Taking place from 26 November until 14 December, Christmas Jazz festival will celebrate its 25th birthday this year. The 2020 programme includes popular Estonian artists as well as international stars Cyrille Aimée, Dirty Loops, Los Aurora, Daniel Erdmann and Marcin Masecki. The beloved vocal group Estonian Voices will celebrate their tenth anniversary with a concert that also features their musician friends. Today, tickets to the concerts of the newly announced artists at Christmas Jazz are offered at 50 per cent discount.
The concerts at Christmas Jazz, with the traditional focus on vocal music, will enhance Christmas spirit and joyful anticipation before the holidays. During the 13 festival days, 17 concerts will be performed in Tallinn, Tartu, Viljandi and Pärnu. Ten years ago, Christmas Jazz became a springboard for the unique vocal ensemble Estonian Voices. This year they will celebrate their anniversary with a special concert Estonian Voices 10 & Friends, featuring the best songs from their rich repertoire, arrangements prepared with their musician friends as well as new pieces.
Also performing at the festival will be musicians with an international reach. This year’s Christmas Jazz festival will be opened by the brilliant French singer Cyrille Aimée, initially scheduled to perform at Jazzkaar this spring, with a programme that combines jazz classics with songs from her 2019 Grammy-nominated album Move on: Soundheim Adventure. The sound language of the phenomenal Swedish band Dirty Loops is a unique blend of pop, fusion, jazz, funk and RnB, and their concert will surely give you an extraordinary charge of energy. The new generation flamenco quintet Los Aurora will arrive in Estonia directly from Barcelona, to perform pieces by the greatest Spanish composer of the 20th century, Manuel de Falla in a passionate flamenco style. The award-winning German/French/English trio Daniel Erdmann’s Velvet Revolution, featuring Jaak Sooäär, one of the most active jazz musicians in Estonia, will take the audience on a musical adventure with unexpected twists.
The festival also commemorates great figures, whose legacy still inspires musicians today. The chamber ensemble of composer and bassist Peedu Kass together with soloists Marianne Leibur and Lauri Saatpalu invites you to spend a delightful evening in St. John’s Church where music by Johann Sebastian Bach will be performed in jazz arrangements. Pianist and composer known for his exceptional style of interpretation, Marcin Masecki will present Frédéric Chopin’s nocturnes in a spicy sauce. Singer Susanna Aleksandra will pay homage to the American jazz legend Nancy Wilson.
The concert Cones & Stumps: Leiburs, Remmels, Tafenaus will open a gift bag of musical treats at the concert where fathers share the stage with their musician children. Guitarist and composer Andre Maaker, together with the string quartet Prezioso, will present a new programme born of his reflections in the ruins of an old church. The nostalgia and virtuosic charm of gypsy jazz will be brought to listeners by the string trio Titoks with the famous German jazz guitarist Joscho Stephan. Young singer-songwriter and winner of the Youth Band 2019 competition, Kelly Vask will make her debut at Christmas Jazz, presenting her EP she sin(g)s as well as her latest songs.
The organising team of Christmas Jazz 2020 also announces that the concert of Trilok Gurtu Band (India) at Vaba Lava, rescheduled from 18 April to 27 November, will be unfortunately cancelled due to the worldwide spread of COVID-19. Tickets can be returned or exchanged for Jazzkaar gift vouchers from 3 November until 3 December 2020. Please note that concert tickets will not be automatically refunded. Ticket holders may place their request to return or exchange their tickets here. Gift vouchers are valid for one year from the date of issue. 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. We are grateful to our partners, the public and all jazz lovers for their understanding and cooperation.
Christmas Jazz 2020 will follow the national requirements for organising events, and additional measures have also been considered in cooperation with the Health Board to make the event as safe as possible for the audience, musicians and organisers. We have also compiled the Safe Festival Guide which can be found on Jazzkaar’s website.
The 25th Christmas Jazz festival will take place from 26 November until 14 December. Please see the programme and information about the artists on our website. Tickets for Christmas Jazz concerts can be purchased at Piletilevi sales points and on the website www.piletilevi.ee. On 4 November, nearly 500 tickets for the concerts of the newly announced artists at Christmas Jazz will be offered at 50 per cent discount.
Main programme of Christmas Jazz 2020:
Andre Maaker & Prezioso; Cyrille Aimée (France); Daniel Erdmann’s Velvet Revolution (Germany–France–UK) feat. Jaak Sooäär; Dirty Loops (Sweden); Estonian Voices & Sõbrad; Kelly Vask; Peedu Kass Chamber Ensemble feat. Lauri Saatpalu & Marianne Leibur, Los Aurora (Spain); Marcin Masecki (Poland); Cones & Stumps: feat. Raivo and Ramuel Tafenau, Taavo and Joel Remmel & Arvo and Marianne Leibur; Susanna Aleksandra; Titoks feat. Joscho Stephan (Estonia–Germany) and many others!
The main sponsors of the festival are JURA, Jazz Pesulad and Eesti Päevaleht. Annual sponsors are BMW, Tallink and Aktaprint. Christmas Jazz is supported by City of Tallinn, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, City of Tartu, City of Pärnu, Embassy of Spain, Embassy of Sweden, Embassy of Poland, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Port Noblessner and Reval Café.