"A four day event hot wired into the changing dynamic of the contemporary European jazz scene." The Observer
Improvised Music Company & Stavanger Jazz Forum
Present
12 Points!
Europe's New Jazz
Thursday 11th - Sunday 14th February 2010, Folken, Stavanger, Norway
"12 Points showed just how diverse, vibrant and imaginative music has become in the Old World. Already unique, it has the potential to grow into something important, like the Sundance film festival." - The Irish Times
Four nights , twelve young bands, the best that Europe has to offer.
XY Band (Austria), Mark McKnight Trio (Ireland), Georgi Sareski Quartet (Macedonia)
Jazzanitza (Bulgaria), Mari Kvien Brunvoll (Norway), Donkey Monkey (France)
Naoko Sakata Trio (Sweden), Quartester (Finland), Eve Beuvens Trio (Belgium)
Knalpot (Holland), Trio VD (UK), Pablo Held Trio (Germany)
After three happy years in Dublin that have placed it at the heart of mobility for Europe's emerging jazz talent, 12 Points! itself hits the road in 2010, making new networks of musical exchange in alternate years between Dublin and other centres of creativity on the European map. The first of these is Stavanger in the heart of beautiful Western Norway, where 12 Points! takes place from Thursday 11th to Sunday 14th February, in an innovative joint production of Stavanger Jazz Forum and Vestnorsk Jazz Senter from Norway, and Improvised Music Company from Ireland.
While the location might be passing from one Viking city to another, the artist friendly 12 Points! formula remains unchanged, with outstanding young musicians performing before an enthusiastic and informed local audience that includes the elite of European jazz professionals, with plentiful opportunities on and off the bandstand to make new friends in music from every corner of Europe.
They're coming from afar, including the east, and we welcome first time participants from Macedonia with guitarist Goergi Sareski travelling from Skopje, and Jazzanitza, a joint project exploring jazz and Balkan grooves from Bulgarian and Romanian musicians.
This year's edition also reflects the global trend toward better gender balance in jazz, and talented female voices making themselves heard at 12 Points 2010 include two young Japanese artists based in Europe. Drummer Yuko Oshima is a feisty presence with pianist Eve Risser in Parisien duo Donkey Monkey, while Naoko Sakata leads a lyrical piano trio with a rhythm section from her adopted Swedish home of Gothenburg.
Upholding a 12 Points tradition of a solitary solo artist in each edition is the creative, very original Norwegian singer Mari Kvien Brunvoll, and from Belgium comes another exceptional pianist for the very near future in Eve Beuvens.
We're well accustomed to hearing instrumental virtuosity at 12 Points, and 2010 is no exception. Finnish trombonist Kasperi Sarikoski, German pianist Pablo Held, and Irish guitarist Mark McKnight are prodigious talents, and all display the easy ability that any old schooler would be proud of. Austrian trumpeter Lorenz Raab offers us a cool study in modal dynamics with his XY Band, Knalpot bring an amazing kit bag of tape delays, vintage reverbs and analog bric-a -brac from Amsterdam, and Trio VD bring the noise from Leeds, currently home to the UK's most intriguing improv scene.
These twelve points demonstrate that the wheels of European jazz keep on turning, bringing forth exciting and personal perspectives on a great music tradition from emerging artists with plenty to say.
If 12 Points! were a road movie, it would cover all points on the European map, have a young cast of talented newcomers about to make it big, and what a soundtrack!
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