Viersen Jazz Festival

Festhalle Viersen, venue of the Viersen Jazz Festival

The Viersen Jazz Festival took place in Viersen for the first time in 1969 under the name of the 1st International Lower Rhine Jazz Festival .

The second festival took place in 1987 under the artistic direction of bassist and band leader Ali Haurand (European Jazz Ensemble). Since then it has been held annually (usually on the fourth weekend in September) in the Viersener Festhalle (next date: September 16-18, 2016). It enjoys a good reputation nationwide.

program

Artistic director of the festival, Ali Haurand in July 2003

The festival offers a high-quality selection of top international, European and regional musicians from the most diverse areas of jazz (e.g. Chick Corea , Charlie Mariano , Joe Zawinul , Billy Cobham , Stéphane Grappelli , Ron Carter , Chris Potter (saxophonist) , Ahmad Jamal , Gonzalo Rubalcaba , Joachim Kühn , Philip Catherine , Maria João , Candy Dulfer , Barbara Dennerlein , Daniel Humair and many others).

In 2006 the program included the WDR - Big Band under the direction of Maria Schneider , Mike Mainieri & Northern Lights feat. Bugge Wesseltoft , Tom Harrell- Quintet, Nicolas Simion Transsylvanian Grooves , European Jazz Ensemble Oktett , Peter Herbolzheimer  Rhythm Combination & Brass , Benny Golson , Randy Brecker , Al Foster and Manfred Leuchter . Since 2007, the jazz festival has been expanded to include another festival day specifically aimed at children and young people, the Junior Jazz Open Day . In 2008 u. a. Nils Landgren , Eddie Gomez and Jean-Luc Ponty .

In 2011 the 25th Jazz Festival took place:

• Trombone Shorty (USA)
• Lutz Häfner Group feat. Adam Rogers
• European Jazz Ensemble & BuJazzOrchester
• WDR Big Band feat. Eddie Daniels
• Nils Landgren Funk Unit
• Curtis Stigers & Band (USA)

Large parts of the jazz festival are also broadcast on television (WDR, 3sat) and radio with a time delay. At the 30th Festival 2016, Nils Landgren performed with the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, Lisa Bassenge with the band, Ali Haurand with the European Jazz Sextet, Three Fall & Melane.

Web links

• www.jazzfestival-viersen.de
• Rheinische Post : series of pictures from the 2011 festival

Individual evidence

1. ^ Report in Rheinische Post / Grenzland-Kurier from September 26, 2011
2. ↑ Profile European Jazz Ensemble ( Memento of the original from January 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) 
3. ↑ www.jazzfestival-viersen.de Broadcast dates ( memento of the original from August 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.