The annual career and networking event for upcoming bands takes place now for the 21st time. This year the Nordic Jazz Comets return to the Nordics, as a part of the We Jazz Festival in Helsinki on 2 December 2020. The new Nordic promotor network and the jazz federations of each country have selected five bands to take part in the project.
LONG-LIVED EVENT BRINGS MUSIC AND BUSINESS TOGETHER
The five national jazz organizations in the Nordic countries have run the annual Nordic Jazz Comets event since year 2000. The recent editions of the event have functioned as a viewpoint to Nordic jazz music and business to international professionals and audiences, as NJC has had the pleasure to partner up with the urban Scope Festival in Berlin, the massive EFG London Jazz Festival and most recently in Paris with Association Jazzé Croisé, the extensive French festival and club network.
At the Nordic Jazz Comets event the five upcoming Nordic bands have had the opportunity to perform to the local audiences and a hand-picked selection of European jazz professionals, such as festival programmers, journalists, label managers and agents. In addition to the showcase, the young musicians and the professionals have participated to activities, such as seminars and networking dinners together, to share knowledge, exchange ideas and strengthen relations between the artists and the business around jazz. For the national jazz organizations, the event has been a great chance to present Nordic jazz culture abroad, and to learn from other market areas.
NORDIC JAZZ COMETS TO CO-OPERATE WITH NEW PROMOTOR NETWORK
This year, in addition to the showcase and seminar, the bands have a chance to work with a new community of Nordic club, venue and festival directors. The network of 12 jazz promotors from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, are in the core of a pilot project to create environmentally sustainable touring models in the Nordic region. The bands will get an opportunity to plan and test these collaborative tours in 2021.
The tours will be documented in two ways: first by live videos/blogs by the bands on the road to gain exposure to the green ethos, and later on the bands’ and the promotors’ experiences are used as case examples to create a guidebook for sustainable touring in the Nordics.
WE JAZZ FESTIVAL HOSTS THE EVENT ON 2 DECEMBER
The partner of the Nordic Jazz Comets showcase and seminar event in 2020 is We Jazz Festival in Helsinki. The ambitious yet playful urban festival is set on the first week of December, and it has grown to be a real beam of light in the darkest time of the Finnish winter. The concerts take place in various, often quirky venues around the city.
The Nordic Jazz Comets showcase highlights the festival on Wednesday, the 2nd of December. The location of the Nordic Jazz Comets showcase is lush: the 2016-opened G Livelab is one of Helsinki’s newest and most praised live venues, with the sound system and acoustics tailor-made for live music. The showcase features five bands, one from each Nordic country, who each play a set of 30 minutes. The following Thursday the musicians and the network members assemble to spend a day together in a sustainability workshop.
PROMOTOR NETWORK SELECTS 5 OUT OF 80 TO FINAL BAND LINE-UP
Eighty bands around the Nordics applied for the showcase through an open call. The promotor network, along with the five national federations and the director of We Jazz Festival have selected the following bands to perform in Helsinki, and to be considered for touring in the Nordic countries in 2021:
FINLAND: Kadi Vija Key Project
Kadi Vija – vocals, Max Zenger – bass clarinet, Tuomo Dahlblom – guitar, Tuomas Timonen – drums
SWEDEN: Post-sun-vision
Alice Hernqvist – piano, Aaron Mandelmann – bass, Mario Ochoa – drums
NORWAY: Kjetil Mulelid Trio
Kjetil Mulelid – piano, Andreas Winther – drums, Bjørn Marius Hegge – double bass
ICELAND: Ingibjörg Turchi Band
Ingibjörg Elsa Turchi – electric bass, Magnús Trygvason Eliassen – drums, Hróðmar Sigurðsson – guitar, Tumi Árnason – tenor saxophone, Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson – piano, keyboards
DENMARK: Svaneborg Kardyb
Nikolaj Svaneborg – Würlitzer, synthesizer, piano, Jonas Kardyb – drums, percussion
INFORMATION & CONTACT
Nordic Jazz Comets 2020 at We Jazz Festival
Wednesday 2 December, G Livelab, www.glivelab.fi
Tickets go on sale in August at www.tiketti.fi
We Jazz Festival programme will be released in September at www.wejazz.fi
More about the network and Nordic Jazz Comets at www.nordicjazzcomets.com
Further inquiries:
Project Coordinator
Raisa Siivola, Jazz Finland
raisa.siivola@jazzfinland.fi
Tel. +358 44 205 6926