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17th International Jazz Festival Brings Global Talent to Jiangsu

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The 2018 “Shared Joy in Jiangsu” International Jazz Music Festival gets underway this evening, setting the pace for 11 days and nights of concerts across the province, by artists from Europe, North America, Africa and our very own China.

With a change of venue for the opening ceremony and accompanying concert, to the Yangjiawei Theatre at the Nanjing Jiangning Art and Culture Centre in Dongshan, this is the 17th outing for the festival, after its debut in the dark old days of 2002.

Starting out as the Nanjing International Jazz and World Music Festival, the first few years were indeed a celebration of both genres, and were the festival’s most experimental, as reflected in “musiscapes” that may have left many yawning, but commendable for a period when there was little comprehension for such in China.

After the decision to integrate the festival into the “Shared Joy in Jiangsu” series of activities in 2011, a name change was in order, to reflect the authorities commitment to bring more international musical performances to the rest of Jiangsu province. 

To date, the festival has seen nearly 100 bands from 20 countries and regions entertain and enthral 600,000 people, through over 300 performances.

This year, the festival roster shall make appearances in not only Nanjing, but also Wuxi, Suzhou, Lianyungang, Huai’an, Yancheng, Taizhou and Kunshan.

Hailing from Bilbao in Spain, Travellin’ Brothers are an eight piece equally happy performing soul, jazz, funk, country, swing and blues, or a highly charged combination of all of the above. With 15 years, 8 albums and over 1,000 concerts under their belt, it is a highly polished act indeed.

From Belgium come Evil Empire Orchestra, another high-energy eight piece; this one blending psychedelia, soul, jazz and garage funk with an exemplary, tight rhythm section.

Company B is one of Vancouver, Canada’s top jazz ensembles and features a harmonising, vintage female vocal trio; Mode 9 play a British fusion of neo-soul and jazz with a hint of funk, while Woodhouse is billed as Germany’s oldest jazz band.

Completing the line up are NOSKAM, a multination four piece based in Jiangsu, hailing from Zambia, Congo and Mauritius; and Linda Gerke Yang, who this year shall perform at the festival with an orchestra comprising her young student flautists.

While the entire schedule can be seen in the Event Calendar on The Nanjinger website, standout performances likely to be of most interest to the foreign community include Travellin’ Brothers at Nanjing International School on 14 October at 19:00, Evil Empire Orchestra at Ganesh Jazz Bar in Nanjing on 14 October at 21:30, as well as Company B and Mode 9 performing twice at the Culture and Arts Centre in Wuxi’s Wujiang District on 15 October, at 13:30 and 19:30.

Ticketing information for the “Shared Joy in Jiangsu” International Jazz Music Festival is available via the QR code below.

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