The 33rd Tallinn International Festival Jazzkaar took place at its traditional time in April, presenting 146 music events for jazz fans and featuring artists from 14 countries. More than 18,000 visits to the concerts at the festival showed that people are once again eager to attend cultural events.
Jazzkaar 2022 took place from 24 April to 1 May at Vaba Lava and Fotografiska Tallinn in Telliskivi Creative City, as well as at Alexela Concert Hall and in six other cities all over Estonia, presenting a total of 146 music events. In addition to the main programme, the audience could also enjoy the day of free concerts, cosy home concerts and the events of the Urban Space Project. Jazzkaar’s concerts also reached the audiences in Tartu, Kuressaare, Viljandi, Pärnu, Haapsalu and Rakvere. The festival attracted more than 18,000 visits, with over 9,000 ticket sales.
“You could truly feel that the festival, taking place in April again after a pause of more than two years, had been eagerly awaited by the musicians, the audience and the team. The special atmosphere of the festival affected everyone. We are very glad that everything we had planned worked out and even better. The festival again featured foreign artists from more distant countries such as Brazil and the USA, which helped us offer a diverse programme. The guest artists were wonderful, yet the biggest surprises came from the Estonian musicians whose new original works were presented on each festival day, proving once again that Estonian jazz has has its own unique face and it is now stronger than ever before,” Anne Erm, the artistic director of the festival comments on the recently ended festival.
The programme of Jazzkaar featured musicians from 14 countries performing at 41 concerts in different places of Estonia. At the opening concert, Peedu Kass and Joel Remmel presented their new joint work, Ode to the Forest. We were very happy to welcome long-awaited jazz legends Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kenny Garrett and Hamilton de Holanda at this year’s festival. The programme also included festival debuts, album presentations and new groups, with several Estonian artists winning the hearts of the local as well as international audience. Performing for the full house were the long-awaited Swedish phenomenon Dirty Loops, Cyrille Aimée with her vibrant voice and great sense of humour, Marten Kuningas with his tribute, Bowie 75, as well singers Liisi Koikson and Anett Tamm at home concerts.
Seven Jazzkaar concerts were broadcast by Klassikaraadio, the winner of Jazz Promoter 2022. These concerts are now available for listening on the Klassikaraadio website. The award ceremony of the Estonian Jazz Awards and the subsequent concert of the trio of Holger Marjamaa were broadcast by the portal of Eesti Päevaleht in cooperation with Philly Joe’s TV.
After taking place for the 16th time already, the Urban Space Project has become an integral part of the festival, presenting 91 concerts in Tallinn, Pärnu, Tartu and Viljandi. Young jazz talents performed in hospitals, day centres, bus stations, markets, schools, kindergartens and other public spaces to a total of more than 6,800 listeners. The day of free concerts featured eight diverse music events enjoyed by over 600 people. At Jazz Talks, Dirty Loops told the story of their band, a discussion was held on how to become an artist for a major record label and the projects of the UNESCO Cities of Music were introduced.
Jazzkaar 2022 in numbers:
– 41 concerts in the main programme, including three home concerts;
– 91 concerts in the Urban Space Project;
– eight events on the day of free concerts;
– three Jazz Talks;
– a total of 144 music events in different places of Estonia;
– more than 600 visits on the day of free concerts;
– 6,880 visits in the Urban Space Project;
– more than 18,000 concert visits;
– more than 9,000 ticket sales;
– nine concert venues in various places of Estonia;
– musicians from 14 countries;
– 115 volunteers helping to organise the festival;
– cooperation between Katowice JazzArt Festival and Tallinn in the framework of UNESCO Cities of Music;
– approximately 15 foreign delegates from across Europe (foreign journalists, festival organisers and leaders of jazz clubs);
– approximately 3,300 photos taken by the 14 volunteer photographers of the Jazzkaar media team.
The 33rd Tallinn International Jazzkaar Festival took place from 24 April to 1 May 2022 in different places in Estonia. Keep an eye on Jazzkaar’s activities on our website, Facebook and Instagram.
The main sponsors of the festival were JURA, Jazz Pesulad and Eesti Päevaleht. Annual sponsors were BMW Inchcape, Nordic Hotel Forum, Tallink and Aktaprint. The concert of the legendary jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater was presented by Viru Keskus. Telliskivi Creative City, Prike and Fotografiska Tallinn helped set up the festival hub. We were also supported by Reval Café, Overall, MyFitness, Kodupaber, Seesam Kindlustus, Glamping Estonia and Estonian Public Broadcasting. The Embassy of Israel in Finland, Embassy of Brazil and Embassy of Sweden helped us bring the musicians of their countries to Estonia. We would like to thank the Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Tallinn, the UNESCO City of Music and Enterprise Estonia for their support.
Main programme of Jazzkaar 2022:
Alfa Collective / Avishai Cohen, Big Vicious (Israel) / China Moses (USA) / Cätlin Mägi, Looping Jew’s Harp Orchestra / Cyrille Aimée (France) / DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER (USA) & Estonian Dream Big Band / Dirty Loops (Sweden) / Frankie Animal / Hamilton de Holanda Jobim Trio (Brazil) / Holger Marjamaa, Heikko Remmel & Lee Pearson (Estonia–USA) / Eesti Keeled feat. Riho Sibul & Vaiko Eplik, Jaak Sooäär 50 / Joel Remmel & Peedu Kass Ensemble Ode to the Forest / Kadri Voorand, Kontsertlesila / Kalle Pilli Quintet, Lantau / Maarja Nuut & Nicholas Stocker (Estonia–Switzerland) / Maria Faust Jazz Catastrophe (Estonia–Denmark) / Maciej Obara Quartet (Poland–Norway–Sweden) / Marten Kuningas, Bowie 75 / Neil Cowley (UK) / Neon Fir / Mingo Rajandi & Eva Koldits, Beastesses / Saara Pius & Band, Party in the Animal Kingdom / Siim Aimla Funk Band feat. Alika Milova, Eleryn Tiit and Silver Laas, Respect the Funk / Siiri Sisask & Kristjan Randalu, Lingua mea (Estonia–Germany–Greece–Luxembourg/USA) / Tafenau & Vind Duo feat. Ricardo Padilla (Estonia–Chile) / KENNY GARRETT and Sounds From The Ancestors (USA) / trio_io (Poland) / Valter’s Harpejji Band