10th Paradise Jazz Festival at Pomos

We are proud to announce that the 10th Paradise Jazz Festival is going to be held at its usual scenic venue just before Pomos at the Paradise Place over an exciting and unforgettable three weekends from
Saturday 18th July to Saturday 1st of August July 2009.

The subject of this year’s festival is once again the musical culture of the island. Our aim is to create a musical platform for talented local musicians to present their work. That’s why we chose a fresh programme with new artists and groups, instead of a tribute of past years for our 10th anniversary celebration. Some faces we know from previous performances here at Paradise Place, but this year they are moving in different groups and flying in different directions.

On our journey to collect what is best, we ended up with far too many groups that we could squeeze into a weekend… So, this is where the idea of 3 weekends on the road came…..

A “Latin, Samba Jazz Night” with a familiar band "Trio Smiles" with their huge fan base to start on Sat. 18th (20:00) as pre-start gig, to open the “Jazz-times 09”. Their music travels beyond geographical barriers, and takes the people with them into their musical common language.

The following weekend 24th, 25th & 26th is the main part of the Festival, starting on Friday 24th (20:00), with the excellent new work of Savvas Houvartas and his seven member band, a project that is being recorded at the moment. During the concertwe are going to hear only original compositions (instrumentals and some with Greek lyrics. Mediteranian melodies and strong elements of improvizations from the mucisians,who, with their personal style complete the sound of their perfomance.

On Saturday we will have 2 bands. The one is a uniquely talented group called GoJam Group (19:00) from Greece that will appear for the first time in Cyprus. We, the organizers, checking their website on My Space fell in love with their music which fits perfectly with our location. A young pleasant group that alaways on their live performances they create a special atmosphere with their virtuoso technical play & the transmiting enthusiasm perfomance . The night starts perfect for things to follow.

The second band is the The Takoushis / Karapatakis Quartet (21:00), a fantastic line up with the some of the island’s best artists. The sophisticated and colorful compositions of Marios Takoushis together with his charismatic style of playing and his incredible ability to improvise, meet the music of Gabriel Karapatakis who with his sparse and unique expressivness, takes us to soundscapes with minimal but groovy bass lines.According to their latest performances and reviews, the four musicians leave their stigma on the island's jazz scene and are able to disclaim the fact that jazz is music for musicians only.

On Sunday 26th (18:00), we have Classical Jazz Afternoon. One of the most well known local musicians, Irinaeos Koullouras, is presenting a quartet of magnificent musicians who are visiting the island special for our festival and for sure this will be the highlight of this year music celebration. “The Meeting Point Jazz Quartet" will promise you an unforgetable late Sunday Afternoon. The two old friends, Ofer Ganor on guitar and Irenaeos Koullouras on acoustic bass, met back in 1994 in Boston and New York and since then they perform together in several occasions and places around the world along with several musicians of the jazz scene. This time they come together again to join forces with two other great musicians of their generation, Asaf Yuria (Youtube) on tenor saxophone and Doron Tivosh on drums. “The Meeting Point Jazz Quartet" will present compositions from the jazz repertoire along with some compositions of their own. Special guest on vocals Ioanna Troullidou.

Ending this musical celebration on Saturday 1st of August is the “European Trio and Jan Kus” (21:00) an also newcomer on our festival. The Trio which was created in 2008 are heavily influenced by Modern Jazz (Brad Mehldau, Wayne Shorter) and European Music (Keith Jarrett European Quartet), and so their approach comes from a fusion of these styles. For this concert the Trio becomes a Quartet with the addition of Slovenian saxophone player Jan Kus.

One of the big surprises of this year Festival is the dancing act, which takes place before the last gig. The Point to Performances (20:00) are researching contemporary forms of theater, which leads the odion to a real experience. The theme of the play is an observing look to the relation between couples today.

The tickets costs for Saturday 18th July €10, for Friday 24th July €12,
for Sutarday 25th July €20, for Sunday 26th July €15 and for Saturday 1st of August €15.