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Enjoy A Summer Chilling Experience in Bregenz (Austria) on August 29th and 30th!
July 23, 2008 - Are you looking for a nice end of summer week-end combining great smooth jazz music and "dolce vita" in a pleasant European setting? Then, come and experience the First Annual Smooth Jazz Festival in Bregenz, Festival House on August 29th and 30th. Let us find more on this chilling experience with its director, Christian Boessner.
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Natalie Cole has Hepatitis C
 July 23, 2008 – Our thoughts go out to Natalie Cole today. The singer has just been diagnosed with Hepatitis C. In a statement from her publicist the singer said, “I’ve been so fortunate to have learned so much from my past experiences,” More
Roselyn Brown Shares her Best Nights!
 July 29, 2008 – Roselyn Brown is pumped! The Smooth Jazz flautist/vocalist has just had her CD release party for her great new ‘Emancipation’ CD, “A great deal of work goes into making an event like this happen!” More. |
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Akbar Nour : Hi Christian, great to have you here on www.smoothjazznow.com! Few weeks ago, Bregenz was the centre of some hot action scenes for the new James Bond movie "Quantum of Solace". And by the end of August, the town will again stage another great event, the 1st Smooth Jazz Festival in Bregenz. How did the project come to fruition?
Christian Boessner : Hi Akbar! The original idea for the festival came from my partner, Bernd Leinfelder. Bernd has always been an absolute music-lover and as his family is settled in California, he has been in touch with Smooth Jazz for quite some time now. Whenever he was out there, he attended festival and built strong contacts with the music industry and the artists. Therefore, he knows the industry’s ambitions to gain some ground for Smooth Jazz in Europe. To assess the potential of organising such an event in Europe, we set up a homepage last year to get people’s feedback. They were able to select the stars they wanted to see on stage. The overall positive feedback we received encouraged us in our aim to organise a smooth jazz festival on European ground. A lot of people got excited with the project and we had positive letters from all over the world and many artists showed interest in our project.
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Lewis Paying Tribute to Abraham Lincoln
 July 27, 2008 - A musical piece paying tribute to next year's 200th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birth (1809). The musical composition will get its inspiration from Lincoln's life and musicians from the 19th century. More
The LaBelle Reunion, Will It Really Happen?
 July 27, 2008 - Trio Labelle, including famous singers Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash is reunited after 32 years and is currently in a studio working on their next still untitled album. More |
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Akbar : How did you choose Bregenz?
Christian : The annual Bregenz Festival (staging this year the famous Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Tosca”from July 23rd to August 23rd) on the Festival House’s floating stage attracts thousands of music fans from all over the world to Lake Constance. Therefore, Bregenz has an exclusive venue, which has become quite famous worldwide. So both place (Bregenz) and venue (Festival House) fit perfectly to our event, because we intend to create an exclusive atmosphere. Famous director Marc Foster, who shot some scenes of “Quantum of Solace” (the next James Bond movie) here in Bregenz last May, even said that the opera stage eye "was a metaphor for the James Bond series and therefore a very good setting for this film”. He also mentioned that he “was pleased to be here” and that “the lake and surroundings were beautiful”. So you can notice that the position of Bregenz is ideal. Not only for us, because we preferred a certain proximity to our HQ (Neusäß in Bavaria (Germany)) for our first event in Europe, but also for our visitors, because Bregenz is located relatively centrally in Europe. Last but not least, the proximity to Lake Constance was appealing, because in the U.S. most Smooth Jazz Festivals take place on the coast or close to lakes and seas. So we wanted to combine Smooth Jazz with the elements of water, sun and a feeling of freedom or if you prefer, on the one hand a touch of “Casino Royale”, on the other a breeze of beach-feeling à la “Cafe del Mar”.
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Hathaway To Open Detroit Jazz Fest
 July 24, 2008 - Performers have been announced for this year's Detroit International Jazz Festival, set to to take place from August 29 to September 1 , 2008. More
Stewart Lookin’ to Kick Jude Law’s Ass
 July 23, 2008 – Every dad gets a little possessive when someone hurts his little girl. Rod Stewart is in a fighting mood on hearing his daughter Kimberly’s ex, Jude Law is rebounding with Lily Cole. More. |
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Akbar : Smooth jazz is a successful format in Northern America, but remains confidential in Europe. Even most European musicians have to move to the US to get acknowledged. How do you explain it?
Christian : It is not the style of music which is not so popular in Europe, it is rather the name. Smooth Jazz is often referred to as “lounge music” in Europe, therefore it will be played in bars and trendy scene locations. In my opinion, the main problem is that most European radio stations do not often play this kind of music on their airwaves. They regard it as a minor genre, so most smooth jazz fans have to switch to radio stations on the Web. Smooth Jazz has become popular in the US since the success of artists such as Sade and George Benson. Why is Smooth Jazz not so popular in Europe? I don’t know exactly why. Smooth Jazz started in California. So maybe Americans are more easy-going than Europeans or maybe it is due to the sunny weather in California? However, I remain convinced that if European radio stations start to play more smooth sounds, then the sun could also shine in the hearts of European listeners.
With this event, we really intend to bring Smooth Jazz as Smooth Jazz to Europe. The positive feedback we have had from fans worldwide shows us that we are on the right path. We have also sent festival tickets to the United States and Australia. These are true fans!
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Akbar : Let us come now to the Festival's program, which is a good balance between European and American smooth jazz well known artists and emerging talents. There will be also after-show parties. Can you tell us more on the various performing artists and the late night events?
Christian : On the first night the Italian band Gabin will hit the stage with groovy beats. Then the American guitarist Chieli Minucci, who has already performed with artists like Jennifer Lopez and Anastacia, the saxophonist Marion Meadows, from the U.S. as well, and the Swiss-born pianist Alex Bugnon will take you away into the world of Smooth Jazz. De Phazz from Heidelberg is the closing climax of the first-night live acts, and will put the audience in the mood for the following after-show-party with elements of Dub, Jazz, Soul, Trip-Hop, Latin, Drum`n`Bass and Ambient.
The second night will be opened by De-Phazz-singer Pat Appleton with her own band, then big names in the world of Smooth Jazz, Peter White, Jaared and Candy Dulfer, follow onto the stage. The famous Dutch sax player has already performed with international stars like Prince, Beyonce, Aretha Franklin and Pink Floyd and will put the heat on the audience for the following after-show-party. We have booked well-known clubbing-scene DJs for both party nights – Praful & Sound System has already confirmed for Friday night. We hope to have around 3600 people for both nights in the Festival Hall. We really hope that the European audience will attend the festival. Whatever happens, we intend to stage a second event.
Akbar : Thanks so much for your time, Christian. We look forward to covering the Festival and sharing various highlights with our readers. We wish you a great success for the festival.
Christian : Thanks, Akbar. See you next in Bregenz!
For more information: www.smoothjazzfestival.de
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