Schedule

Although its music might sound like the soundtrack of any 1970s American car chase movie, the band Sven Hammond Soul is from the Netherlands. This steaming soul machine is headed by Sven Figee, who prefers to attack rather than play his Hammond organ. In April 2012, the band was augmented with vocalist Jenny Lane. Today’s recordings were made at a steaming live performance at Utrecht’s Tivoli in 2012.

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.

Known outside jazz circles mainly for his film scores, French composer, arranger and pianist Michel Legrand has had a long and storied career in music. Interpreters of his compositions include jazz legends such as Sarah Vaughan, Stan Getz, and Bill Evans, as well as pop stars such as Barbra Streisand and Frank Sinatra. During this 1982 performance in the Belgian town of Spa, Legrand leads his orchestra through a number of original songs, including “The Summer Knows,” “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” and “Les Moulins de mon Cœur.” Singing either in English or French, Legrand delivers a spirited performance with plenty of romantic flair that is sure to capture your heart.

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'.

Since 2005, the Morgenland Festival of 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. The Morgenland Chamber Orchestra has been an integral part of the Morgenland Festival since 2009. This ensemble of musicians from Germany and various guest countries performs as part of the festival's opening concert. This episode includes performances sometimes energetic, sometimes soft and soothing.

Unlike many of his fellow jazz cats, vocalist Gregory Porter transcends the jazz bubble. After sustaining a shoulder injury, this former American football player turned to jazz singing. He was discovered in a Californian jazz club by pianist, saxophonist and composer Kamau Kenyatta. Porter lent his vocal skills to gospel choirs across the country and a string of successful musicals before turning his talent to his own compositions. His rise since then has been meteoric. Porter’s magnificent, burnished baritone can sink into a lyric with luxurious ease, the melody gently sculpted into new shapes at every turn, with the rhythm tugging subtly back and forth across the bar line. This live performance at the Olympia showcases this man's worth, and is a truly amazing experience!

Trumpeter Jacques Kuba Séguin’s ensemble unites some of Montreal’s most expressive musicians: apart from Jacques Kuba Séguin, double bassist Frédéric Alarie, pianist Jonathan Cayer, and drummer Kevin Warren deliver subtle but strong lyrical moments, that make it hard not to be touched by the musical bond of this group. The experience of their ‘Litania Projekt’ seems to stop time for an instant. Together with his expressive musicians, Jacques presents a program that swings between modernity and tradition.

Maria João and Aki Takase are a musical explosion all by themselves. Combine them with bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted- Pedersen and you've got an amazing jazz concert!

‘The legend of the groove’ is a series of documentaries devoted to the musicians who were most influential on contemporary hip hop, soul, rhythm 'n' blues, and on the course of history. Between the late 1950s and now, these musicians radically changed music. Although sometimes hardly in the public eye, they have all been major sources of inspiration for today's major artists: Prince, Erykah Badu, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

Steven Gene Wold, commonly known as Seasick Steve, (born circa 1941) is an American bluesman, although he prefers to be called "a song and dance man". He plays guitars (mostly personalized), and sings, usually about his early life living rough and doing casual work.

The Da Pá Virada Sessions series presents the best musicians of contemporary Brazilian jazz, and beyond. Filmed in São Paulo, 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. One of the bands taking part in this series is Os Capoeira. This ensemble practices the traditional Brazilian martial art from Bahia it is named after, combining elements of dance, acrobatics, and percussive music. Moreover, Os Capoeira runs a cultural center in São Paulo. Let yourself be inspired by Os Capoeira's unique take on Brazilian culture!

The UK based band Metronomy started out as a bedroom project by Joseph Mount, who during its early stages was the sole contributor to the band's repertoire. After the debut release, Mount started expanding the band's personnel: first by adding two members, and later increasing it by one more. Metronomy's critical acclaim comes from frenetically hybrid indie pop style knitted together with trademark electronic sounds inspired by Mount's favorite acts, namely Autechre and Funkstorung. Here Metronomy performs at Beck's Festival Bar, in Sydney, Australia, on January 15, 2009.

Raul Midón appeared at 2017’s Sing Jazz Festival in Singapore with double bassist Romeir Mendez and drummer Billy Williams. Blind since birth, Raul Midón is a singer, guitarist, and songwriter from New Mexico. With a vocal range as dynamic as his guitar playing and a remarkable talent for trumpet mimicry, Midón’s performances transcend musical boundaries, effortlessly blending rock, jazz, folk, and Latin pop into his unique sound. He has worked with numerous legends, including Bill Withers, Herbie Hancock, Sting, and Dianne Reeves, and his album ‘Bad Ass and Blind’ was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2018. No wonder the Sing Jazz audience were ecstatic!

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 youngest ensembles making their debut at jazzahead! 2022 is pianist Keno Harriehausen’s quartet. German national radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur hailed the band’s 2019 debut album as “the jazz debut of the year” and “a minor masterpiece”. The band, consisting of two Germans, a Latvian and a Dutch, offers an unusual instrumentation: pianist Harriehausen is accompanied by tenor saxophonist Karlis Auzins, cellist Maya Fridman, and double bassist Andris Meinig. The Keno Harriehausen Quartet offers an almost cinematic concert experience in which dreamlike chamber is combined with influences as wide-ranging as pop music, soundscapes and minimal music.

Manu Katché is one of France's most famous jazz drummers, who originally studied piano at the Conservatory in Paris before he switched to percussion. He presented his tenth album, “The scOpe”, which incorporates elements of jazz, rock, and world music, at the 2020 edition of Festival Jazz au Sommet in France. Katché is joined on stage by Jérôme Regard on bass, Alfio Origlio on piano, Walter Ricci on vocals, and Patrick Manouguian on guitar.

This might come unexpected, but the Brussels Jazz Orchestra (BJO) is not the kind of jazz orchestra that sticks to standards. They prefer to achieve the highest level by composing original music, creating unique arrangements, and playing inventively as well as passionately. In fact, it really is jazz with a dynamic orchestral sound, with a classic strength in which each musician is also a brilliant soloist. Call it an ‘orchestrated passion for jazz’ that incites BJO to create world-class music. Founded in 1993 by Frank Vaganée, Serge Plume and Marc Godfroid, the Brussels Jazz Orchestra is recognised and has been subsidised by the Flemish Government since. Brussels Jazz Orchestra is orchestra in residence at Flagey in Brussels.

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 2024, jazzahead! paid special attention to the jazz scene of the Netherlands and invited over forty jazz acts to perform over the course of three days. Among the acts presenting themselves at jazzahead! 2024 is the Guy Salamon Group, playing repertoire from their album ‘FREE HUGS’. This third release by the Amsterdam-based artist with his octet explores the tales of The Egg-X people, set in a whimsically absurd reality. Expect a vibrant mix of styles, from swing and punk to polka, which creates a dynamic musical carousel. The lineup includes Guy Salamon (drums), Alistair Payne (trumpet), José Soares (alto saxophone), Lucas Martinez (tenor saxophone), Jesse Schilderink (baritone saxophone), Xavi Torres (piano) ,Teis Semey (guitar), and Brodie Jarvie (bass).

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: take for instance this unusual performance by the Free Desmyter Quartet. Desmyter is an obstinate improviser with a very original and recognisable sound. His compositions are never contrived, nor revolutionary, for that matter, yet they are contemporary and innovative.

Bootsy Collins, famed for playing with George Clinton and his very own Rubber Band, is used to playing syncopated, hard and relentlessly rhythmic music. With this unique style Bootsy was a major influence on the development of funk. Now in his 60s, the bassist seems animated by a new energy that reflects his new work on the album ‘Tha Funk Capitol of the World’. With this album, Bootsy Collins pays tribute to the artists with whom he worked during his frantic career: from James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic to Fatboy Slim. During this concert, recorded at the festival Jazz à Vienne, Bootsy maintains that same energy, giving a spectacular show.

'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.

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.

Since 2005, the Morgenland Festival of 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. "The Art of Duo" presents an unprecedented duo featuring pianist Salman Gambarov and sheng player, a Chinese mouth-organ, Wu Wei.

One vocalist from Paris and the other from Bern, and two contrasting personalities. Brought together by a chance encounter in 2014, the two singers were surprised to discover how much they had in common: they both do more than just sing well. Leïla Martial and Andreas Schaerer intend to explore and experiment, stretching their vocal boundaries. From the deepest abyss to the most exquisite tones the human voice can produce, they leave no stone unturned in their quest to express themselves, each in their own individual way and always with a generous dose of humour and zest.