İzmir to host European Jazz Festival

İZMİR

The 24th European Jazz Festival is set to kick off on March 1 with a concert by Italian pianist Manuel Magrini.
 
Considered to be one of the extraordinary talents of Italian jazz, Magrini will take the stage at the Ahmed Adnan Saygun Arts Center (AASSM).
 
The festival will host the fantastic Czechoslovak Trio Otto Hejnic on March 4. The trio, which released three albums and performed on the world’s most prestigious jazz stages, will present selected pieces of their fascinating albums in the concert at the AASSM. 

Jazz singer, songwriter, performer, and queen of the French Chansons, Marie Mifsud, will be at the 24th İzmir European Jazz Festival with two different concerts.

The first concert will be held on March 8 at the AASSM Small Hall. The Quintet, consisting of Marie Mifsud (vocal), Adrien Leconte (drums), Victor Aubert (bass), Tom Georgel (piano) and Quentin Coppalle (flute), will present compositions from the poems of French writer, poet, musician, singer Boris Vian at the İzmir French Cultural Center on March 9.

Germany’s intercultural pioneer music group Masaa will perform at the event with their special project that intertwines Arabian poetry and contemporary jazz. 
 
The band will present jazz, new classics, world music, pop, oriental sounds and Arabic poetry on March 10.

Artur Dutkiewicz, one of the greatest jazz pianists that Poland has raised, will be accompanied by Michal Baranski (bass) and Lukasz Zyta (drums) at a concert on March 11. The Artur Dutkiewicz Trio will present pieces of their “Prana” project. 

Matthias Spillmann - Mats-Up, set up by the Swiss trumpet artist Matthias Spillmann with alto saxophonist Reto Suhner, pianist Marc Méan, bass player Raffaele Bossard, and drummer Dominic Egli and described as “the most important event of Swiss Jazz,” will perform on March 14. 

Mats-Up will captivate hearts with their project “The Nature Of The Blues,” which uniquely combines ancient and contemporary materials. 

The Sorin Zlat Quartet will take the stage on March 15 with their album “Endurance,” containing original compositions, re-orchestrated standards from some of the jazz greats such as John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk, and Romanian folklore rewritten on jazz rhythms. 

Ozan Musluoğlu and “His Best Friends,” composed of the prominent names that come to mind when talking about Turkish jazz, will perform the closing concert of the festival on March 18. 

Along with the concerts, the festival will also host an exhibition of jazz posters, jazz workshops, a film screening and a seminar.