As previously announced, a group of famous foreign musicians are coming to “Kaunas Jazz” this spring – Grammy winners “Snarky Puppy” from the USA will hold a concert in the “Žalgiris” arena, American stars Theo Crokeris and Ledisi will perform in the Kaunas National Drama Theater (by the way, the latter the concert is already sold out), American singer Ray Greene will perform in several Lithuanian cities, and Brazilian singer Dora Morelenbaum will perform in Vilnius.
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It will be possible to hear some of the foreign guests at free concerts in the open air. Independence Square will host the big outdoor stage of the festival, where Cuban guest Jorge Luis Pacheco will open the evening on Friday, April 26.
Pianist, composer, percussionist and vocalist, this musician has endless talents. Inspired by American jazz, Cuban music, pop and soul, Jorge Luis Pacheco has performed in the world’s most important jazz clubs, halls and festivals – from the Blue Note and New Orleans Jazz Festivals in the USA, the Kennedy Center in Washington to the Sziget Festival in Budapest.
“He is a true virtuoso who ignores the boundaries of genres,” says the legendary pianist Monty Alexander about this guest of “Kaunas Jazz”.
After Cuban’s performance at Independence Square, Shrizz N Maze will take to the stage, a sultry band from Paris creating cosmic funk with rock and jazz elements.
The band’s founding members, saxophonist Eric “Schrizz” Rohner and guitarist Maze Kuenzler, are well-known on the European jazz scene and have been involved in many different projects. One of them is the Horndogz band, with whom Eric visited the Kaunas Jazz festival in 2017.
They started making music together in the group “Ineffect” back in 1999, later their paths constantly crossed, and a few months ago, these musicians put the crazy musical ideas matured for three years into the album “Dope Frequency”.
In the tracks (and in the concerts that introduce them), the band tells a science fiction story – the musicians turn into “space warriors” who fly through the galaxy in search of a mysterious frequency.
The skill and imagination of the group members have already been appreciated by many celebrities – the legendary George Clinton, a musician called the godfather of funk, contributed to one of the album tracks.
Among the other stars with whom these musicians have played are the legendary African drummer Tony Allen, the British singer Omar, who visited Kaunas Jazz, and many others. The forecast of the festival is that on Friday evening, music will be played under the open sky, which will shock, surprise, delight and create an incomparable mood.
On Saturday, April 27, the septet of singer Eglė Vakarinaitė will start the program at Independence Square. Jazz vocalist, singer who has collaborated with various Lithuanian pop, rap, electronic, chamber music artists (from “G & G Sindikato” to “Musica Humana”), the “Kaunas Jazz” audience is already familiar from her concerts with the group “Jazz Between The Sheets”.
This time, her team of jazz musicians will perform the program “Jazz’Strada” specially prepared for the festival.
Together with one of the most outstanding saxophonists of the young generation of Lithuania, Karolis Šarkumis, the concert will feature well-known and rarely heard Lithuanian pop songs in a new and unexpected way.
They will be performed together by a selection of well-known musicians of the Lithuanian jazz scene active in various projects and groups – saxophonist Donatas Petreikis, bassist Artūras Duckis, pianist Andrius Savčenko, trumpeter Mindaugas Vadoklis, drummer Tuomas J. Räsänen.
After the Lithuanian performance, the baton will be taken over by the Polish jazz star – bass guitar virtuoso Kinga Głyk, who is called one of the brightest musicians of the young generation in Europe.
Nine years ago, when she was only 18, she released her debut album and soon she was playing with famous musicians in the USA and Europe, was declared the brightest hope of the Polish scene, received a lot of attention in Germany, in the latter country she had the opportunity to perform on stage with the legendary bassist Marcus Miller and was nominated for the prestigious “Echo” music award.
The musician, who has performed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Indonesia, Portugal, Italy and other countries, comes to Kaunas with news – the album “Real Life” released in January this year, produced by Michael League, the leader of the famous US group “Snarky Puppy”. By the way, on the same weekend, the latter group will perform at the Kaunas “Zalgiris” arena at the invitation of “Kaunas Jazz” – who knows, maybe we will get an unexpected guest on the outdoor stage?
As usual, other free open-air concerts, which have already become a tradition, will await the visitors of the festival. On the evening of April 26, long-time friend of the festival, composer Giedrius Kuprevičius, will symbolically mark the start of the main festival weekend – the bell music concert “Bellswing” will be played in the garden of the War Museum.
On the afternoon of April 27, the festival invites you to a lively Saturday afternoon in the center of Kaunas – young jazz artists and bands will perform on several stages of “Dziazo gatvė”, dance performances and rap battles will take place.
On the afternoon of April 28, “Kaunas Jazz” invites you to a free concert at the Kaunas Synagogue – this time Lithuanian musicians Silvia Leonzio and Marius Giedra will perform here.
The spring concerts of the “Kaunas Jazz” festival will take place in Kaunas and other Lithuanian cities on April 19-29. You can find the entire festival program at www.kaunasjazz.lt
