Hetty Kate (AUS) – vocals, Libor Šmoldas (CZ) – guitar, Nick Haywood (AUS) – double bass Jazz singer Hetty Kate grew up in England and Australia and now lives in France. She has released nine albums and graced club and festival stages from New Zealand to New York. "Hetty is one of the best swing-jazz singers on the scene today," says American jazz critic Will Friedwald. In addition, Hetty is a true frontwoman and entertainer on stage and her natural musicality and vocal clarity ensure her voice is instantly recognisable.
They play for dancing and listening Brno Philharmonic conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, Salon Orchestra Brno, Jazz Archive and Cymbal Classic. The ball is organized by the Union of Orchestral Musicians in cooperation with the management of the Brno Philharmonic.
Rahel Talts Quartet is a group that plays Estonian pianist and composer Rahel's original music. The band's music could mainly be described as energetic, acoustic, melodic jazz which has some influences from Baltic and Nordic folk melodies as well as from old traditional jazz and bebop, which makes the music unique and special. In short, it is a happy, melodic jazz with fun twists.
In May 2023, Rahel Talts Quartet released their first album called "Greener Grass", which was very well received, and they’re starting to record a new album this November! The quartet have played tours and concerts in France, Germany, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and more. Latest tour was to Southeast Asia, which was very successful.
In the context of the JazzFestBrno show, we have pianist Sullivan Fortner fixed primarily from 2022, when he perfectly congenially accompanied the American singer Cécile McLorin Salvant. Even then, his playing was so great that it was only a matter of time before the festival would also invite him to a performance in which he would play the main role.
There are few figures as widely respected on the orchestral jazz scene as the American conductor and composer Maria Schneider. Literally everyone for whom the big orchestra form did not end with the death of Gil Evans swears by it.
Saxophonist Will Vinson and pianist Aaron Parks have been meeting in various formations for twenty years. Now the time has come for them to try the most intimate and, according to many musicians, the most difficult thing: the format of just a duo. For his needs, they adapted their older warehouse by and supplement the concert program with classic jazz material, which, however, they present with a highly personal, original contribution. The joint chamber performance of such experienced musicians of the middle jazz generation will undoubtedly be a very powerful experience not only from a purely musical point of view, but also in the sense of perfect mutual communication between creators who have been "listening to each other" for a long time.
Sometimes it happens that a virtuoso at a young age soars above the horizon, shines, and disappears. Italian guitarist Matteo Mancuso, moving in the field of fusion of jazz, rock and funk, is still relatively young, but he has been on the scene for too long to show that the hopes placed in him were just a mistake.
It would probably be enough to say that she is the winner of five Grammy Awards in the field of jazz singing, and nothing would need to be added. A throat certified with so many honors kind of speaks for itself. And he doesn't just speak, he also sings brilliantly.
One of the most iconic personalities of the contemporary jazz scene, personifying its changeability and intertwining with other genres, proving that if something is not current jazz, it is an unexciting soundtrack to the coffee of aunts sitting on spa colonnades.
Although he was born in Switzerland, which, admittedly, is not exactly a jazz powerhouse, if you don't count the Montreux festival, of course, he had a good family background for music. When he was allowed to play the first children's drum kit at home at the age of two, and he barely had enough time to explore musically, he was already sitting on the drum stool in his father's band, a professional bassist. At eighteen, he got his first professional engagement in the band of Jamaican jazz pianist Monty Alexander, with whom he completed a European tour of major festivals and even managed to accompany such stars as Dizzy Gillespie or Nina Simone on one occasion.
