The Showcases on the Friday – the date falls just under a month before Miles Davis’s centenary – have a
strong theme around three outstanding yet very different trumpeters.
Berlin-based trumpeter/composer Richard Koch will present his quintet Rays of Light, which, alongside him, features the unusual combination of violin, accordion, bass and frame drum. The lightness and the fun of their songs is an ideal antidote to the gloom of current political developments.
Trumpeter Laura Jurd, now based in the West of England, increasingly draws on the rich seam of the folk music from the British isles. Her quintet – with viola, electric guitar, bass and drums – also operates in a fascinating and genre-less environment.
The jazzahead! focus ‘Jazz from Africa’ presents one band from the continent every day from Thursday to Saturday. Among the star acts is the Sydney Mavundla Quartet on Friday night from South Africa. It has been said of the Johannesburg jazz veteran that the sheer beauty of his ballad playing can “really rip your heart out.”
Other instrument families than wind and brass will also be taking centre stage. Late at night, bass phenomenon/singer Michael Pipoquinha explores his Brazilian identity with his quartet in a style he calls ‘Afro-Groove’.
