Jazzkaar Festival - Tallinn

Jazzkaar Festival - Tallinn

From April 15-30 the Tallinn International Jazzkaar Festival will open its doors for the 17th time featuring Dianne Reeves, Vinicius Cantuaria and The Bad Plus. This year's festival includes 50 concerts in thirteen Estonian cities - Tallinn, Tartu, Prnu, Jhvi, Viljandi, Narva, Tri, Haapsalu, Valga, Rakvere, Plva, Elva and Keila. The concerts in Tallinn will take place in 15 different halls altogether.

The festival will feature musicians from 24 different countries, including Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Britain, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Lithuania, Georgia, Indonesia, India, Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Chilie, Israel and the USA.

The opening concert of the festival will be by a rising Estonian artist Liisi Koikson, who will be presenting her debut album. The young woman was awarded the title of the best jazz singer and best female singer at the last Estonian Music Awards ceremony.

The main performers of the festival will be jazz diva Dianne Reeves, a four time Grammy award winner, the power piano trio The Bad Plus from the USA, and Vinicius Cantuaria quintet from Brazil, continuing with the best traditions of Antonio Carlos Jobim's music.

The European jazz elite is also impressively represented at Jazzkaar - the best French saxophone and clarinet players Michel Portal and Louis Sclavis, Spanish saxophone and flute players Jorge Pardo and Jose Louis Gutierrez, etc.

Youth is one of the keywords for this year's festival. The youngest star will be a 16-year-old Italian saxophone player Francesco Cafiso, who has gained substantial international recognition, despite his young age.

23-year-old wonder-voice Eivor Palsdottir, who was voted the best female vocalist in Iceland, will be performing with Villu Veski's world music group. A special kind of energy will be brought to the festival by the saxophone player and rap artist Soweto Kinch, who has been awarded several prestigious British awards. Norway will be represented by Solveig Slettahjell with her Slow Motion Quintet. Young Estonian singers Uku Suviste and Kadri Voorand will have their Jazzkaar debut this year, while Sofia Rubina and Chalice are both already well-known artists for the festival audience.

World music and jazz will be wonderfully combined by groups Boi Akih (Indonesia - India-the Netherlands), The Shin (Georgia), PercaDu (Israel), Sanju Sahai and Fida Hussain Khan (India), Anna- Mari Khr orhcestra (Finland) etc.

Estonian musicians will be giving 20 concerts and the audience will have a chance to see the brand new shows of Meelis Vind, Bonzo Dream Orchestra, Tnu Naissoo, Hedvig Hanson, Riho Sibul, Raivo Tafenau, etc.