Viersen Jazz Festival
The Jazz Festival Viersen was first held in 1969 in Viersen under the designation 1st International Niederrheinisches Jazz Festival.
The second festival took place in 1987 under the artistic direction of the bass player and band leader Ali Haurand ( European Jazz Ensemble ). Since then, it has been held annually, in each case on the fourth weekend in September at the Festhalle Viersen ( next date: 26 to 28 September 2014). It enjoys a good reputation nationwide.
Program
The festival offers a quality selection of international, European and regional top musicians from different areas of jazz (eg, Chick Corea, Charlie Mariano, Joe Zawinul, Billy Cobham, Stéphane Grappelli, Ron Carter, Chris Potter ( saxophone ), Ahmad Jamal, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Joachim Kühn, Philip Catherine, Maria João, Candy Dulfer, Barbara Dennerlein, Daniel Humair and many others).
In 2006, the program points, among others, the WDR Big Band under the direction of Maria Schneider, Mike Mainieri & Northern Lights feat. Bugge Wesseltoft, Tom Harrell Quintet, Nicolas Simion " Transylvanian Grooves", European Jazz Ensemble Octet, Peter Herbolzheimer Rhythm Combination & Brass, Benny Golson, Randy Brecker, Al Foster and Manfred Leuchter. Since 2007, the Jazz Festival has been extended to another day of the festival, which is specifically aimed at children and young people, the 'Junior Jazz Open Day'. In 2008 appeared, inter alia, Nils Landgren, Eddie Gomez and Jean -Luc Ponty on.
2011, the 25th Jazz Festival took place:
- Trombone Shorty (USA)
- Lutz Häfner Group feat. Adam Rogers
- European Jazz Ensemble & BuJazzOrchester
- WDR Big Band feat. Eddie Daniels
- Nils Landgren Funk Unit
- Curtis Stigers & Band (USA)
Large parts of the jazz festival be a time lag in television (WDR, 3sat ) and radio sent.