I Love Jazz at Rio’s CCBB, August 9th – 14th

By Candy Pilar Godoy, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Jazz enthusiasts can rejoice as the CCBB presents their third annual Festival Internacional de Jazz/I Love Jazz event live in Rio from August 9th to the 14th. This year’s edition will feature an array of artists hailing from the U.S. and Germany, traveling all the way to Brazil to perform in Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Recife, Aracaju and Rio de Janeiro. Their performances and the festival aim to spread the culture of jazz and create an exchange between international and national artists.

“It’s important to expose people to different types of music,” explains one jazz aficionado, “and it helps that it’s free, so everyone can enjoy.”

Stacey Kent, the well known female American singer and a rising names in contemporary jazz, will kick off the celebration in Rio on August 9th. Kent is no stranger to Brazilian music, having released  a Portuguese album in 2001 entitled “Brazilian Sketches” with husband and tenor saxophonist Jim Tomlinson.

She first began her love affair with the country after hearing the music of Stan Getz and João Gilberto at age thirteen. After experimenting with Bossa Nova and other Brazilian sounds, she began to study Portuguese to better understand the music.

“I love being in Brazil,“ said the singer, “It’s a privilege … Learning to speak Portuguese changed my life, I’m understanding Brazilian music in a different way [and] discovering new things every day in the same music.”

Kent, along with other featured singers, pianists, trumpeters, trombonists, and more, will promote traditional jazz in six different performances over six days.

The festival will run in conjunction with the Queremos Miles tribute, an international multimedia show based on jazz legend Miles Davis. Designed by the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the show is comprised of 300 pieces of work, including recordings, works of art, photographs, videos, documentaries, clothes, musical instruments and scores provided by the Miles family, private collectors and partners.

The tribute and subsequent festival come as no surprise to Rio residents, as Jazz is deeply embedded in Carioca culture. Bossa nova, the popular fusion of samba and jazz, originated in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1950s.

International collaborations ensued, and bossa nova, as well as samba-jazz and other inspired medleys, spread worldwide. Popularity helped spawn various events and musical performances, such as the Bourbon Street Fest in Rio that took place just last week.

Along with the jazz festival and Miles Davis tribute, the CCBB will be presenting various lectures centered on music. Entrance is free and tickets will be distributed at the CCBB box office one hour before the event. For more information visit the CCBB web site.

Dates: August 9th- 14th
Location: Post Office Square | First Street March 66 -Center
Entrance: Free

August 9  | 21h | Stacey Kent
August 10 | 21h | Axel Zwingenberg & Lila Ammons
August 11 | 21h | Judy Carmichael Trio
August 12 | 21h | Howard Alden Trio com Buck Pizzarelli & Jack Wilkins
August 13 | 16h | Jon Faddis Quartet (Queremos Miles/Tribute to Miles Davis)
August 14 | 16h | John Allred Sextet