The 25th Istanbul Jazz Festival announces its programme

Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) and sponsored by Garanti Bank, the Istanbul Jazz Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2018. The festival will once again host leading names and new discoveries from the world of jazz, as well as the stars of contemporary music between 26 June and 17 July 2018.

The festival will feature more than 250 names in 27 different venues around Istanbul.

The 25th Istanbul Jazz Festival will offer a festival experience full of discoveries in June and July with more than 50 concerts featuring veterans and new discoveries of jazz, well-known ensembles and new horizons of contemporary music.

The first surprise of the 25th Istanbul Jazz Festival is the Australian singer, lyricist, composer, scriptwriter, poet and actor Nick Cave, who has inspired countless artists throughout his career of forty-five years and his band The Bad Seeds. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, whom Istanbul audience have been eagerly waiting to see live again for years, will meet fans on Tuesday, 10 July at Küçükçiftlik Park with the support of %100 Music.

jazz2018 lineupOther surprises of the festival this year include one of the undisputedly magnificent voices in rock history, Robert Plant and his band The Sensational Space Shifters; the voice behind marvellous ballads of love, melancholy, and rebellion, Benjamin Clementine; Melody Gardot with her category-defying music and expressive vocals; the phenomenal Caro Emerald, who brings the golden age of jazz and swing closer to popular genres with her high energy and voice; a quartet composed of saxophone, drums, keyboards, and bass guitar from Toronto taking bold steps in modern jazz, BADBADNOTGOOD; the piano virtuoso who brings his soul to jazz, Robert Glasper and his new band R + R = Now, and Avishai Cohen with his tunes blending modern jazz with Middle Eastern, Eastern European and Afro-American influences. The festival will also see performances by the bass guitarist who will bring different voices of jazz, funk, world music, blues and rock to Istanbul stages, Derrick Hodge; jazz trumpeter Christian Scott; multi-enstrumantalist Taylor McFerrin; a composer who brings together the elements of jazz, world music and Latin tunes, Omar Sosa, accompanied by

the Cuban-born Swiss jazz artist with her impassioned vocals and violin, Yiliañ Canizares, and the man behind Kendrick Lamar’s chart-topping hits, Terrace Martin.

Following the success of the first edition in 2017, the festival will once again organise Vitrin: Showcase for Contemporary Music from Turkey that supports successful musicians and ensembles of the local scene in their global outreach, with the sponsorship of SOCAR Turkey, on 27-30 June 2018. A group of international delegates composed of leading representatives of international music industry and journalists will explore contemporary music from Turkey together with the festival audience during the first four days of the festival.

One of the hallmarks of the festival, an over-night music marathon Night Out, on its 4th edition, will give the stages on the Asian side of the Bosphorus to the most promising independent artists of the local scene in 9 different venues. The free open-air event, Jazz in the Parks will go beyond its traditional venues Fenerbahçe Khalkedon and Fenerbahçe Park, and bring jazz music also to a newer park at the outskirts of Istanbul, Beylikdüzü Yaşam Vadisi Parkı on the European side of the city. The festival programme will also feature A Childlike Day with performances and workshops penned for children.