Jazz Province international festival is a unique and colorful event. A great jazz carnival travels throughout the Central Russia’s cities. Every year the festival presents a new program and invites participants from all over the world.
- JP has been successfully held for 15 years.
- In 2010 its audience comprised more than 12 thousand.
- 700 performers from 30 countries including Russia, USA, Brazil, Germany, Great Britain, France, Denmark, Estonia, Cuba, Japan and many others have taken part in the fest.
- The festival has attended 25 Russian cities.
The aim of JP is to present the best of contemporary jazz to the Russian audience. Its program includes the whole entirety of current jazz trends like mainstream, avant-garde, jazz-rock, vocal projects, ethno-jazz, etc. We can guarantee the top class performance and singularity of our programs. By this JP contributes to the quality of provincial culture life and to music life in particular.
Leonid Vintskevich, JP’s founder and art-director, is a well-known pianist and composer who participated in a number of international jazz festivals including Lionel Hampton Festival. It was Mr. Hampton who inspired him to create a project of his own and supported this idea whole-heartedly. Ph. D. Lynn Skinner, the present Lionel Hampton Fest director, has made a great contribution to JP and has attended the 1998’s Jazz Province as a VIP guest. Ten years later, in 2008, the festival was dedicated to Lionel Hampton’s 100th anniversary.
The festival is vast and keeps expanding both its geography and schedule. Apart from concerts it has recently included such events as meetings with audience, master classes for young musicians, movie shows, exhibitions, theatrical performances, etc. Generally, each fest becomes a venue for contemporary jazz lovers, whose number keeps increasing from year to year.
JP’s guest stars include the best US performers:
- Eric Marienthal, a well-known saxophonist, performer with Chick Corea Electric Band,
- New York Voices, Grammy-awarded vocal band,
- Mike Clark, world famous drummer, performer with Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters,
- Victor Bailey, bass-guitarist, performer with Weather Report,
- Billy Cobham, the legendary drummer,
- Tony Cimorosi Quartet
- Jay Ashby, trombonist, awarded with 3 Grammys,
- Ryan Cohan Quartet etc.
Eric Marienthal: “Jazz Province is a place where the best performers of Russia and the whole world meet each other. I love all the people and musicians who take part in it”.
Tony Cimorosi: “…I can say with my hand upon my heart that Russians are the best audience. I feel hunger and passion playing for you, ‘cause jazz means freedom and sincerity. I believe that love for it all brings us together”.
Victor Bailey: “It’s really great! I’m 47 and I remember the time when I couldn’t dream of going to Russia. And so visiting your country is something very-very special for me”.
In different years the best jazz performers of Europe, Asia and Russia have taken part in the festival:
France: Felix Sabal-Lecco, percussion, Dominique Di Piazza, bass-guitar.
Japan: Katzuyuka Itakura free-jazz trio.
Brazil: Mousha Adnet, Grammy-winning vocalist.
Ukraine: ManSound vocal sextet, Vokal.Total Grand Prix winners
Russia: Yulianna Rogatcheva, vocals, awarded at Montreux Jazz Festival, Alexey Kozlov, saxophone, and Arsenal band, Alexey Kuznetsov, guitar, Arkady Shilkloper, french horn, Igor Butman’s Band etc.
Festival management cooperates with:
- USA Embassy in Russia,
- Lionel Hampton Festival management,
- Russian Culture Foundation,
- PRO HELVETIA Culture Foundation, Switzerland,
- Goethe Institute, Germany .
Programs about the festival were broadcasted at BBC (Great Britain), Deutche Welle (Germany), Rossiya, Kultura, NTV, TNT, Radio Mayak (Russia) and other TV channels.