Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sly & Robbie meet Molvær, and more set for Moldejazz 2015!

Moldejazz is proud to present some of jazz's greatest stars for next summer's festival. Many get their wish fulfilled when the vocal diva Dee Dee Bridgewater returns to Molde, this time with the big band "New Orleans Jazz Orchestra". Moldejazz can also present one of the greatest male jazz vocalists Kurt Elling. Star drummer Jack DeJohnette has assembled his dream band Made In Chicago, consisting of the inner core of jazz musicians from the Chicago community, so this will be a signature project for Moldejazz 2015. For the first time in Norway the collaboration between star backing-band Sly & Robbie and Nils Petter Molvaer will be presented. An exciting collaboration is also between Artist In Residence 2006, Joshua Redman and The Bad Plus. There will be a reunion with the crowd-favorite play Driving Miles. Espen Reinertsen will perform his JazZtipendiat concert with Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Kjetil Møster comes with his explosive band Møster! and last but not least, many young people will enjoy the club concert with the new shooting star Emilie Nicolas.

Dee Dee Bridgewater & The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra

Jazz song celebrity Dee Dee Bridgewater is going to Moldejazz with a stellar big band from New Orleans in a breathtaking multimedia performance.

Dee Dee Bridgewater has for many years been one of the world's most accomplished singers, known from theaters and various band constellations alike. Her magnificent voice and interpretation capability has thrilled a large audience all over the world. The album 'Dear Ella' was a double Grammy Award winner, and she has also received several awards for her efforts in theater productions. After several earlier visits to Norway, Dee Dee has got many fans here at home, but now she comes with a program that surpasses most. In July she sings at Moldejazz, backed by a solid big band based around leading New Orleans musicians.

The repertoire is varied and exciting - from riveting New Orleans funk to ballads and swinging and rugged stomp-the-beat music. We are presented with a multimedia show featuring singing, music, pictures and text that will take the audience to the colorful and seething neighborhoods of New Orleans, Lousiana.

The big band - New Orleans Jazz Orchestra - led by the brilliant trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, represents traditional American big band culture with elements of second line funk at its best. The band made history when it, in November 2005, symbolically "reopened" New Orleans by performing Mayfields composition "All the Saints" in the Christ Church Cathedral. This concert was the first major cultural event in the city after Katrina hurricane.

The meeting between Dee Dee Bridgewater and New Orleans Jazz Orchestra has every opportunity to go down in history as a great event in Molde Jazz history.

1. Conductor / Trumpet: Irvin Mayfield, 2nd Clarinet Evan Christopher, 3rd Alto Saxophone: Aaron Fletcher, 4. Baritone Saxophone, Flute, Norbert Stachel, 5. Tenor Saxophone: Ed Petersen, 6. Tenor, Soprano Saxophone: Derek Doug, 7. Trombone Ronald Westray, 8. Trombone Mitch Butler, 9th Trombone: Terrance Taplin, 10 . Trumpet: Barney Floyd, 11. Trumpet Eric Lucero, 12. Trumpet Leon Brown, 13. Trumpet: Ashlin Parker, 14. Bass: David Pulphus, 15. Drums: Adonis Rose, 16. Piano Victor Atkins

Jack DeJohnette - Made in Chicago

Jack DeJohnette is one of today's most influential jazz drummers with a resume that includes collaborations with greats like Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Keith Jarrett, in addition to a separate, significant career as a band leader. With his new project Made in Chicago, DeJohnette goes back to the roots and has put together what is described as a dream band.

And it is not rookies that DeJohnette brings with him either. Based on his hometown of Chicago, and the significant musician organization Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), he has been joined by saxophonist / composer Roscoe Mitchell, saxophonist / composer Henry Threadgill, bassist Larry Gray and pianist / composer, and co-founder of AACM, Muhal Richard Abrams.

Mitchell is perhaps best known through the group Art Ensemble of Chicago, but also through a number of albums as band leader. Threadgill broke through with the trio Air 70s, later forming his own bands as Sextett [sic.], Very Very Circus and later Zooid - while Abrams has since his debut in 1968 released a number of albums that include everything from solo works to music for larger ensembles. Gray, on his side, is an active Chicago-based bassist who has played with Larry Coryell and Ramsey Lewis.

In other words, here some of the most distinct and epochal musicians and composers in contemporary American jazz all come together in one band. The album release is scheduled for January 2015 on ECM.

Jack DeJohnette - drums, Muhal Richard Abrams- piano, Larry Gray - bass, cello, Roscoe Mitchell - alto saxophone, bass flute, soprano saxophone, Henry Threadgill: alto saxophone, flute, bass flute

Sly & Robbie meets Nils Petter Molvaer

As a trumpeter and composer, Nils Petter Molvaer has constantly sought new musical soundscapes. But common to virtually all his projects is that they have had a significant, rhythmic feel. What could be more natural than to enter into a partnership with one of music history's best rhythm sections?

Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, known as the duo Sly & Robbie, has since the late 1970s worked as producers and / or musicians on hundreds of releases, primarily in reggae and dub, but with a continuous willingness towards experimentation and renewal, and an inclusive approach where they also previously collaborated with jazz musicians, including on the hit album Rhythm Killers release in 1987 which had contributions from Henry Threadgill and Bill Laswell.

Molvær has long wanted to work with Sly & Robbie, and this has now finally come true. Joining them are also Vladislav Delay and Eivind Aarseth. We can probably expect intense and hypnotizing rhythms met with airy and sonorous soundscapes. Exciting for sure, and probably music that will make it hard to stand still.

Sly Dunbar - drums, Robbie Shakespeare - electric bass, Nils Petter Molvaer - trumpet, Eivind Aarseth - guitar, Vladislav Delay - live sampling, keyboards.

The Bad Plus Joshua Redman

Saxophonist Joshua Redman hardly needs any introduction. After he arrived in New York at the start of the 90s, his career veritably exploded, and he toured and recorded with greats like Jack DeJohnette, Charlie Haden, Elvin Jones, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, Paul Motian and Clark Terry, as well his father Dewey Redman. Although this was a time for inspiration and development, he marked himself as one of the most recognized and sought after saxophonists on the American jazz-scene. Since then his list of partners is, if possible, even more impressive. When he released his debut album in 93, it ended in a Grammy nomination. It was not the last. n recent years, Redman has also taken in a lot of Norwegian influences, having been Artist In Residence at Moldejazz in 2006 and having collaborated with Eirik Hegdal, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra and Ola Kvernberg.

One of the saxophonists latest collaborations has been with the hardworking piano-trio The Bad Plus. The acoustic trio have played together for 15 years and 10 studio albums, and with it developed a very distinct signature. According to The Bad Plus themselves they continuously strive to break rules and cross borders, bridge genres and techniques, all the while exploring the endless possibilities that lie there for three experienced musicians who seek the perfect synchronization. The trio has received much attention for their choice of song material (interpretations of Black Sabbath, Blondie, Nirvana and Stravinsky) and the altogether this may not present the most welcoming environment for a guest soloist, especially one from the more mainstream direction within contemporary jazz that Redman represents. Perhaps it is this that makes this cooperation so tempting!

The Bad Plus Joshua Redman saw the light for the first time in April 2011, when Blue Note in New York invited the trio to include a guest for the club's 30th anniversary. The collaboration should prove to be very fruitful, and has resulted in tours both in the US and Europe. Lately all four musicians have also written original music for the collaboration, which is now referred to as a completely separate quartet! The stage is set for a distinctive, unpredictable and pioneering concert in Teateret Vårt at Plassen on July 17 at 20:00!

Joshua Redman - saxophone, Ethan Iverson - piano, Reid Anderson - bass, David King - drums

Kurt Elling

Kurt Elling is undoubtedly one of the most distinctive voices in today's jazz. It will be a joyous moment for many now that we can finally experience him at Moldejazz.

He comes with his new project "Passion World" which includes love songs from around the world. Elling not only sings, but also tells the songs' rich background stories and takes the audience on a romantic journey that no one should miss.

The acclaimed baritone, with a voice registry of four octaves, has since he signed for the record company Blue Note in the mid-1990s had a number of success releases. All his ten albums have been nominated for Grammy, which is a record! The album "Dedicated To You" from 2009 also won this coveted award.

That Elling is a true vocal artist is also underlined by his extensive use of vocalise; impromptu singing on vowels. It is possible that the concert in Teateret Vårt at Plassen will offer an extra surprise too; Elling has namely hinted that he could imagine a Norwegian female vocal partner ...

Kurt Elling - vocals, Gary Versace- piano and organ, Clark Sommers - bass, John Mclean- guitar, Kendrick Scott - drums

Møster!

Kjetil Møster is free. Music is not a genre - music is sound! And with that he puts his own stamp on everything he is involved in, whether it is Røyksopp, Robyn, Datarock, Lars Vaular or his own priority project: Møster!

The debut, named after Møster's son Edvard Lygre Møster, was immediate and explosive, and ended up on the list of top 5 debut albums in 2013 in New York City Jazz Records and 6th place in Prog Magazine. In autumn 2014 Møster! released their second album, Inner Earth, with a somewhat new lineup and a slightly new direction. Both albums are live albums, and this can be seen in the context of Kjetils statement: "I think any band finds themselves on stage, in front of an audience." It all happens in the moment.

The band has awakened a new awareness in an audience that reaches far beyond the core-audience of jazz with its innovative mix of prog and experimental rock, interspersed with psychedelic soundscapes. The band serves up one of the most intense energy and groovy blowouts one can experience from a scene. Together they create music that stands rock-solid on an enormously broad platform of musical references, performed with virtuosity and energy that are guaranteed to floor you.

At the concert at Moldejazz the band will collaborate with video artist Armin Werx.

Kjetil Møster - saxophone and electronics, Hans Magnus Ryan - guitar, Nicolai Eilertsen - bass, Kenneth Kapstad - drums

Driving Miles

After many requests Moldejazz, in collaboration with Teateret Vårt, will re-run the crowd-favourite Driving Miles, a play about the special relationship between jazz superstar Miles Davis and festival driver Svein Aage Johansen.

The story of this relationship forms the backdrop for the play "Driving Miles," written for regional theater in Møre og Romsdal's Teateret Vårt by the famous Swedish author Henning Mankell. The play is performed by three musicians and an actor, and contains, in addition to the story of the two protagonists, also Miles-related music. Driving Miles was performed to full houses in the summer of 2010, and again under Moldejazz 2011. The play has also become an export commodity; during autumn 2011 it was performed in Sweden and Switzerland.

Text: Henning Mankell, contributing Per Egil Aske - actor, Ole Jørn Myklebust - trumpet, Jørn Øien - piano, Sigurd Hole - bass.

Espen Reinertsen & Trondheim Jazz Orchestra

SpareBank 1 SMN Jazztipendiat for 2014/2015 was awarded to Espen Reinertsen from Gran in Hadeland. That means he must perform a concert at Moldejazz in 2015 together with Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. In 2013 Espen Reinertsen released the self-produced album Forgaflingspop (only available digitally) with an unusual and fascinating form of pop music. Espen says that these compositions will form the basis for the concert we hear in Molde this summer.

Espen Reinertsen - saxophone and bass clarinet, Sofia Jernberg - vocals, Trine Knutsen - flute, Klaus Ellerhusen Holm - saxophone and clarinet, Eirik Hegdal - saxophone and clarinet, Eivind Payday - trumpet, Hild Sofie Tafjord - horns, Ole Jørgen Melhus - trombone, Ole Morten Vågan - bass, Christian Wallumrød - tangents, Erik Nylander - drums, Kyrre Laastad - drums, Tor Breivik - sound design.

Emilie Nicolas

With a top score for their debut album in Dagbladet and brilliant live reviews, Emilie Nicolas has been named as the big electronica hope. Moldejazz have received many inquiries from young people who want her to attend this summers festival, and it is very nice to be able to confirm that there are club concert with her at Plassen on Wednesday, July 15 at 24:00.

The term "rising star" is used perhaps a little too often, but it definitely fits Emilie Nicolas. After modest beginnings with sound clips on the web in 2013, the road has gone through radio, and during the past year she has captured the attention of more and more, among other means through a distinctive cover of DumDum Boys song "Psetero», as well as self-composed "Nobody Knows" and "Grown Up ". This has led to gigs in both England and Sweden, as well as at Øyafestivalen and a sold-out concert at Rockefeller in Oslo.

The music is both pop and electronica, but also an atmospheric and inquisitive variant with Nicolas' artistic individuality which becomes music that transcends such genre-definitions and also appeals to music lovers who do not necessarily take inspiration from the radio. And if the album is compelling, the music is even more enchanting when experienced live.

Moldejazz ticket-sales, starting from today, enters a new partnership with Billettportalen. Tickets can be purchased digitally through the Moldejazz websites from 24:00 today, Monday August 12. Simultaneously with this artist release we've also posted favorably priced day passes and weekly passes in very limited numbers. Moldejazz is also launching a selection of gift cards.

For further information contact: Managing Director in Molde Jazz, Hans-Olav Solli - tel (+47) 948 26 305.