassadeurs (Internationaux). He achieved international acknowledgement with this band in the 1970s. After spending a couple of years in Ivory Coast, Salif has found his home base in Paris since 1984. During this 2010 concert, he proves to be rightfully referred to as “The Golden Voice of Africa”.

As one of the best Hammond B3 organ players, Jimmy McGriff (1936-2008) is often lost among great soul-jazz organists from his hometown of Philadelphia. Of the major soul-jazz pioneers, he was the bluesiest and often insisted that he was more of a blues musician than a jazz artist. Regardless, he remained eclectic enough to blur the lines of genres. His sound - deep, down-to-earth grooves drenched in blues and gospel feeling - made him popular with R&B audiences. This 1965 performance is part of the Comblain-la-Tour Jazz Festival.

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 1988, acclaimed Brazilian singer and pianist Tania Maria performed with bassist Leonard Traversa and drummer Kim Plainfield at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague. Maria is known for her energetic personality and unique style of singing that draws from a variety of jazz, Latin and pop traditions.

Oum El Ghait Benessahraoui, who is better known as Oum, gives a unique glance at ethnic Morrocan musical esthetics. The singer-songwriter is considered to be the ambassador of Morrocan culture, too. Deeply influenced by gospel, jazz, soul and R&B genres, today Oum mixes more and more African music genres, such as Sufi, Hassani, or Afrobeat. Yet, the singer’s voice still echoes the colours of Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald or Whitney Houston. It is the African American vocal tradition that made a huge impact on Oum since her early days as the singer. Performing from Music Meeting Festival in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Oum charms the stage with an exotic sonic journey to the undiscovered lands of North Africa.

The Dutch world-class jazz pianist Peter Beets has shared the stage with jazz greats like Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, “Toots” Thielemans, Elvin Jones, George Coleman, Johnny Griffin, Benny Golson and John Clayton. From birth, Beets was surrounded by music: he heard classical music from his mother, who is a music pedagogue, and he heard jazz from his father, who has a great fan of Oscar Peterson and Art Blakey. Although Beets’ parents originally did not associate the word “musician” with the word “career”, music is definitely in the family’s blood. At this concert at the Kurhaus in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, Peter Beets teams up with the world-famous guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. With a career spanning almost twenty-five years and including collaborating with dynamic peers like Brad Mehldau, Brian Blade, Mark Turner, Joshua Redman, Chris Potter, as well as esteemed jazz legends like Joe Henderson, Paul Motian and Gary Burton, Rosenwinkel’s indelible mark in music is the consummation of being steeped in the rich and deep traditions of jazz, springing off of the shoulders of such vital underpinnings to elevate his own art to new heights, evolving the language in a way no other guitarist has since his arrival. This collaboration between Beets and Rosenwinkel guarantees brilliant music.

The Dutch Hammond organ player Rob Mostert develops, in cooperation with Stingray DJAZZ, the program Mostert Meets. In this series, the Hammond B3 organ takes center 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 tone wheel 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!

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.

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. Foot Together is a TorTube episode featuring Dutch jazz icon Hermine Deurloo on the chromatic harmonica, in collaboration with the Dual City Concert Band led by Rini Swinkels. The spirited big band plays swinging and powerful jazz, with the incredible Hermine Deurloo adding a touch of Toots Thielemans as she plays her Hohner Toots Mellow Tone mouth organ.

Following a highly successful small-group jazz concert at New York Town Hall on May 17, 1947, Armstrong's manager Joe Glaser dissolved the Armstrong big band on August 13, 1947 and established a six-piece small group. This group was called the All Stars, and in 1964 Louis Armstrong recorded his biggest-selling record, Hello, Dolly! He made assorted television appearances, especially in the 1950s and 1960s – the recorded film was a TV Show in Australia when Armstrong was at the peak of his career. Armstrong kept up his busy tour schedule until a few years before his death in 1971. He also toured Africa, Europe, and Asia under sponsorship of the US State Department with great success, earning the nickname ‘Ambassador Satch’.

'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 1987, American pianist Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea was one of the artists appearing here. Together with Frank Gambale on guitar, Eric Marienthal on saxophone, John Patitucci on bass and Dave Weckl on drums, Corea performed jazz fusion with his Elektric Band - a jazz subgenre inspired by the rock music and electronic instruments of the day. The band was nominated for two Grammy Awards.

Lithuanian band Olivia Gongas gave an intimate performance at Vilnius jazz dance club Lindyhop.lt in late June 2021. The band, fronted by multi-instrumentalist Remis Rančys, consists of guitarist Laimonas Jančas, bassist Paulius Adomėnas, and drummer Domantas Razmus. Olivia Gongas draw from the band’s indie and world music inspirations for this mellow and cosy concert. The Lindyhop.lt has been Lithuania’s longest running jazz dance venue, in operation since 2003. Located in Vilnius, the country's capital city, it features an in-house jazz band that performs arrangements from the rich history of New Orleans jazz, the golden era of swing, and hot club-style jazz.