Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival

About the Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival

www.curacaonorthseajazz.com

The third Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival will take place on August 31st and September 1st, 2012 at the World Trade Center (WTC) on Piscadera Bay in Curaçao.

Throughout the Festival, international artists with some of the biggest names in the jazz, funk, soul, Latin, and R&B worlds, will perform in and around the WTC.

For more information on the Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival, please visit: www.curacaonorthseajazz.com

The Venue

The World Trade Center Curaçao is located on Piscadera Bay, only ten minutes from downtown Willemstad and Hato International Airport, and walking distance from the Clarion Hotel International & Suites Curaçao, Floris Suites Hotel, Hilton Curaçao, and the Curaçao Marriott Beach Resort & Emerald Casino.

The World Trade Center Curaçao is part of the World Trade Center’s Association, a network of over 300 World Trade Centers in nearly 100 countries, with over 750,000 member companies, and offers over 27,000-square-feet of space for meetings and events.

The Artists

Alicia Keys Singer Alicia Keys had her big breakthrough in 2001. Only twenty years old at the time, she sold twelve million copies worldwide of her debut album, 'Songs In A Minor'. A year later, the record made her win five Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist and Song Of The Year for her first single Fallin’. Keys’ second album, 2003’s 'The Diary Of Alicia Keys', also became an enormous success. These days, she has four albums to her name, with a total of more than 30 million copies sold worldwide. Alicia was born in New York, started playing the piano at age seven and was classically trained. At eleven, she began writing songs and at 16 she graduated from New York’s Professional Performing Arts School. Next to a singer, composer and pianist, these days she is also an author, actress, director and producer. Keys is currently working on her fifth album.
Santana A guitar legend needing little or no introduction, Carlos Santana (1947) has known success for many decades. The Mexican superstar gained fame in the 60s and 70s, when his band Santana pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion. The list of material he released and awards he won is nearly endless. And even to this day, the guitarist is important to contemporary music. In the past years, Santana turned his collaborations with famous artists into a trademark. In 2010 he released his latest album 'Guitar Heaven', containing covers of guitar classics. For example, he recorded AC/DC’s Back In Black with rapper Nas, and The Beatles’ While My Guitar Gently Weeps with singer india.arie and violinist Yo-Yo Ma. Though in his sixties, he doesn’t even want to think about hanging up his strings. “There are many artists I still want to work with. And at this moment, somewhere in a garage, unknown people must be making beautiful music. I would love to welcome them on a future album as well.”
Maná Mexican rockband Maná’s roots go way back, to 1975, when an earlier formation was playing under the name Sombrero Verde. As Maná, they had their first hit in 1991 with Rayando El Sol, off their second album 'Falta Amor'. The band toured extensively and found even bigger success with their third album, 1994’s 'Donde Jugaran Los Niños?', which turned them into Latin rockstars. From 1997 onwards, their fame spread into the US and the rest of the world, partly due to an MTV Unplugged session and a collaboration with Carlos Santana on his album 'Supernatural'. Meanwhile, the band has put four Grammy’s, seven Latin Grammy’s and five MTV Awards Latin America to their name, among others, and sold over 25 million records so far. They released their latest, the long-awaited 'Drama Y Luz', in 2011.
Jill Scott Soul singer Jill Scott, from Philadelphia, started out as a spoken-word artist. She was discovered by The Roots drummer Ahmir Thompson (alias ?uestlove), who invited her into the studio with his band. She co-wrote You Got Me, which The Roots recorded with Erykah Badu. In 2000, the song won a Grammy Award. Subsequently, Scott worked with Eric Benet, Will Smith and Common. With her debut CD ‘Who is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1’ she became one of the most important representatives of the neo-soul; the album was succeeded by 2004’s ‘Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2’ and 2007’s ‘The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3. Nowadays’, Scott is also a successful actress and scored a bestseller with her collection of poems, The Moments, The Minutes, The Hours. Her latest album, ‘The Light Of The Sun’, was released in 2011.
Dizzy Gillespie™ All-Star Big Band lead by Paquito d'Rivera Even when John Birks ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie was developing bebop with Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, he always had a big band ‘up his sleeve’. Smaller combos just weren’t challenging enough for Dizzy’s qualities as a composer and arranger. In 1945 he already toured with a big band that later became known as The Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra. A few years after the bebop pioneer’s demise in 1993, trombone player Slide Hampton and bassist John Lee decided to keep Dizzy’s big band dream alive. The Dizzy Gillespie™ All-Star Big Band includes many Gillespie alumni including Paquito D’Rivera, who will lead the big band during Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival. Born in Havana, Paquito is regarded by many as the most creative Cuban jazz musician in exile. He is also considered one of the finest clarinetists in the world. An ode to the repertoire of one of the biggest jazz musicians of all time.
India.Arie India.Arie truly comes from a musical family: her mother was signed to the Motown label as a teenager. India herself picked up many different musical instruments during her youth, but only seriously started writing songs and playing guitar after highschool in Atlanta. Her debut album ‘Acoustic Soul’ was considered the best soul album of 2001 and received a whopping seven Grammy nominations. Its successor, ‘Voyage To India’, also did very well, though her third album, 2006’s ‘Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship’, was the first to actually reach number one. The singer is praised for her warm sounds and inspiring lyrics, in which she tells about her personal life as well as deals with social issues. According to unconfirmed reports, India will release an new album this Summer, on which she collaborates with Israeli singer Idan Raichel.
Waylon Dutch singer Waylon, real name Willem Bijkerk, took his stage name from his idol Waylon Jennings and gained many years of musical experience in the country scene. After he moved towards soul, Universal Music offered him a record deal, thus making Waylon the first ever Dutch solo artist to be signed to the renowned Motown label. His first single Wicked Way became a big hit and his debut album 'Wicked Ways' reached a platinum status. His success has spread beyond the Dutch borders. In 2010, he supported Whitney Houston during her tour through the UK and Ireland, and later that year, Waylon toured Canada by himself. Last year saw the release of his second album After All, preceded by the stand-out single The Escapist.
Randy Crawford & Joe Sample Trio Singer Randy Crawford is known for her incredible voice, with which she conquered the world starting in 1980, due to hits such as One Day I’ll Fly Away, You Might Need Somebody and Rainy Night In Georgia. Pianist Joe Sample was one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, later simply known as The Crusaders. The two musicians first worked together on the Cusaders-track Street Life in 1979 and have been releasing material together as a duo for a few years now. Up until now, it resulted in two albums; 2006’s 'Feeling Good' and 2008’s 'No Regrets'. For the latter, Crawford and Sample recorded a number of lesser known R&B classics, such as Aretha Franklin’s Today I Sing The Blues, the Staple Singers’ Respect Yourself and Edith Piaf’s No Regrets.
Ruben Blades The interest for the performance of Ruben Blades on the second edition of Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival was so big, that we couldn’t fit all his fans in. That’s why this all-rounder from Panama will return to Curaçao for the third edition of the festival. After he was politically active as Minister of Tourism in his home country, Blades is now focussing on his biggest passion: music. And fans are more than happy to welcome him back in the music spotlights. His most recent tour with Seis del Solar sold over a million tickets and gave birth to the DVD production which was awarded a Latin Grammy for Best Salsa album. The latin, jazz and salsa legend was also awarded a Grammy for best singer-songwriter for his album ‘Cantares del Sub-desarrollo’.
Caro Emerald Caroline van der Leeuw, better known as Caro Emerald, had her breakthrough in the Netherlands in 2009. She had graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory and was working as a singing teacher, when producers Jan van Wieringen and David Schreurs of Grandmono Records asked her to sing on a demo version of Back It Up. The single became a huge hit and was followed up by A Night Like This, which did even better. Her debut album ‘Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor’ reached no. 1 on the Dutch charts and remained there for long enough to smash the previous record set by Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. The album sold over 300,000 copies in the Netherlands, which earned Emerald six platinum records, and 700,000 abroad. She has continued her triumphant march and the album has now been released throughout Europe, and in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Her second album is expected in October 2012.

Attractions and Restaurants

Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival

About the Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival

The Venue

The Artists

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