During its seven days, the Tallinn International Festival Jazzkaar 2021 hosted 116 music events, including performances of best Estonian jazz musicians and also several premieres. The festival was attended by nearly 9,000 music lovers.
Jazzkaar took place from 23 to 29 August at Vaba Lava and Fotografiska Tallinn in Telliskivi Creative City. The main programme along with the Urban Project, the free concert day and terrace concerts brought a total of 116 events to audiences in Tartu, Pärnu, Viljandi, Haapsalu and Rakvere besides Tallinn. The festival attracted nearly 9,000 music lovers, including more than 5,000 ticket buyers.
“I am extremely pleased that Jazzkaar could take place despite difficult circumstances and that the audience was able to enjoy wonderful concerts by internationally renowned artists as well as local jazz stars. I am especially happy to see the progress of Estonian artists and the new quality of their work. The biggest thanks of the entire Jazzkaar team go to the musicians. Without their fascinating work the festival would be nothing. Many thanks also to our enthusiastic audience, our wonderful supporters and partners as well as our hardworking volunteers. The memorable jazz party in August was born in the cooperation of all of us,” says Anne Erm, the Artistic Director of the festival.
Artists from ten countries gave 37 concerts in different places of Estonia. Performing to the full house were The Motown Sound, the freshly formed group with a fiery programme; Tõnu Naissoo Electric Group with their bold electronic sound; the London-Tallinn Cosmic Bridge which revolved around harp sounds; and Janno Trump Clarity Ensemble with their Nordic clarity. The longest concert was given by Dagö, whose rocking performance lasted two hours and fifteen minutes. Both local and foreign critics only had praise for the Estonian artists. Several jazz musicians presented their fresh programmes and albums at Jazzkaar, and every year there are more and more new bands and international collaborative projects. Thanks to Klassikaraadio the most special concerts of the festival reached thousands of listeners, whereas the ceremony of Estonian Jazz Awards and the concert of Joel Remmel Trio were broadcast on the portal of Eesti Päevaleht.
Already becoming a tradition, from 23 to 29 August the Urban Project brought 66 music events to the wider audience. More than 2,200 people attended concerts in unexpected places in Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu and Viljandi. Performances of young talents on the free concert day on 29 August yielded 528 visitors. Participants in the Jazz Talks discussed the present and the future of big bands and exchanged views on the current situation of cultural journalism.
Jazzkaar 2021 once again proved that a professional team is fully able provide a safe festival experience. According to the established regulations and in order to ensure a safe festival experience, only jazz lovers who had underwent the COVID-19 infection safety check were allowed to attend events at Jazzkaar 2021. The festival welcomed guests who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, had recovered from COVID-19 within the past six months or had a valid negative test result. On-site COVID-19 antigen rapid testing was performed by nearly 7% of visitors with tickets. The results of the rapid tests showed that all testers were healthy and none of the them tested positive.
Jazzkaar 2021 in numbers:
– 37 concerts in the main programme;
– 66 concerts in the Urban Project;
– five events on the free concert day;
– three Jazz Talks;
– two photo exhibitions in cooperation with Viru Keskus and Jura;
– three terrace concerts, one of which was turned into a cosy home concert due to the weather conditions;
– a total of 116 music events in different places of Estonia;
– musicians from ten countries;
– over 5,000 visitors with tickets;
– 2,240 attendants in the Urban Project;
– more than 500 visits at the free concerts;
– close to 9,000 visits in total;
– six concert venues in different places of Estonia;
– over 80 volunteers helping to organise the festival;
– 15 foreign delegates from all over Europe (foreign journalists, organisers of festivals and and leaders of jazz clubs);
– a total of 3,109 photographs taken by the 16 volunteer photographers in Jazzkaar’s media team;
– close to 400 antigen rapid tests.
The concert of the main performer of Jazzkaar 2021, the Grammy-winning American jazz diva Dee Dee Bridgewater with Estonian Dream Big Band conducted by Siim Aimla, will take place on 13 November at Alexela Concert Hall. The concert will be brought to the audience by Viru Keskus.
The 32nd Tallinn International Jazzkaar Festival took place from 23 to 29 August 2021 in different places of Estonia. Keep an eye on Jazzkaar’s activities on our website, Facebook page and Instagram.
Main programme of Jazzkaar 2021:
Argo Vals Band; Dagö; Dee Dee Bridgewater & Estonian Dream Big Band (USA–Estonia); deLULU; Ellip; ImproVoc; Janno Trump Clarity Ensemble; Jesse Markin (Finland); Joel Remmel Trio feat. Liisi Koikson, Jukka Eskola (Finland), Aleksander Paal; London-Tallinn Cosmic Bridge (UK–Estonia); Lucy Woodward (UK–Netherlands); Mart Soo & Florian Walter (Estonia–Germany); Mingo Rajandi Quintet; Modulshtein; Naïssam Jalal – Quest of the Invisible (Syria–France); Mino Cinélu & Nils Petter Molvær (France–Norway); New Wind Jazz Orchestra & Kristjan Randalu; Nik Bärtsch (Switzerland); Nikita Korzoun Trio; Raimond Mägi Trio; Raivo Tafenau Kvartett & Guests, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra; Scott DuBois & Gebhard Ullmann (USA–Germany); Susanna Aleksandra; Stig Rästa; Tanel Ruben Quintet feat. Kadri Voorand & Kristjan Randalu; The Motown Sound; Tin Men & The Telephone (Netherlands); Torun Eriksen and the Spirit in the Dark (Norway); Tõnu Naissoo Electric Group and others.
The main sponsors of the festival are JURA, Jazz Pesulad and Eesti Päevaleht. Annual sponsors are BMW Inchcape, Tallink and Aktaprint. The concert of the legendary jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater will be presented by Viru Keskus. Telliskivi Creative City, Prike and Fotografiska Tallinn helped set up the festival hub. We are also supported by Reval Café, Overall, MyFitness, Kodupaber and Estonian Public Broadcasting. The French Institute, Embassy of Sweden, Embassy of Norway, Embassy of Finland and Pro Helvetia helped us bring the musicians of their countries to Estonia. We would like to thank the Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the City of Tallinn and Enterprise Estonia for their support.