The North Sea Jazz Festival proudly presents the program of its 33rd edition. The central theme is ‘Vocals in Jazz'! This means a focus on jazz vocalists, voice artists and warm soul voices. Besides the attention for vocals, the organizers are also focusing on two other themes: UK Jazz and the fusion of jazz with pop.

Big names for the coming festival include: Alicia Keys, Pat Metheny, Grammy winner Herbie Hancock, Branford Marsalis, Paul Simon, Bootsy Collins, Sergio Mendes, Joe Jackson, Youssou N’Dour, Omara Portuondo, Buddy Guy and newcomers like Gnarls Barkley and Mark Ronson. And: jazz legends like Phil Woods, the vibraphonists Gary Burton and Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Ron Carter and pianist Hank Jones, who will celebrate his 90th birthday during the festival, on Friday 11 July. Also present in Ahoy will be: Charlie Haden, Abdullah Ibrahim, Wayne Shorter, Charles Lloyd and of course promising new jazz groups like the Nasheet Waits’ Equality, the Adam Rogers Group and the Rudresh Mahanthappa Quartet. Dutch legends appearing include tenor saxophonist Ferdinand Povel and Willem Breuker. Remarkable is the rise of Dutch acts like Room Eleven and Alain Clark; last year’s new arrivals who became popular straight away. A household name for the Dutch audience – although not as a singer – is Hans Teeuwen with Hans Teeuwen Zingt!

VOCALS IN JAZZ
The vocal jazz tradition is really a contradiction: in mainstream jazz the voice isn’t seen as a true instrument, and at the same time the use of vocals gives jazz such a popularity boost. This year, North Sea Jazz makes up the balance of the current status of the voice in jazz music. The organizers have asked voice artist Bobby McFerrin to be Artist in Residence. He will kick off the festival on Friday with the NDR Big Band. On Saturday he will perform with virtuoso bass player Richard Bona. His Sunday performance will be a surprise.

Other major artists performing with this vocal theme in mind are: Diana Krall, Cassandra Wilson, Al Jarreau, Jill Scott, Angie Stone, Chaka Khan and Etta James. At the festival, Sheila Jordan and Cleo Laine will represent classical vocal jazz. The Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw will perform with the First Ladies of Dutch Jazz: Rita Reys and Fay Claassen. Also present will be Freddy Cole; the master of the ‘vocalese’: Mark Murphy; and close harmony singers: New York Voices. Both vocal art and the limits of the voice are explored by Greetje Bijma, Sidsel Endresen and Michael Schiefel. Talked-about, up and coming talents are José James, Sachal Vasandani or Marc Broussard.

UK JAZZ
After last year’s focus on European jazz, this year special attention is given to jazz from Great Britain. In recent years, an exciting young jazz scene has emerged there. Representatives of that scene, Led Bib, Finn Peters and Acoustic Ladyland, will introduce themselves at the festival. Fink and Matthew Herbert Big Band have a firm base in pop music but embrace many jazz influences. The band Empirical shows why they – deservedly – won the 2007 EBU European Jazz Competition. Renowned artist John Surman will perform too, with a concert for strings.
 
POP & JAZZ
Jazz has influenced pop music and vice versa since the ’60s. Well-known style examples are soul jazz, fusion and jazz rock. A new generation of jazz acoustic playing musicians bridges the gap between the bebop tradition and present-day pop and rock music. Therefore, at North Sea Jazz: The Bad Plus, Soil & “PIMP” Sessions, Brad Mehldau and novice Christian Prommer’s Drum Lesson. But also: Lou Donaldson, one of the founders of soul jazz, and George Benson. Masters of the fusion genre are Tom Scott & The L.A. Express, Deodato and Victor Wooten. Frank Zappa was one of those visionaries who used jazz to shift the horizons of rock. His son Dweezil Zappa keeps the tradition alive with the project Zappa plays Zappa. The Mars Volta demonstrates that the fusion between jazz and pop isn’t exhausted yet by playing their extreme mix of hardcore, psychedelic rock, latin and impro jazz.

CORPORATE EXPRESS MIDSUMMER JAZZ GALA
According to tradition the North Sea Jazz Festival will open with the Corporate Express Midsummer Jazz Gala with a performance of Angie Stone on Thursday 10 July.

NORTH SEA JAZZ FOR KIDS
After a successful first edition in 2007, it’s time again for North Sea Jazz for Kids in the afternoon of Wednesday 9 July 2008. Especially for children there will be performances and workshops, but also the show ‘Kikker Swingt’ (Frog swings). The famous adventures of Frog, as written by Max Velthuijs, are told by Nico de Vries to the rhythm of the live music of the Tony Overwater Kwintet.

The complete program of the North Sea jazz festival can be found on our website www.northseajazz.com (please note: this is a conditional program)

NORTH SEA JAZZ FESTIVAL
11, 12 & 13 July 2008
Ahoy Rotterdam

Entrance: Day ticket: € 75.00 (service costs not included)
3-Day ticket: € 179.00 (service costs not included)
All-in ticket: € 365.00 (service costs not included)
Plus concert: € 15.00 (Amazon)*, € 18. 00 (Nile) * (service costs not included)
* = exceptions might be made in the future