Schedule

November Music, a Dutch music festival in ’s-Hertogenbosch, showcases today's prominent composers. It programs top-notch ensembles, jazz and world music pioneers, interdisciplinary concerts, and sound art. In 2019, Tigran Hamasyan and Mathias Eick played a duo performance here. Armenian pianist Hamasyan has claimed a category of his own in contemporary jazz. Norwegian trumpeter Mathias Eick is an undisputed master of his instrument.

As a twenty-five year old saxophone player, Maceo Parker played in the band James Brown, but is also known for his collaborations with P. Funk, "Parliament" George Clinton and the "Rubber Band" by Bootsy Collins. Maceo has proven to be star 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 is an overheated concert hall with a very enthusiastic audience that completely surrender to the energy of the music. Full conviction he drags his audience along his world and plays his memorable songs, among which the funky song ‘Southwick’.

American soul and jazz organist Rhoda Scott spent most of her career in France, where she earned recognition far greater than that accorded to her in the United States. There was never any doubt about what instrument she would play as a child. "It's really the most beautiful instrument in the world,” she once stated in an interview. “The first thing I did was take my shoes off and work the pedals.” This performance at the French Festival Jazz à Vienne is extra special. Not only because of the beautiful location, but also because she shares the stage with American gospel and blues singer La Velle. Together they give an intimate and beautiful show in the antique 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. John Carl Hendricks is one of the instigators of "vocalese", an art form that aims to add lyrics to existing instrumental pieces and replace several instruments with singing. He flaunts this technique at Estival, where he "scat" while playing double bass. Hendricks is known for his mastery of scat, a form of vocal jazz that uses onomatopoeia rather than lyrics

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.

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.

In 1988, Dee Dee Bridgewater was one of the first great jazz singers to perform at the Jazz Festival in Ramatuelle. In 2016, the story seems to repeat itself as her daughter China Moses took the stage at Ramatuelle. Over the years, China Moses has become a mature performer with a unique style: rocky voice, sharp sense of swing, and intense/energetic stage presence. After signing compilations dedicated to Dinah Washington and blues, Moses released in 2016 an album of his own compositions, entitled "Whatever". Get ready for a most entertaining performance combining jazz, soul, and hip-hop.

Louis Armstrong: Live in '59 is one of the only known complete Armstrong concerts from the 1950s to be captured on film. This 55-minute set, filmed in Belgium in 1959, features many of Satchmo’s greatest songs including ‘Mack The Knife’, ‘When It’s Sleepy Time Down South’ and ‘Stompin’ At The Savoy,’ backed by his stellar band the All-Stars, featuring Trummy Young, Peanuts Hucko, Billy Kyle, Danny Barcelona and Mort Herbert.

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.

In this 1970 performance at Maison de la Radio in Paris, France, American blues legend John Lee Hooker (voice and guitar) is joined by the masterful Carey Bell (harmonica), Joe Harper (bass), Lester Dorsie (drums), and Jimmy Dawkins (electric guitar). From the first to the very last minute of the concert, Hooker illustrates why he, 45 years later, was to be ranked 35th on Rolling Stone’s 2015 list of 100 Greatest Guitarists: this bluesman is truly in a class of his own.

Arguably the greatest lady vocalists of all time are featured in this superb compilation. These historic recordings from the 1950s and 1960s offer a unique overview of different approaches to jazz singing that helped define the genre. Watch Billie Holiday’s performance of “God Bless The Child” closely and learn what made her such an influential jazz and pop singer. Enjoy Anita O’Day’s matchless rhythmic sense in a performance of “Honeysuckle Rose” recorded at the Arenateatern in Stockholm, Sweden on November 1, 1963. Marvel at Nina Simone’s December 1968 performance of “Ain't Got No, I Got Life” from London. Let Sarah Vaughan’s rendition of “Tenderly” sweep you off your feet – ‘Sassy’, or ‘The Divine One’, recorded this romantic evergreen in a television studio in Sweden on July 9, 1958. Last but not least, revel at the ‘First Lady of Song’: Ella Fitzgerald swung “Mack The Knife” in a December 4, 1960 appearance at The Embers in suburban Melbourne, Australia. Get to know the greatest lady vocalists in jazz history with this unique compilation of historic recordings!

In the second half of June 1965, during a prolonged European concert tour, American trumpeter Buck Clayton (1911–1991) played a residency at the Chikito, a club in Bern, Switzerland. With a local rhythm section of French pianist Henry Chaix, Swiss double bassist Théo Siegrist, and Swiss drummer Pierre Bouru, this stalwart of the Count Basie Orchestra gave a sparkling performance that was documented for posterity by Radio Télévision Suisse in the program ‘Variétés’. Opening with the George Gershwin favorite ‘’S Wonderful’, the program continues with two swing-era classics: ‘I Can't Get Started’ and ‘Honeysuckle Rose’. Revel at how easily Clayton finishes ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ on a high concert F! A spirited romp through Juan Tizol’s composition ‘Perdido’ closes this recording. The success of this booking ensured Clayton received repeated warm receptions in Bern in the following decades.

Aki Rissanen's interest in jazz came after he started taking classical piano lessons. His deep interest in improvised music placed him among top jazz pianist in his home country - Finland. While composing and performing his own music, Rissanen has also collaborated with Verneri Pohjola and Dave Liebman, and today his name appears among the top European jazz musicians. Live from 'Jazzclub Unterfahrt' in Munich, Germany, together with Antti Lotjonen on bass and Teppo Makynen on drums, Rissanen showcases the best of Scandinavian jazz and its DNA - the Nordic Tone.

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 1982, Dutch big band The Skymasters accompanied monumental jazz trumpet legend Dizzy Gillespie and the Brazilian bossa nova singer Astrud Gilberto at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague.

Pianist Kenny Barron’s June 27, 2019 appearance at the Alfa Jazz Festival in Ukraine’s Lviv was a celebration of sublime jazz virtuosity. The revered elder statesmen of jazz piano brought his regular working trio of Kiyoshi Kitagawa (bass) and Jonathan Blake (drums), augmented by stellar jazzman Marcus Strickland (tenor saxophone) and young lion Riley Mulherkar (trumpet). Their seamless blend of classic bebop and modern explorations spoke of a deep, emotive connection to each note, captivating the Ukrainian audience with lyrical improvisations during this unforgettable concert.

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 2025, about forty international jazz acts performed over three days, with a special focus on the RE:CONNECT theme, celebrating the vibrant jazz scenes of returning partner countries Spain, France, and Switzerland. Among the bands presenting themselves at jazzahead! 2025 is Smag Pa Dig Selv, a Danish trio. Their high-energy performance features an impossible-to-categorize blend of punk, jazz, pop, afrobeat, and 90s dance music that gets whole crowds dancing. The trio features Oliver Lauridsen (tenor saxophone) and Thorbjørn Ølgaard (baritone and bass saxophone); and Albert Holberg (drums).

1977 saw the recording of an audiovisual project that was hitherto unparalleled in Dutch jazz and television history: the ‘Zeeland Suite’. Pianist Leo Cuypers composed this suite, parts of which were recorded for television on different locations in the Dutch province of Zeeland. A 7-piece band, featuring Willem Breuker and members of his Kollektief, performed Cuypers’ music. The combination of live music and epic footage, some of which was filmed from a helicopter, was the basis for a 50-minute television broadcast. Jeroen van Vliet’s ‘Zeeland Suite Revisited’ is an updated version of this remarkable project. Pianist Jeroen van Vliet, 2014’s Boy Edgar Prize winner, composed new music. Using a new band – and new technology: drones – this new project once again shows the beauty of Zeeland. Today’s band features many big names from the contemporary Dutch jazz scene, gathered to pay tribute to Zeeland’s characteristic landscape.

Stemming from Brazil's São Paulo, Bixiga 70 is an exciting brass and percussion-based instrumental dance ensemble that combines jazz, funk, and Afro-Brazilian music, incorporating elements from dub, reggae, electronics, cumbia, carimbo, Ethio-jazz, and samba. The name Bixiga 70 is taken from a vibrant neighbourhood in downtown São Paulo. Organic, ritualistic, and sometimes even primal, the band’s music appeals to those who seek out mental and physical freedom.