Dec. 28:  50th Birthday of Michel Petrucciani

Remembering the breathtaking art of Michel Petrucciani who would have had celebrated his 50th birthday today we are about to end our first year of Travel4Jazz. The next days we will be in Orvieto at Umbria-Winter-Jazz-#20 where we will see Gregory Porter and Kurt Elling (among others).

Michel Petrucciani was born in 1962 in France with italien and british roots. He suffered of a so called "Glasknochenkrankheit" (brittle bone disease) and died 1999. He still is one of the most remarkeable musicians on our continent and a symbol of power. He once said: "My philosophy is to have a really good time and never to let anything stop me from doing what I want to do" - I think this is a great motto for the next year.

Stay tuned!

Dec 25, 2012 MERRY CHRISTMAS

Dear friends of Travel 4 Jazz,

we would like to wish you Merry Christmas and a happy New Year - hope we can dig together deeper in our favorite music and maybe we will meet somewhere at a Jazz Festival or a tour we would like to arrange.

One of our dearest friends - Allan Harris - sent us a Christmas Video ... and we love to share it with you, too.......

Dec. 20 - Grammy Nominations for Jazz

On Feb 10 2013 Grammys will be again awarded. There are five categories in Jazz with only less surprises. "Best Jazz instrumental Album" and "Bst improvised Jazz Solo" Chick Corea is twice nominated for his album "hot house" with Gary Burton and for his CD "Alice in Wonderland". "Best Vocal Jazz Album" lists Espreanza Spalding's CD "Radio Music Society", the latest Album of Kurt Elling and Al Jarreau's "LIVE" album with the Metropol Orkest. We will see the results next year.

Dec. 20 - the Best jazz clubs in Europe

Today I found an interesting article in CNN Travel about jazz clubs in Europe - an interesting and somehow surprising collection of top clubs on our continent. Beside our favorites like Londons Ronnie Scotts, the Viennese Porgy & Bess and A-Trane in Berlin we find there clubs like Casa del Jazz in Rome or Music Village in Brussels. From my point one of the best clubs in the world is missing: Nardis in Istanbul. Sad, but we will inform CNN about this mistake!

Dec. 5 - the legendary DAVE BRUBECK died at the age of 92

With deep sorrow I realized that famous jazz pianist Dave Brubeck died today at the age of 92 years. Dave was born 1920 in California and can be seen as one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time. The peak of his career was the foundation of the Dave Brubeck Quartet together with the sax player Paul Desmond. Their most famous hits have been the evergreen "take five" or "blue rondo a la Turk". The album "Time out" (1959) was the first jazz album which have been sold more than 1 Mio copies.

I had the chance to celebrate his 70th birthday with a concert in Vienna in 1990. It was great meeting this Sir of Jazz and singing together with the whole audience Happy Birthday.

May his soul rest in peace. 

Live in Belgium 1966, Dave Brubeck Quartet - St. Louis Blues:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GJzHrttrzB0#!

or his big hit TAKE FIVE:

Dec. 3 - CD of the year: Courtney Pine's House of Legends

It's Christmas time again and JAZZWISE announced  as first magazine their CD of the year with some excellent surprises from an European point of view. Winner is the wonderful Courtney Pine (UK) album "House of Legends" followed by E.S.T. (S) album "301" and John Surmans (UK) Saltash Bells.

In the full list we also can find some of our featured favorite artists Michael Wollny's EM - Wasted & Wanted, Manu Katchè's new album and Radio.String.Quartet.Vienna.

From my point missing is Martin Tingvall's En Ny Dag ....

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