An American trumpet player Roy Hargrove, one of the best trumpet players on the world, musician exceeding genres and the holder of two prestigious Grammy music awards, will be the main star of the 31st International jazz festival JazzFest.
The festival, held continuously since 1984, will take place in October 13-19, 2014.
The precursors to the main program are two concerts in Sokolov. This year is the fifteenth JazzFest, which is organized by the association Jazz circle with its director and also an active participant in events - saxophonist Milan Krajíc.
This year's program continues in the successful way that organizers took years ago, and it is primarily to focus on modern jazz and its fusion with other musical genres, including symphonic music, with the participation of musicians from around the world.
The festival is traditionally supported by the City Karlovy Vary and the Karlovy Vary Region. The festival is held under the auspices of the Mayor of Karlovy Vary Ing. Petr Kulhánek.
The first concert in Sokolov will take place in the Music Club „M“ MDK Sokolov on October 13, 2014. The guitar player Roman Pokorný will present his project Feelin' The Spirit, which was created to commemorate the legendary jazz guitarist Grant Green with participation of top musicians. At the second concert on October 15, 2014, at the Municipal Theatre Sokolov the International Gathering of Drummers with Pavel Fajt will perform. The concept (which is changing every year) is this time focused on connecting several fields of music; the drumming team consists of top musicians from three continents, together with a bass guitar and a singer and a hangdrum player Liron Meyuhas.
On the scene of the Theatre Husovka on October 16, 2014, the Czech band Limbo will perform.
The group with its free music floats between genres. Next to original free jazz performance of this group focuses on united construction of music units as well as a collective sound. The group was established by a saxophonist Pavel Hrubý, between four musicians is also an excellent trumpeter František Kučera.
As next the Marc Bernstein International Quartet will perform. The group was established and led by a saxophonist Marc Bernstein from New York. For this ensemble is typical its spontaneity, melody and a strong rootedness in Jewish tradition. The international quartet will interpret compositions of its leader across their albums from recent years.
The first festival top event will be the concert on October 17, 2014, in Spa III, co-organized with the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra. The Baron Schoeneck Award, which presents recognition and homage for a personality closely connected with music in Karlovy Vary Region, will be awarded at this concert. This year the laureate of this award is jazzman and pianist Jan Spira. He helped to create the first international jazz festival in the Czech Republic in Karlovy Vary in 1962; he led a band Studio Club for long years (the only jazz band of the West Bohemia in 60s). In 1992 he established the jazz department at the Music School in Karlovy Vary and he also raised a number of musicians himself. As an honor to the laureate, the Karlovy Vary Repre Band will play several standards in Milan Krajíc´s arrangement and also several Jan Spira´s compositions.
The second part of the evening will be dedicated to the world premiere of the Piano concerto in F minor “The gate to Gardens” composed by pianist and conductor Kryštof Marek. It is the third concerto from his five concertos for different music instruments which have a word “garden” in the name. The concerto will be performed by pianist Jindřich Henry Volf together with the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra. The piano concerto (which Kryštof Marek dedicated to Jindřich Henry Volf) with three movements includes also two parts of jazz trio between movements. These will be performed together with Jindřich Henry Volf excellent contrabassist František Raba and drummer Aladár Siládi. The concert will be conducted by Kryštof Marek.
The absolute top event of the JazzFest festival will be the concert on October 19, 2014, in Spa III with modern straight-ahead jazz and the above average instrumental performance of the Roy Hargrove Quintet.
Roy Hargrove is probably now the best trumpet player in the world. He is an anchor of the current music scene in various formations for more than two decades. Worldwide he attracted attention after he won the prestigious Grammy Awards in 1997 and 2002 - the first for his album Habana, which he recorded with his afro-Cuban band Crisol, the second for the album Directions in Music, which he recorded with pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Michael Brecker. The list of stellar musicians with whom Hargrove also played includes names as Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Joe Henderson and many others. As a leader Hargrove has recorded over two dozen albums, in dozens of others, ranging from pop, jazz, rap, he played as a sideman. Aside from his Quintet Hargrove also had a project The RH Factor, merging jazz with soul and hip-hop, and established his big band, with which he released the album Emergence in 2009.