The Festival is held under the auspices of the Regional Unit of 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.
The Festival is one of the few in Greece and all across western Greece with an international character.
The Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Denmark, Latvia, Hungary are among the countries that have participated in the Festival. All the musicians and groups represent their respective countries and the event is held under the auspices of embassies and their institutes.
The significant collaboration with the Municipality of Athens which organizes at the same period the European Jazz Festival and the corresponding groups that perform in Preveza perform also in Athens.
Friday 25/5 9.00pm - Maris Briezkalns Quintet (Latvia) & Yuri Honing Wired Paradise (Holland)
http://jazzonline.gr/en/jazzenda/item/1127-10th-preveza-jazz-festival.html
Maris Briezkalns Quintet (Latvia)
MBQ is today one of the leading and interesting small acoustic mainstream bands on Latvian jazz scene, streching special accents on pop — jazz and latin — jazz. MBQ has performed on several international stages - in MIDEM, Pori Jazz, Rigas Ritmi, Ottawa Jazz, Kaunas Jazz, Nomme Jazz, Jazz Kaar (St. Petersburg), Jazz at Castle (Prague), Toronto, Montreal, Ankara Jazz and Venice Jazz Festival.
In 2005 Maris Briezkalns with his companions created first album "Latvian Evergreens", not even imagining that it could have continuation. Now we have the second album - it is as thrilling, witty and lovely as the first. Some pieces are musical mysteries, others - recognizable at the spot. But all of them, freed from the smell of archives, are brought to second life." The leader of the Quintet is Maris Briezkalns, a drummer and producer. He is a chief of Latvian Radio Recording Studios, for a lot of years has been the drummer of Latvian Radio Big Band and participated in recording of more than 70 CD’s, has given master classes in Norway, Germany, Great Britain, performed in such countries, as USA, Falkland Islands, Spain, Canada, Turkey. He runs the Contemporary Music Centre and produces the International Music Festival “Rigas Ritmi” and Jazz Artists Competition "žSony Jazz Stage”. Has been nominated for Great Music Award in 2008. Among others, Maris Briezkalns has produced a list of interesting CD’s - “Bach-Kamer-Pauls”, “Jazz /Latvia 2008”, “The Best of Sony Jazz Stage”, Baltic Jazz Trio CD “Baltic Saga”. Gints Paberzs is Latvian Great Music Award 2006 winner, The Great Music Award (GMA) is the highest prize given by the Latvian state in the field of music. He is also a member of Riga Saxophone Quartet, with whom he got another GMA in 1999. For years Gints Paberzs has been member of very popular Latvian funk jazz group “Time After Time”, which also has achieved international recognition. Intars Busulis has gained popularity far abroad, he is winner of International jazz artist competition "žSony Jazz Stage 2004” and pop music competition “Jaunais vilnis (New Wave) 2005”, took part in European Youth Jazz Orchestra conducted by Vic Vogel giving concerts in Canada, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Viktors Ritovs is well known for his brilliant technique both to classical and jazz music listeners. He teaches jazz at the Latvian Music Academy. Andris Grunte is sharing love for jazz with the work in the Latvian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.
Members: Maris Briezkalns.. - drums,..Intars Busulis ..- voice, trombone....Gints Paberzs.. - saxophone....Viktors Ritovs ..- piano....Andris Grunte ..- doublebass....
Yuri Honing Wired Paradise (Holland)
Yuri Honing is probably Holland’s most important saxophoneplayer (according to Pinguin Guide to jazz on cd and the Oxford Introduction to jazz) with touring experience in more that 50 countries and a discography of almost 30 titles... Honing played and recorded with greats as Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden and Paul Bley. In 2001 Honing recieved the Edison Jazz Award (Dutch Grammy) for his recording Seven, featuring Paul Bley, Gary Peacock and Paul Motion.. Though originally a jazzplayer, Honing developed a taste for people like Bjork, Iggy Pop and bands like Goldfrapp and Radiohead... Honing uses jazz, rock, dance and electronics fearlessly to proof his point that jazz is not a style but a language. Style doesn’t matter it is all about communicating modern times through music...
“One of the most creative and fearless saxophonists of the moment’ The Times
Saturday 26/5 9.00pm - Intravenus (Greece) - Tubis trio (Poland) - Maria João & Mário Laginha (Portugal)
http://jazzonline.gr/en/jazzenda/item/1128-10th-preveza-jazz-festival.html
Intravenus (Greece)
Yannis Anastasakis, Nodas Kaklamanis and Akis Kaklamanis join the journeys, that become true through musical shades. Seducing atmospheric images and mythical journeys in different worlds are elements disceernible in their music quests.
The Band formed 2001 in Athens Greece. Coexistence of different styles like jazz, rock and ethnic are elements that can be found in their music.
Tubis trio (Poland)
Maciej Tubis is a pianist, born in Lodz in 1983. He graduated with distinction from the Grazyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Lodz, majoring in piano. He took part in many competitions, and received distinctions in the Chamber Competition in Torun and the National Competition for Music High Schools in Lodz, was a finalist of the junior Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition and was fifth in the chamber category in the Competition of Interpretation of French Music. When he was 14, he gave a concert with the orchestra of the Stanislaw Moniuszko Musical Schools Complex in Lodz. All this did not, however, impede his interest in jazz. He twice took part in Jazz Workshops in Chodziez, he also attended improvisation and big band lessons. What he considers his biggest achievements are second places in Jazz Pianists Competition in Warsaw in 2004 and the distinction awarded by the Second Channel of the Polish Television in the show Creative Valley, or what the young art looks for, for the tune “Fulfillment” in 2006. In May 2007 he received a special award in the Entertainment Pianist Competition held in the Agnieszka Osiecka Studio in Channel Three of the Polish Radio. He was also a finalist of, among others, the International Contest of Young Jazz Groups "Jazz Juniors" (2002, 2004) and the Bielsko Jazz Blizzard (2004). Maciej Tubis gave concerts in numerous jazz clubs all over Poland and recitals in radio stations. He is inspired by the works of Arvo Part, minimalist music and Scandinavian jazz, but also any other kind of music flowing straight from the heart — which can be felt immediately. In April 2007, a big concert was held in the Concert Hall of the Lodz Philharmonic. The music recorded during the concert was published in November 2007 on the first album, “Fulfillment…” ("žSpelnienie…"). In May, Maciej composed the musical score for a documentary on sculptures "žUnlimited Space” (“Przestrzen nieograniczona") by a Lódz artist Anna Frackowicz, and for an etude “The return” (“Powrót”) by a student, Paul Latallo. Since September 2007, he has been co-operating with the band of Karolina Glazer, a jazz singer. .... ..About the Tubis Trio:...... An acoustic trio in search of new directions within the framework of contemporary jazz, inspired by the music deriving from the renowned labels ECM (Tomasz Stanko) and ACT (Esbjörn Svensson). Taking this course, we create subtlety on the basis of the feeling of strong rhythm. A harmonic simplicity is contrasted with a modern perception of chords. Common melodic lines evolve into a jazz ostinato. Our goal was to create the music as it is, to extract beauty, and sometimes — joy, in their purest form. Our music is not forcibly complicated or “jazzed” — it is just as it flows from us. These words may seem threadbare, yet how hard it is to find such subtlety, such logic and such sensitivity in the turmoil of everyday life and of modern music…
Maria João & Mário Laginha (Portugal)
Maria Joao & Mario Laginha started to work together 25 years ago, and since then they engage in a unique musical involvement, performing hundreds of concerts in Portugal and abroad. Together they already presented several records of excellent quality: “Danças”; “Fábula”. “Cor”; “Lobos, Raposas e Coiotes”; “Chorinho Feliz”; “Mumadji”; “Undercovers” and “Tralha”.
In 2004, the Duo restarts their singular partnership with a new record “Chocolate”, set by a more jazzy sound, with originals and also some standards versions. This record, the commemoration of the 25th years of their first work together. Their breakthrough capacity transforms each record and every concert in a moment of creativity and emotion. The music that they produce is, first of all, the music that they like and want to do. When we hear it, we can identify the originality and the cultural influences of the countries where they have being playing.
Maria Joao was already considered a true revelation in the jazz universe, having received several awards, namely from the San Sebastian Jazz Festival (Spain). The first big turn in Maria João’s career occurred in 1986, when she went to Germany looking for new challenges. Her third record, “Conversa”, was released that year with a new quintet featuring Carlos Bica as a member.
In one of the concerts while touring Germany, Maria João had a special spectator: Japanese free-jazz pianist Aki Takase, who invited her to begin a duo project. She left the quintet to tour Europe with Aki and her piano. From 1987 to 1990, singer and pianist challenged their limits, risking everything on the slippery field of improvisation, astounding the audiences of Jazz Festivals all over Europe that surrendered to the freedom and irreverence of their music. João and Takase recorded two live albums together — “Looking for Love” (1997) and “Alice” (1990). In 1991, Maria João became involved in a new project with Portuguese group Cal Viva. This project marks her reunion with Mário Laginha. With the record “Sol”, a fusion of Portuguese traditional music with the sounds of jazz, they toured intensely all over Portugal. The regularity of her work with Laginha and the musical complicity established between the two incited them to put together a new personal acoustic project. This is how the record “Danças” was born (1993), the beginning of a duo that persists until today, with their eighth album, “Tralha”, released in 2004.
For Mário Laginha, making music is essentially an act of sharing, and he has done so with strong musical personalities. His duet with Maria Joao has resulted in one of the most consistent and original projects of modern Portuguese music.The duet has participated in some of the most important jazz festivals in the world: Montreaux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, San Sebastian Jazz Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival.With great creativity, enormous rhythmic solidity, and a vast harmonic and melodic trait, Mário Laginha has worked alongside exceptional musicians, onstage and in studio with the likes of: Wayne Shorter, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Trilok Gurtu, Gilberto Gil, Lenine, Armando Marçal, Toninho Ferraguti, Nico Assumpção, Ralph Towner, Manu Katché, Dino Saluzzi, Kai Eckhardt, Julian Argϋelles, Steve Argϋelles, Howard Johnson, and Django Bates.
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There will be also an exhibition of photographs organised from the EFE Photography club of Preveza.
All the events are free.