Skopje Jazz Festival
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Skopje Jazz Festival
The Skopje Jazz Festival is a jazz festival held in Skopje, North Macedonia, since 1982. Although the festival promotes a genre which seems distant from its own culture and traditions, it attracts large audiences and receives attention in the Balkans and the rest of Europe. Musicians who have performed at the festival include Marshall Allen, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton, Brazilian Girls, Ray Charles, Zoran Madzirov, Stanley Clarke, Ornette Coleman, Chick Corea, Al Di Meola, Gotan Project, Charlie Haden, Herbie Hancock, Andrew Hill, Dave Holland, Maria Joao, D. D. Jackson, Rabih Abou-Khalil, Vlatko Stefanovski, Theodosii Spassov, Simon Kiselicki, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, Youssou N'Dour, Tito Puente, Gregory Porter, Toni Kitanovski, Sierra Maestra, Goce Stevkovski, McCoy Tyner, and Joe Zawinul Josef Erich Zawinul ( '; 7 July 1932 – 11 September 2007) was an Austrian jazz and jazz fusion keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with ...
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Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythmic rituals. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. But jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisationa ...
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Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking Ornette Coleman Quartet. Haden revolutionized the harmonic concept of bass playing in jazz. German musicologist Joachim-Ernst Berendt wrote that Haden's "ability to create serendipitous harmonies by improvising melodic responses to Coleman's free-form solos (rather than sticking to predetermined harmonies) was both radical and mesmerizing. His virtuosity lies (…) in an incredible ability to make the double bass 'sound out'. Haden cultivated the instrument's gravity as no one else in jazz. He is a master of simplicity which is one of the most difficult things to achieve." Haden played a vital role in this revolutionary new approach, evolving a way of playing that sometimes complemented the soloist and sometimes moved independently. In thi ...
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Gregory Porter
Gregory Porter (born November 4, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He has twice won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album: first in 2014 for ''Liquid Spirit'' and then again in 2017 for ''Take Me to the Alley''. Early life and education Gregory Porter was born in Sacramento, California, and was raised in Bakersfield, California, where his mother Ruth was a minister. Porter has seven siblings. His mother was a large influence on his life, having encouraged him to sing in church at an early age. His father, Rufus, was largely absent from his life. Says Porter, "Everybody had some issues with their father, even if he was in the house. He may have been emotionally absent. My father was just straight-up absent. I hung out with him just a few days in my life. And it wasn't a long time. He just didn’t seem to be completely interested in being there. Maybe he was, I don't know." After graduating from Highland High School in 1989, he received a full athletic ...
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Tito Puente
Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz compositions from his 50-year career. His most famous song is "Oye Como Va". Puente and his music have appeared in films including ''The Mambo Kings'' and Fernando Trueba's ''Calle 54''. He guest-starred on television shows, including ''Sesame Street'' and ''The Simpsons'' two-part episode " Who Shot Mr. Burns?". Early life Tito Puente was born on April 20, 1923, at Harlem Hospital Center in the New York borough of Manhattan, the son of Ernest and Felicia Puente, Puerto Ricans living in New York City's Spanish Harlem. His family moved frequently, but he spent the majority of his childhood in Spanish Harlem. Puente's father was the foreman at a razorblade factory. As a child, he was described as hyperactive, and after neighbors complaine ...
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Youssou N'Dour
Youssou N'Dour (, wo, Yuusu Nduur; also known as Youssou Madjiguène Ndour; born 1 October 1959) is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine described him as, "perhaps the most famous singer alive" in Senegal and much of Africa. From April 2012 to September 2013, he was Senegal's Minister of Tourism. N'Dour helped develop a style of popular Senegalese music known by all Senegambians (including the Wolof) as ''mbalax,'' a genre that has sacred origins in the Serer music njuup tradition and ndut initiation ceremonies.Sturman, Janet''The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture'' SAGE Publications (2019), p. 1926, . Retrieved 13 July 2019.Connolly, Sean, ''Senegal'', Bradt Travel Guides (2009), p. 27, (Retrieved 13 July 2019) He is the subject of the award-winning films '' Retour à Gorée, Return to Gorée'' (2007) directed by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud and '' Youssou N'Dour: I B ...
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Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progressive and contemporary jazz, latin jazz, and jazz fusion. Metheny has three gold albums and 20 Grammy Awards and is the only person to win Grammys in 10 categories. He is the younger brother of jazz flugelhornist Mike Metheny. Biography Early years and education Metheny was born in Lee's Summit, Missouri. His father Dave played trumpet, his mother Lois sang, and his maternal grandfather Delmar was a professional trumpeter. Metheny's first instrument was trumpet, which he was taught by his brother, Mike. His brother, father, and grandfather played trios together at home. His parents were fans of Glenn Miller and swing music. They took Metheny to concerts to hear Clark Terry and Doc Severinsen, but they had little respect for guitar. ...
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John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin (born 4 January 1942), frequently known as Mahavishnu John, is an English guitarist, bandleader, and composer. A pioneer of jazz fusion, his music combines elements of jazz with rock, world music, Indian classical music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues. After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made ''Extrapolation'', his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with drummer Tony Williams's group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his electric jazz fusion albums ''In a Silent Way'', '' Bitches Brew'', '' Jack Johnson'', and ''On the Corner''. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences. McLaughlin's solo on "Miles Beyond" from his album ''Live at Ronnie Scott's'' won the 2018 Grammy Award for the Best Improvised Jazz Solo. He has been award ...
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Simon Kiselicki
Simon Kiselicki (pronounced Simon Kiselichki, Macedonian Cyrillic: Симон Киселички; born October 25, 1974) is a Macedonian jazz pianist, composer and arranger. He is considered "one of the most important personalities of the Macedonian jazz scene", known for his solo and group work as the Simon Kiselicki group, as well as his work in Macedonian bands Klerzo and La Colonie Volvox, and his contributions across Europe and the Balkans. Kiselicki is also one of the first musicians who brought jazz music to Macedonian stages and clubs, at the start of the 90s. Simon has composed seven albums, one of which was released by the Skopje Jazz Festival, as well as having arranged for other artists' projects including Bodan Arsovski's 'Broken Beats' album. Kiselicki has performed at European festivals including Exit Festival, Skopje Jazz Festival, Petrovac Jazz Festival, Glazba i Rec Festival Cavtat, Kumanovo Jazz Festival, SOSFest, Peace Unlimited Festival, and more. He is a ...
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Theodosii Spassov
Theodosii Spassov (born 4 March 1961) is a Bulgarian jazz musician who plays kaval. Theodosii Spassov began his early training on the kaval at the Kotel Music School and The Academy of Music and Dance in Plovdiv/Bulgaria. The kaval, an eight-hole wooden "shepherd" flute, is one of the oldest Instruments in Europe, rich in tone and technical possibilities. Theodosii Spassov has developed his own unique style of playing the instrument by synthesizing traditional folklore with jazz, fusion and classical music. For over 20 years, Theodosii has toured all over Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, Canada and United States. In 1994, he performed with Sofia Women's Radio Choir which was awarded with a Grammy award for "Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares". In April 1995, "Newsweek" magazine recognized Theodosii Spassov as one of the most talented Eastern-European musicians in its "best of the East" article, noting that "Spassov... is not merely surviving the post-communist cultural wastel ...
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Vlatko Stefanovski
Vladimir "Vlatko" Stefanovski ( mk, Влатко Стефановски ) is a Macedonian ethno-rock jazz fusion guitar virtuoso. Biography Vlatko was born into a typical theatrical family. His parents, as artists, often traveled, so soon Stefanovski moved to Skopje, in the neighborhood Taftalidze. Vlatko Stefanovski lives with his family (consisting of daughter Ana and son Jan) in Skopje. His son (Jan Stefanovski) is a drummer in V.S.Trio (from 2021) Born in Prilep on 24 January 1957, he started playing guitar at the age of 13. Stefanovski was one of the founding members of Leb i sol with whom he recorded 13 albums between 1978 and 1991. He currently splits his time playing with his VS Trio, in an acoustic partnership with Miroslav Tadić or composing for film and theatre. Dramatist Goran Stefanovski was his older brother. Stefanovski has played a wide variety of guitars, including a Gibson SG,Gibson Nighthawk, Scala VS-1(custom),Scala VSTII (custom),a Fender Stratocaster ...
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Rabih Abou-Khalil
Rabih Abou-Khalil ( ar, ربيع أبو خليل, born August 17, 1957) is an oud player and composer born in Lebanon, who combines elements of Arabic music with jazz, classical music, and other styles. He grew up in Beirut and moved to Munich, Germany, during the Lebanese Civil War in 1978. Musical style Abou-Khalil studied the oud at the Beirut conservatory with oudist Georges Farah. After moving to Germany, he studied classical flute at the Academy of Music in Munich under Walther Theurer. In his compositions and live concerts, he combines elements of Arabic music with jazz, rock, or classical music, and has earned praise as "a world musician years before the phrase became a label". — According to a review of his concert in ''The Guardian'' of 2002, Abou-Khalil "makes the hot, staccato Middle Eastern flavour and the seamless grooves of jazz mingle, as if they were always meant to." In a review of his 2007 album ''Songs For Sad Women,'' the BBC wrote "the characteristic b ...
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Maria João (singer)
Maria João Monteiro Grancha (born 27 June 1956) is a Portuguese jazz singer. She is known for her vocal flexibility and improvisational skills. Although considered a jazz singer, she incorporates folk music, avant-garde, and electronica. Her main musical partner is Portuguese pianist Mário Laginha. She has also worked with Aki Takase, Bobby McFerrin, David Linx, Dino Saluzzi, Gilberto Gil, Joe Zawinul, Kai Eckhardt, Lenine, Manu Katche, Ralph Towner, Trilok Gurtu, Wolfgang Muthspiel, anOGRE Discography * ''Quinteto Maria João'' (Orfeu (Pt), 1983), with Mário Laginha * ''Cem Caminhos'' with Maria João Quintet (Orfeu/Nabel (G), 1985) * ''Conversa'' with Maria João Quintet (Nabel, 1986) * ''Looking for Love'' with Aki Takase (Enja (G), 1988) * ''Sol'' with Grupo Cal Viva (Enja, 1991) * ''Alice'' with Aki Takase and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (Enja, 1992) * ''Danças'' with Mário Laginha (Verve World, 1994) * ''Fábula'' (Verve, 1996), with Dino Saluzzi, Ralph Towne ...
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