The Festival started in 2003 mainly with Greek groups and ended up the coming years to accommodate the most promising names in European jazz and beyond. Names such as Marjorie Barnes from US, MARIA JOÃO from Portugal, Ramon Valle from Cuba, Jef Neve from Belgium, Benni Chawes from Denmark the Greek-Danish Veronica Mortensen, and many others that participated in the Preveza Jazz Festival excel today in the international jazz scene.
The Festival is held under the auspices of the Regional Unit of Preveza, the Municipality of Preveza, who supports it as an important cultural institution that unites the diverse musical traditions of European countries and which can be a powerful attraction for cultural tourism in the region.
Program 2017:
FRIDAY 26 MAY
Music School of Preveza
Apostolos Verikios, Evangelia Theophanous, Dimitris Karabelas and Philippos Sismanidis, all students of the Music School of Preveza, have a special love in ragtime.
The clarinet, the violin, the piano and the guitar in a colorful mix, come alive with melodies adapted by the members themselves, stimulate the senses and travel us to America in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries.
Luca Ciarla - Italy
A creative and surprising violinist, Luca Ciarla easily transcends the boundaries managing to trace an innovative musical path, a magical acoustic seduction in perfect balance between written compositions and improvisation, traditional and contemporary sounds. He has successfully performed in jazz, classical and world music festivals and concert series in more than fifty countries in the world.
Dan Barta & RobertBalzar trio - Czech Rebublic
Dan Barta is one of the most acclaimed Czech male vocalists. Possessing a very distinctive voice, Dan manages to incorporate rock, funk, blues, jazz, and the world of musicals, into his overall artistic vision. He began his singing career in the early 1990's. Dan received 14 awards from the Czech Academy of Popular Music and has also toured the Czech and Slovak Republics.
Robert Balzar is one of the leading bass players on the Czech jazz. He has been on the scene since the 1990s and during his career he has collaborated with many world-class musicians.Robert Balzar Trio has released 6 studio albums, including the CD “Tales” featuring the guitarist John Abercrombie. The last two CDs “Discover Who We Are” and “Vu Ja De” were recorded in The Sear Sound, a New York studio lead by world famous sound engineer James Farber. The latest project of this trio, a new DVD called “One Day”, was released by the Czech National TV (2016).
Members: Robert Balzar –bass, Vít Křištan – piano, Kamil Slezák - drums
SATURDAY 27 MAY
Andreas Hourdakis trio - Sweden
Andreas has frequently toured Europe and Scandinavia as a sideman and with his own projects. His playing can be heard on albums by great artists. The debut album of Andreas Hourdakis Trio “In a barn” was released last year and received great reviews in swedish newspapers and international jazz publications. In a few months the Trio will launch it’s next project - “It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry” - where it plays songs of the great, this year, 75 year old Bob Dylan.The other members of the trio are Martin Höper - double bass and Ola Hultgren- drums.
Yuri Honing Quartet - Netherlands
Yuri Honing is one of Holland’s most important saxophonists with touring experience in over 90 countries and a discography of almost 40 titles. He has played and recorded with greats, while in 2001 received the Edison Jazz Award. In 2012 he was awarded with the Boy Edgar Prize, the most prestigious jazz prize in the Netherlands. For years Dutch saxophonist Yuri Honing has been considered one of the main representatives of European jazz. He has built a unique personal style, based on jazz, pop and non-western musical traditions. He leads his acoustic quartet with pianist Wolfert Brederode, Icelandic bassplayer Gulli Gudmundsson and Dutch drummer Joost Lijbaart. The group toured and performed on major festivals in Europe, Asia and South America.
Adetayo Adedeji - Greece
Adedeji is a prolific singer, guitarist and composer. He was born and raised in the city of Lagos, West Africa. At the young age of 5, he joined the choir of the church and at the age of 10 he was in charge of it, although he was mostly self-taught. Later, he worked as a singer as well as in productions of local artists in Nigeria. By the time he was 18, his voice was heard throughout Nigeria, radio jingles and ads.He studied music technology and creative art. He is a graduate of the London College of Music and is a Jazz guitar / vocalist graduate of the Prince Claus Conservatory.His music is a mixture of traditional African music with the contemporary sound of jazz, funk and soul music, creating a result that is rhythmically and technically complex, harmoniously rich and fascinating in its melody.In 2007, Adedeji settled in Greece, where he appears almost every night as a singer and guitarist, participating in various projects and albums.
SUNDAY 28 MAY
Blaser and Ducret - Switzerland
Marc Ducret was Born in Paris in 1957. As a guitarist he debuted in 1986. He collaborated in the first French Orchestre National de Jazz. He was awarded Django Reinghardt Prize 3 years in the row. Jazz Hot magazine elected him the best French jazz guitarist. Marc Ducret today is one of the few European musicians regularly playing overseas. Since 1991, he has collaborated with a long list of great talents. At a time when more musicians are trying to be heard than ever before, rare gems like Samuel Blaser seem paradoxically, to rise above it all. Since his 2007 debut as a leader, Blaser has grown at an almost incomprehensible rate, while his improvisational strength has received high praise from the media world over.He began trombone lessons at the age of 9, and his early interests ranged from Swiss folk music to American R&B and jazz. He entered the local conservatory at 14 and graduated in 2002 after being awarded prizes in both the jazz and classical spheres, including the 2000 Benny Golson Prize. Participation in the heralded Vienna Art Orchestra and European Radio Big Band eventually led to a Fullbright Scholarship, facilitating studies in the United States at the SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Music. A year later, in 2006, Samuel won the J.J. Johnson Prize.
A. Toubanaki - I. Doumanis - Greece
Ilias Doumanis has been a drum professor in the Philippos Nakas Conservatory since 1990.He has taught more than 700 new drummers, many of whom are currently active musicians themselves in Greece and abroad. He has been teaching the "Yamaha Popular Music School Drums" program for children. He has been an active member of the Greek jazz, rock and blues scence since 1980, playing in various jazz clubs, music venues and festivals in Greece and abroad. He has collaborated with many performers and creators, with most of whom he has recorded.He participates in the music bands Blues project" (funk& soul) and "JM trio" (jazz). In 2014, along with the vocalist Aggeliki Toumbanaki, they created the experimental "Drums & Voice_ Jazztronica" project (electronic jazz).Ilias Doumanis is a member of the Sofar Sounds Community organizing team in Greece. He has been an honorary professor at the London College of Music since 2008.
Aggeliki Toumbanaki uses her voice as a means of improvising, experimenting, expressing, communicating, making friends, and also for songs, knowledge and experience. She has been professionally involved with singing since 2005 as a leader / producer and a lead vocalist of various music projects with sounds that have international as well as neighboring geographic coordinates with Greece. He has worked with music from the Balkans, the Mediterranean, nomads of the world and world jazz music.Since 2014, Aggeliki has been collaborating with the drummer Ilias Doumanis and together they create an unprecedented sound environment that derives from the music of the international jazz scene, evolved with customized design digital technology and sound. They form an original in its composition, as well as in its performance, experimental duet of drums and vocals.
Marly Marques quintet - Luxembourg
Marly Marques was born in Luxembourg into a Portuguese family. In 2011, she met four skilled jazzmen and they happened to really hit it off, Luxembourg being a very favorable country for happy and improbable encounters. Since then, they performed not only in Luxembourg's important jazz venues, but also abroad.In 2014, they won the 1st prize at the Crest Jazz Vocal Festival competition.Marly Marques 5tet’s first album “Só ar ser” was recorded in Germany and was released in May 2014. "Encounter" is Marly Marques 5tet’s second CD, recorded in Germany and released in December 2016. "Encounter" is, as the name suggests, the result of a beautiful encounter between five personalities, five musicians who do not disavow their jazz origins and do not hesitate to venture into the field of world music. They like to entangle their own compositions in English and Portuguese with arrangements of jazz and pop standards, borne by Marly’s warm and velvety voice.
http://prevezajazzfestival.wixsite.com/home
