Jazzkaar 2021 Festival, for the first time in its history taking place in late summer, has announced their long-awaited programme. From 23 to 29 August the Telliskivi Creative City will turn into an oasis of jazz, offering a rich programme that features the various colours of vocal jazz as well as top-level instrumental music.
The main programme of the 32nd Jazzkaar Festival includes thirty concerts by artists from ten countries. “We are very happy that the team of Jazzkaar 2021 has managed to reschedule most of the concerts from the postponed spring programme to August and that we can offer jazz fans a diverse top-level programme,” Anne Erm, the Artistic Director of the festival comments on the upcoming festival. “Twenty of the the thirty concerts in the main programme of Jazzkaar 2021 will be performed by Estonian artists. We wish to offer as many performance opportunities as possible to our local artists, because the long lockdown has left both the audience and the musicians longing for live concerts,” she adds.
The festival will be opened by the beloved saxophonist Raivo Tafenau, presenting his recent album The Same Differences with his ensemble and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra conducted by Rasmus Puur. Celebrating his 70th birthday, the legendary pianist and composer Tõnu Naissoo will perform his new music with his band, Tõnu Naissoo Electric Group. Many other local favourites too will be presenting their new music or recently released albums, including Argo Vals Band, Dagö, deLULU,Janno Trump Clarity Ensemble, Joel Remmel Trio, Mingo Rajandi Quintet, The Motown Sound,New Wind Jazz Orchestra & Kristjan Randalu and Tanel Ruben Quintet. Our main programme also features international cooperation projects London-Tallinn Cosmic Bridge and Mart Soo & Florian Walter. Touching on the spheres of experimental music will be Modulshtein and Raimond Mägi Trio.
New vibrant additions in our main programme are ELLIP, Modulshtein and Susanna Aleksandra. In addition to the popular local artists, the different facets of vocal jazz will be brought to the audience by the world-renowned English singer Lucy Woodward and the velvet-voiced Norwegian jazz vocalist Torun Eriksen. Delighting our listeners with world-class instrumental music will be the French multi-instrumentalist Mino Cinélu performing with the legendary Norwegian trumpet player Nils Petter Molvær, as well as the Swiss piano minimalist Nik Bärtsch who will present music from his fresh solo album. The popular name in the Finnish urban and indie scene, Jesse Markin will introduce his latest music, while the innovative Dutch trio Tin Men and the Telephone will surprise the audience with a show combining electronic music and visuals. And of course, UKs singer and Winner of the Musicians’ Company Young Jazz Musician Award 2019, Sahra Gure. The headliner of this year’s Jazzkaar is the Grammy-winning American jazz diva Dee Dee Bridgewater, who will perform unforgettable jazz classics with the Estonian Dream Big Band conducted by Siim Aimla on 13 November at Alexela Concert Hall. The concert will be presented by Viru Keskus.
For the seventh year in a row, jazz music will take over the Telliskivi Creative City, filling the tender August nights with the enchanting world of sounds. The events will take place at Vaba Lava and the concert space of Fotografiska Tallinn. Inspiring concerts will also reach the audience in Tartu, Pärnu, Viljandi and Rakvere.
In order to provide a safe festival experience, the organising team of Jazzkaar will follow the national requirements for conducting public events. In cooperation with the Health Board, additional measures have been considered to make it as safe as possible for the audience, musicians and organisers to participate in the festival. We have also compiled the Safe Festival Guide.
All concert tickets will be automatically valid on new concert dates. If you cannot attend the concert on an updated date, Jazzkaar offers you an opportunity to return your ticket or exchange it for a Jazzkaar gift voucher from 20 May until 20 June 2021. Holders of PDF tickets may place their request to return or exchange their tickets here. Holders of regular tickets can return their tickets at Piletilevi sales points, except at Circle K service stations and the Viru Keskus information point. Jazzkaar Festival encourages culture lovers to support the survival of the festival by not returning their tickets.
The 32nd Tallinn International Jazzkaar Festival will take place from 23 to 29 August 2021 in different places around Estonia. Please see the festival programme and the featured artists on our website. Tickets are available at Piletilevi sales points and online at www.piletilevi.ee. See you at Jazzkaar!
Keep an eye on Jazzkaar’s activities on our website, Facebook and Instagram.
The main sponsors of the festival are JURA, Jazz Pesulad and Eesti Päevaleht. Annual sponsors are BMW Inchcape, Tallink and Aktaprint. The concert of the legendary jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater will be presented by Viru Keskus. Prike, Telliskivi Creative City and Fotografiska Tallinn help set up the festival hub. We are also supported by Reval Café, Overall, MyFitness, Kodupaber and Estonian Public Broadcasting. The French Institute, Embassy of Sweden, Embassy of Norway and Pro Helvetia help us bring the musicians of their countries to Estonia. We would like to thank the Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the City of Tallinn and Enterprise Estonia for their support.
Main programme of Jazzkaar 2021:
Argo Vals Band; Dagö; Dee Dee Bridgewater & Estonian Dream Big Band (USA-Eesti); deLULU; Ellip;ImproVoc; Janno Trump Clarity Ensemble; Jesse Markin (Soome); Joel Remmel Trio feat. Liisi Koikson, Jukka Eskola (Soome), Aleksander Paal; London-Tallinn Cosmic Bridge (Suurbritannia-Eesti); Lucy Woodward (Suurbritannia-Holland); Mart Soo & Florian Walter (Eesti-Saksamaa); Mingo Rajandi Quintet; Modulshtein; Naïssam Jalal — Quest of the Invisible (Süüria-Prantsusmaa); Mino Cinélu & Nils Petter Molvær (Prantsusmaa-Norra); New Wind Jazz Orchestra & Kristjan Randalu; Nik Bärtsch (Šveits); Nikita Korzoun Trio; Raimond Mägi Trio; Raivo Tafenau Kvartett & külalised, Tallinna Kammerorkester; Scott DuBois & Gebhard Ullmann (USA-Saksamaa); Susanna Aleksandra; Stig Rästa; Tanel Ruben Quintet feat. Kadri Voorand & Kristjan Randalu; The Motown Sound; Tin Men & The Telephone (Holland); Torun Eriksen and the Spirit in the Dark (Norra); Tõnu Naissoo Electric Group and others.
