The MOL Jazz festival, which is held in the middle of September, celebrates its sixth anniversary in 2008 and once again it is the most important jazz event to welcome visitors in Ferencváros. The most important location of the festival is the pavilion near the Közraktár and the jazz-boat marooned at the Nehru-shore. The opening and closing concerts will be held in the Palace of Arts.

The atmosphere of the festival will be determined by the coffee houses in Ráday street (Fotocella; Jaffa; Paris, Texas; iF; Fecske), while free concerts are on offer for visitors who like a bit of late-night music of the Pince Theatre, the Sanyi and Aranka Theatre and the Hotel Ibis.

The aims of the festival include lining up the prominent characters of Hungarian jazz life; to create unique productions where talented Hungarian musician and famous foreign guest performers join on the stage and to create an introduction opportunity for young jazz-musicians. One important goal of the festival is to put local jazz into the context of European music, which on the one hand means the formation of the above mentioned workshops, on the other hand it tries to bring the colourful and exciting, yet in Hungary still not very well known European jazz scene to the audience by putting on stage the current productions of prominent European artists.

The number of the locations of the festival increases every year, giving home to almost all styles of jazz, from traditional mainstream trends to the modern , more experimental productions. One of the new locations for this year is the MOL Jazz lounge pavilion, its target audience is the younger generation, famous DJs await those interested from 19:00 to 22:00.

The festival kicks off with the concert of the Modern Art Orchestra. The soloists of the pieces especially composed by Kristóf Bacsó and Szabolcs Oláh for this occasion will be Gábor Bolla saxophonist and Márton Fenyvesi guitarist, two excellent talents of the new jazz generation. One of the most original musicians of Europe will appear in a new role: the French Lois Sclavist will perform his composition written for the silent movie Dans la nuit In the workshop bands, which are a speciality of the program of the festival many musicians will get a chance to introduce themselves: Gábor Winand, the Armenian-Hungarian David Yengibarjan, Tibor Eichinger, Gábor Gadó, and Zoltán Lantos, who has invited a guest performer, the Norwegian guitarist Aarset Eivind to play in the newly formed band Mirrorworld.

The keynote so typical of the festival will be provided by the open-minded European bands so susceptible to renascence and both in the pavilion and on the boat. Some of the most prominent musicians of all are Dave Stapleton (from the United Kingdom ), the JazzKamikaze (from Denmark ), Juhani Aaltonen (from Finland ), the duet of Heinz Sauer and Michael Wollny (from Germany ) and the Trio Grande (from Belgium ). In the quartet of the Austrian saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig the innovative American bass guitarist Jamaaladeen Tacuma will participate. The other “Afro-American magnet” of the festival will be Rashied Ali: the world-famous drummer, who earlier played in the bands of Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, and others will play a leading role of this excellent quintet.

The opening day of the jazz festival the aim described earlier – the introduction of the younger generation – will be attained by several concerts, the Plastic Septet, or the orchestra of Gábor Subicz, who won the public vote in the Rudolf Tomsits trumpet competition of the Hungarian Radio.

Last years’ festival saw the loud success of the album release concert of Viktor Tóth’s quartet, a short time later the CD won the title “Best Jazz Album of 2007” awarded by the Gramofon; receiving international attention too. In connection of this year’s festival the recording of the new album of Hamid Drake, Mátyás Szandai and other guest performers will take place in the Take Five jazz club between 18 and 20 September.

Further information:

www.bmc.hu