Discover Switzerland

Justina Lee Brown

Gesang

Gitarre

Keyboards

Bass

Perkussion

Schlagzeug

Zwar begeistert die herzhafte und hochbegabte, nigerianische Sängerin Justina Lee Brown mit ihrer Band seit Jahren an sämtlichen Blues Challenges, doch spiegelt der Blues nur eine Facette ihrer Musik wider. Afrikanische und karibische Einflüsse, Gospel, Soul und R’n’B stehen ebenso im Mittelpunkt ihrer charismatischen Auftritte, bei denen sie als energiegeladene Performerin mit einer phänomenalen Stimme überzeugt. In ihrer Heimat Lagos hat sich Justina Ogunlolu als Strassenkind dem harten Überlebenskampf gestellt und kämpfte sich mit Beharrlichkeit und Durchhaltewillen bis auf die grossen Bühnen Europas durch. Nach einigen Auftritten in der Schweiz kreuzen sich die Wege von Justina und Nic Niedermann. Der Gitarrist, Komponist und Produzent gehört seit Jahren zu den treibenden Kräften in der Schweizer Blues-Szene. Nic wird neuer Bandleader und stellt für Justina eine hochkarätige Band zusammen. Dabei bekommt Justina Lee Brown endlich die langersehnte Möglichkeit ihre eigenen Songs, die sie aus einem riesigen Fundus an intensiven Erfahrungen schöpft, aufzunehmen und für ihre fulminanten Bühnenauftritte umzusetzen. Diese Konzertaufnahme entstand mit Unterstützung des Migros-Kulturprozent.

Christoph Grab's ROOT AREA & Guests

Tenorsaxophon

Saxophon

Hammond organ

Drum Kit

Guitar

Album Release «In Pursuit of Happiness»

ROOT AREA stands for soul jazz. After three years, the top-class line-up, consisting of Christoph Grab and Nicole Johänntgen on saxophones, Marcel Thomi on Hammond organ and Elmar Frey on drums, is now making an impressive return with its new album In Pursuit Of Happiness. For the album release at Moods, Zurich guitarist Michael Bucher will also be accompanying the band. With the new album, ROOT AREA consistently continues their idea of integrating a wide variety of grooves into their music and using them as a foundation for their original compositions and improvisations. Whether bluesy boogaloo, gospel ballads, New Orleans grooves, quirky reggae or Afrobeats - ROOT AREA combine deep musical roots with the present.

Zurich Jazz Orchestra

Leitung

Altsaxophon

Baritone Saxophone

Trumpet

Trombone

Bassposaune

Piano

Zurich Jazz Orchestra 

Tribute to Bill Holman 

Big band musicians around the world mourn the passing of master composer and arranger Bill Holman, who died on May 6, 2024 at the age of 97. His long and prolific career spanned seven decades and produced hundreds of compositions and arrangements that have become beloved core repertoire of big bands and favorites of their audiences around the world. The last time Bill Holman was in Switzerland (2014), he conducted a concert of his music with the Zurich Jazz Orchestra, which remains one of the most memorable performances in the ZJO&#x27;s long history. Our musical directors Daniel Schenker and Ed Partyka met in 1996 as members of the Generations Festival Big Band in Frauenfeld, which was conducted by - you guessed it - Bill Holman. The Zurich Jazz Orchestra will celebrate the wonderful music and long life of Bill Holman on March 27, performing some of his most popular works as well as some rarely heard gems that highlight the orchestra and its outstanding soloists.

Dimitri Howald & the Amnis Band Extended

Vocals

Viola

Cello

Violin

Album Release «Southern Return»

Guitarist Dimitri Howald lets himself drift on his third solo album Southern Return - with a curiously yearning music that brings together the most diverse influences from jazz, new wave and tropicalismo to create a very personal mixture. Drive off - to where the forests give way to palm trees and the landscapes are vast and tropical. The times, places and influences overlap in these 12 very personal pieces of music, which Dimitri Howald recorded all by himself: We hear Brazilian tropicalismo influences, light and delicate jazz guitar figures, harmonies that radiate an untranslatable saudade, while the wave drum machine sets the pace at times, as on earlier albums. Dimitri Howald recorded Southern Return over the course of three years. He plays with the individual musical elements, tinkers, sings, warms - and breaks the idyll with analog synth sounds that emphasize the shadows or with pieces that lead right into the youthful grunge band cellar. Slight melancholy, longing, unfulfilled and as yet unrealized dreams: all this resonates delicately in this music. The concert will be played with reinforcements, i.e. Howald&#x27;s Amnis Band will be stretched out and enlarged. His quartet, consisting of Stefan Schischkanov, Toni Schiavano and Flo Reichle, will be joined by Michael Haudenschild, Sebastian Lötscher, Nao Rohr and Cégiu for a truly extended evening.

Bruno Spoerri: The Acoustic Side

Both Sides Now

This year Bruno Spoerri is celebrating his 70th stage anniversary in Zurich - in 1954 he was awarded first prize at the Zurich Jazz Festival. The concert on November 12th will show two sides of his work; the first part with an acoustic jazz group, the second with technoid electronics. The versatility of singer Marianne Racine is hard to beat and her all-round musicality repeatedly leads to astonishing performances. Swing and solo flights of fancy are provided by a dream team of the younger generation: bassist Patrick Sommer &amp; drummer Andreas Wettstein with their famously - rapturously groovy interplay; Lucerne pianist Lukas Gernet with attentively sensitive sounds and singable melodies. In short: this quartet is bursting with joy of playing, humor and solid craftsmanship.

Bruno Spoerri: The Electronic Side

Synthophone

Electronics

Percussion

This year Bruno Spoerri is celebrating his 70th stage anniversary in Zurich - in 1954 he was awarded first prize at the Zurich Jazz Festival. The concert on November 12th will show two sides of his work; the first part with an acoustic jazz group, the second with technoid electronics. Piet Jan Blauw began his career as a visual artist, while also working as a percussionist. Early on he made objects and then began to build electronic instruments and art installations. Numerous installations and performances in Europe, the USA and Mexico followed. His performances are both auditory and visual experiences. Gabriel Schiltknecht is a percussionist with heart and soul. His musical career began with the formation SCHILDPATT. After training as a primary school teacher, he taught at the Swiss School in Accra/Ghana, played with important local musicians and acquired a wide-ranging knowledge of the drumming tradition.

Nina Reiter MetaLogue

Arrangement

Flugelhorn

Clarinet

Flute

Album Release «evolving»

The newly formed 10-piece ensemble MetaLogue, led by singer Nina Reiter, is reviving the music of Lucerne composer Mani Planzer, who died in 1997 and was almost forgotten. As a musician, composer, organist, teacher, choirmaster and big band leader, Planzer had a decisive influence on the cultural landscape of Central Switzerland. He was awarded the Lucerne City Prize for Art and Culture in 1981 and the Lucerne Living Space Prize posthumously in 1998. The band name &quot;MetaLogue&quot; refers to Planzer&#x27;s penchant for wordplay and symbolises the symbiosis of the various elements that come together in this project. On the one hand, it is the young musicians who bring Planzer&#x27;s music into the light of the present and allow the audience to participate in a musical dialogue that takes place far away from the mainstream. On the other hand, it is the lyrics of singer Nina Reiter, who picks up on Planzer&#x27;s pioneering spirit in the synthesis of jazz and poetry, thus creating a meta-level to the previously instrumental compositions. On the occasion of the upcoming anniversary – Planzer would have celebrated his 85th birthday in 2024 – the Mani Planzer Big Band and the MorschAchBlasorCHester will pay tribute to the musical bridge-builder, trailblazer and pioneer with works arranged by Nina Reiter.

Çiçek Taksi

Accordion

Album Release «Bin Dilde»

Even if you don&#x27;t understand the lyrics, the music of Çiçek Taksi goes straight to the heart. The band, which the Turkish-Kurdish-Swiss singer Selin Dettwiler founded with three musician friends in Bern, dedicates its new album to the love of poetry; a love that knows no language barriers. Bin Dilde - in a thousand languages – is about love, repression, pain and hope, all woven into the songs. The Turkish poems that the band members collected as the basis for the songs were written by people living in Switzerland. They provide touching insights into arriving in an unknown place and tell of the very different circumstances that led to a departure to new homes in the writers&#x27; country of origin. This concert recording was made with the support of Migros Culture Percentage.

Raphael Jost Quintett

Singer and pianist Raphael Jost sees himself as a modern-day crooner. His songs are snapshots of his life, catchy and always cleverly packaged, and he never fails to surprise with his powerful, warm voice. At Moods, Jost will be presenting his newly formed quintet for the first time, as well as lots of new music, including fresh original compositions that have been created and matured over the past few months. Jost will be joined by Bastien Rieser on trumpet and Alex Hendriksen on tenor saxophone, Raphael Walser on double bass and London drummer Luke Tomlinson. The five musicians are united by their boundless joy of playing and their love of the jazz tradition.

MISS C-LINE & The Rabidz

MISS C-LINE is an up-and-coming neo-soul singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist from Bern/Basel. Her music blends soul and groove with elements of hip-hop and jazz to create a unique and memorable style. Inspired by greats such as Erykah Badu, The Roots and Robert Glasper, MISS C-LINE writes and produces all her songs herself. This earned her a nomination for the Kick Ass Award in 2019, three appearances at the SRF Bounce Cypher, her debut album Surreal was included in international playlists and in 2021 she won the New Generation Jazz Lab Contest. This concert recording was made with the support of Migros Culture Percentage.

Zurich Jazz Orchestra feat. Matthias Knoche

Regie

Lieder von Georg Kreisler: von Jazz-Satire bis Schmäh-Tango

Unfortunately, Theo Bleckmann had to cancel his appearance on 9 February due to illness. Fortunately, Matthias Knoche from Berlin has agreed to interpret the Georg Kreisler songs. So it remains an evening full of fine humour, biting satire and fat big band sounds at the Moods Jazz Club. Many thanks to Matthias for stepping in! We wish Theo a speedy recovery and are doing everything we can to reschedule the concert with him as soon as possible. On some evenings, everything is extraordinary: a big band playing the songs of cabaret artist, composer and writer Georg Kreisler. A Grammy-nominated vocalist who pushes the boundaries of jazz. And who, in a poetic and lyrical way, gives Kreisler&#x27;s sometimes biting, sometimes furious lyrics, the best in class in the school of black humor (Die Zeit), a completely new character. Bleckmann, ZHdK lecturer in jazz singing, ECHO Award winner and the voice of the aliens in Men in Black, has already worked with greats such as Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass. As usual, the arrangements are by Ed Partyka.

Although the hearty and highly talented Nigerian singer Justina Lee Brown and her band have been thrilling audiences at all blues challenges for years, the blues is only one facet of her music. African and Caribbean influences, gospel, soul and R&#x27;n&#x27;B are also at the heart of her charismatic performances, in which she impresses as an energetic performer with a phenomenal voice. In her native Lagos, Justina Ogunlolu faced the tough struggle for survival as a street kid and fought her way through to the big stages of Europe with perseverance and stamina. After a few performances in Switzerland, Justina and Nic Niedermann crossed paths. The guitarist, composer and producer has been one of the driving forces in the Swiss blues scene for years. Nic becomes the new bandleader and puts together a top-class band for Justina. Justina Lee Brown finally gets the long-awaited opportunity to record her own songs, which she draws from a huge pool of intensive experience, and to realize them for her brilliant stage performances. This concert recording was made with the support of Migros Culture Percentage.

Zurich Jazz Orchestra feat. Karolina Strassmayer

Tuba

Gil Evans' «New Bottle Old Wine»

The Zurich Jazz Orchestra will present the complete program of the original arrangements of Gil Evans&#x27; classic album New Bottle Old Wine from 1958, with alto saxophone soloist Karolina Strassmayer interpreting the parts originally played by Cannonball Adderley. Compositions such as King Porter Stomp, St. Louis Blues and Round Midnight will be heard. Before Strassmayer became the first woman to join the WDR Big Band in 2004, she was part of the New York jazz scene for over 15 years and played with Chico Hamilton and the Diva Jazz Orchestra. Today she is a professor of jazz saxophone at the Folkwang University in Essen, where she founded and still directs an empowerment program for women in jazz. The second set of the concert features jazz standards arranged by Ed Partyka for the outstanding soloists of the ZJO and orchestrated for the same unique instrumentation as Gil Evans: Trumpets and trombones are reduced from four to three each, with horn and tuba used instead. The piano is missing entirely and the saxophones are largely replaced by flutes and clarinets.

Akku Quintet

Composition

Visuals

Album Release «Kinema»

Akku Quintet is the long-term project of drummer Manuel Pasquinelli from Bern. With a lot of joy in playing, the band ravishingly celebrates the pleasure of repetition, stretching space and time in unexcited movements. After their live album released in 2022, the quintet now presents its fifth studio album KINEMA. The five musicians play pulsating, driving minimal jazz with rock and spherical elements. It sounds like a dive into unfathomable depths. Whenever you think this sea can&#x27;t go any lower, you&#x27;re already sinking down to the next level. Live visuals support the musical diving excursion. In 2020 Akku Quintet was awarded the Cantonal Music Prize of Bern.

Egopusher - 10 Years Celebration Rave

If you&#x27;ve ever seen Egopusher live, you&#x27;ll definitely remember a unique, epic live experience that makes every cell in your body vibrate and makes your head spin. On 11/22/2013 they played their first concert at the legendary offspace Perla Mode on Zurich&#x27;s Langstrasse. Since then, the band has toured Europe and Asia with their idiosyncratic blend of electronica and neoclassical music and released four albums, the last two of which were released on the Zurich-based label Quiet Love Records. This year Egopusher celebrate their 10th anniversary and therefore invite you to the 10 Years Celebration Rave at Moods. It may and must be danced!

Linda & Lukas Vogel

Harp

Synthesizer

Modular

Linda Vogel

Hardly any other classical instrument still has as many clichés attached to it as the harp: It is supposed to sound sensual, harmonious, fragile, even ethereal. Swiss musician Linda Vogel already showed that the harp can also elicit completely different sounds with her debut album Maps to Others, released in 2019, on which she used effects devices and computer-controlled hammers to make the instrument sound sometimes like a guitar, sometimes like a synthesizer in experimental pop songs. Together with her brother Lukas Vogel, part of the internationally successful piano-electronica duo Grandbrothers, things are now much heavier, darker, more industrial. Between fragmented beats, distorted violin-like sounds and cutting-metallic spectra, the typical harp arpeggios flash out only briefly, only to be immediately alienated again and absorbed into the duo&#x27;s shimmering-electronic overall sound. Lukas Vogel operates synthesizers, effects and at the same time is able to make the strings of the harp vibrate electromagnetically via an apparatus. Electronic and acoustic, mechanical and organic, strings and oscillators merge irrevocably here - always carried by a third instrument that pervades the songs: Linda Vogel&#x27;s voice, dark, repetitive, hypnotic.

Schmidi Schmidhauser & The Hasta Luegos

Abschiedskonzert

What luck: Mrs. Schmidhauser buys a guitar but doesn&#x27;t find enough time to practice. So she gives the instrument to her boys. Beat and Jürg don&#x27;t waste much time and start rocking. Some time later Beat, meanwhile matured to Schmidi, plays his first gig at the age of 14. Today, about 1500 concerts and 46 years later, Schmidi delights us for the last time live on stage, because – and to our regret – &quot;it&#x27;s enough of a good thing.&quot; From now on, he wants to devote himself to things that have came up short in all these years. Schmidi has experienced indescribable things on a thousand and one stages, on the road with &quot;Stop the Shoppers&quot;, &quot;HOT DC&quot;, &quot;Los Hobos&quot;, &quot;Chica Torpedo&quot;, &quot;Traktorkestar&quot;, &quot;Oso loco&quot;, with Polo, Kuno, Endo, Büne, Sina, Lo &amp; Leduc - and again and again with Jürg/Jiri, the beloved brother. So then: clear the stage!

Elina Duni Trio feat. Rabih Abou-Khalil

Jurykonzert

Born in 1981 as the daughter of a writer and a director in the Albanian capital Tirana, Elina Duni first appeared on stage at the age of just five. A lot has happened since her first musical steps on radio and television: today, Elina Duni is an ECM artist and, since 2017, a laureate of the Swiss Music Prize. In this ZKB Jazz Prize Special, the oud virtuoso Rabih Abou-Khalil meets the Elina Duni Trio with Marc Méan and Matthieu Michel. A unique constellation that will probably bring some golden moments. The concert took place as part of the ZKB Jazz Prize.

Filippo Valli Quartet

The Filippo Valli Quartet from Ticino brings together four young musicians who combine their talents and collaborative spirit to create a fascinating and cohesive musical experience. Their collective artistry and seamless interplay results in performances that captivate audiences with their fusion of traditional and contemporary jazz, R&amp;B, soul and hip-hop influences. The concert took place as part of the ZKB Jazz Prize.

Knobil

Bass Clarinet

Knobil is a vocal jazz quartet founded by Louise Knobil, a double bass player, singer and composer living in Lausanne. Inspired by Esperanza Spalding, Charles Mingus and Oscar Pettiford, she interprets her own compositions with her double bass and voice in a style between singer-songwriter, post-bop and glitery jazz. The concert took place as part of the ZKB Jazz Prize.

Arthur Donnot Group

Arthur Donnot is an up-and-coming musician from Lausanne whose calm breath on the saxophone unfolds a warm sound all its own, almost reminiscent of organic singing. His compositions are rich and somber, yet have a luminous note. His influences range from Mac Demarco to Serge Gainsbourg, from hip hop to indie folk. The concert took place as part of the ZKB Jazz Prize.

Evelinn Trouble Orchestra

Evelinn Trouble

One year after her fifth studio album &quot;Longing Fever&quot; won the &#x27;Indie Suisse Album Of The Year Award&#x27;, Evelinn Trouble is back on tour with her band. Evelinn Trouble, known for her creative restlessness, her virtuoso voice and her idiosyncratic songwriting has added an exciting pop work to her discography with &quot;Longing Fever&quot; - a break with her psychedelic era but still unmistakably Trouble. It&#x27;s an exciting album that traverses highs and lows with fervour, ranging from Beatlesque love songs to euphoric melodies buoyed by distorted hip-hop. Unexpectedly, new sounds of string instruments join the otherwise dark sound universe of the singer: a string trio expands the band to the &quot;Evelinn Trouble Orchestra&quot;. This concert recording was made with the support of Migros Culture Percentage.

Marie Krüttli Trio

The Marie Krüttli Trio impresses, is exciting, colourful and daring. With a mature tone, clear aesthetics and beguiling virtuosity, the Swiss woman manoeuvres herself and her band colleagues through intricate rhythms and interwoven chains of chords. The melodies shimmer groovily, the players appear charming and with a lot of enigmatic wit, always deeply rooted in the European piano tradition and influenced by the sound ideals of Stravinsky and Debussy. This concert recording was made with the support of Migros Culture Percentage.

Soul / Blues / Funk

Leyla McCalla

China Moses

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

James Taylor Quartet

Othella Dallas

The James Brown Tribute Show

Lilly Martin

«Minetta»

KUSH K

Flo Götte

Bilal

Electro Deluxe

Hannah Williams & The Affirmations

Blind Boys of Alabama

Bernard Allison, Vanja Sky, Mike Zito

Fred Wesley & the New J.B.'s

Ebo Taylor

Freak Power

Mother's Finest

Marc Amacher

Big Daddy Wilson

Blues is a feeling - Anniversary Tour 2018

The Two