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Moers Festival Interviews: Virginia Genta
by Martin Longley
There is a tradition in the small German city of Moers, although its aims are far from traditional in orientation. Unless we consider the already sixty-year history (at least) of jazz-derived free improvisation. The Moers Festival has run since 1972, originally bent on exploring the vitality of free jazz, and still resolved towards that direction today, ...
Jazzkaar Interviews: Mingo Rajandi
by Martin Longley
The Estonian composer and acoustic bassist Mingo Rajandi has created a body of work that includes jazz, free improvisation, moderne art music and scores for theatrical productions. She moved to Brussels nearly four years ago, but still retains resilient links to her old Tallinn scene, with its regular roster of musicians who arrive from varied stylistic ...
The Jazz Cruise 2024
by Katchie Cartwright
Celebrity Summit The Jazz Cruise Miami, Labadee, Puerto Plata, St. Thomas January 18-25, 2024 Founded by Anita E. Berry in 2001, The Jazz Cruise has been offering patrons a yearly action-packed weeklong jazz experience at sea with some 100 world-class musicians in 200 hours of programming ...
Farewell to a Behind-the-Scenes Festival Legend, Monterey Jazz Festival at 66
by Josef Woodard
This year's model of the Monterey jazz festival, now up to its 66th annual, felt overall like one of the strongest and most balanced of the past decade. Salient highlights included a stunning African-flavored commissioned work, Isakoso Ara, from Ambrose Akinmusire--one of the proudest products of this festival over many years--along with a saucy and artful ...
French Showcase at the 2023 European Jazz Conference
by Francesco Martinelli
Palais du Pharo/Théâtre La Criée European Jazz Conference Showcases Marseille, France September 14-17, 2023 The showcase program of the 9th European Jazz Conference (see separate article) was inaugurated in the comfortable Auditorium of the Palais du Pharo--the main venue of the conference--by the Orchid Big Band. Born inside the musical collective ...
Celebrating and Reflecting Back on Guelph Jazz Festival @ 30
by Josef Woodard
Guelph Jazz Festival Guelph Otario, Canada September 14-17, 2023 There are precious few jazz festivals in the Americas adhering to what could be called the Triple-A curatorial mandate: adventurous, avant-garde and art-centric. These special cases cling to a commercially fragile, demographically marginal--and also culturally vital--realm and mission. Such conditions make ...
Half Moon Bay Wine & Jazz Festival 2023
by Walter Atkins
The Second Annual Half Moon Bay Wine & Jazz Festival took place on historic Main Street Half Moon Bay, with perfect 76° weather and a cloudless sky complementing the day's music and wine tasting. Artists for the HMB Festival included El Guajiro (The Peasant), the Marcus Shelby Quintet, Sammi Joy, Paula West, the Brian Andres Trio ...
Re-Convening The Convention: jazzahead's Bold Comeback Plan
by Josef Woodard
A delicate, operational balance between sophistication, jazz cultural advocacy and marketwise boosterism has been in place since the inception of the ambitious adventure known as jazzahead!. One can sense that balance in the convention/showcase festival's very branding, with its title stylized as in coolly lowercase composite word festooned with an emphatic exclamation point, and in the ...
Jazzkaar Interviews: Kirke Karja
by Martin Longley
Estonian pianist Kirke Karja has regularly appeared at the Jazzkaar festival in Tallinn, customarily performing in surprising settings, always delivering a fresh band combination, or a new set of music, or altering ratios between improvisation and composition, acoustic or electric palettes. During the last two years she has a.) been discovered by the rest of the ...
Vossa Jazz Going Strong and Poetic at 50
by Josef Woodard
Vossa Jazz Voss, Norway March 31-April 2, 2023 Origin stories in the still-young-ish wild frontier of jazz festival culture can be fascinating case studies in feisty pioneer spirit. Take the Western Norwegian Vossa Jazz Festival, an important stop in the storied Norwegian festival circuit, which celebrated its ripe old 50th birthday this ...