Djabe (UNG)

Djabe

DJABE

THE NUMBER ONE JAZZ/WORLD FUSION BAND OF HUNGARY

Djabe is the number 1 jazz/world fusion band in Hungary. It was established 28 years ago and since then Djabe won numerous domestic and international awards and recognitions.

2000 – Hungarian Music Award, The Best Jazz/World Music Album Of The Year, Djabe – Witchi Tai To
2001 – eMeRTon Award, The Best World Music Band – Djabe: Update
2004 – International PRince Award, Djabe – Sheafs Are Dancing
2004 – Surround Music Award nominee, Los Aneles, USA, Djabe – Sheafs Are Dancing DVD-Audio
2006 – Special Award, Klaipeda Jazz Festival, Lithuania
2010 – Brest Theater Festival Diploma, Belarus
2011 – Barabás Tamás bass guitar artist – Artisjus Award
Between 2001 – 2019 nine studio and 2 live albums were nominated for Hungarian Music Award in the Jazz Album Of The Year category.

From 2002, the band gave concerts in 43 countries throughout Europe, Asia and North-America. Djabe is one of the most invited Hungarian bands by international festivals.
Just to name a few of the most important appearances: Rochester, Baltimore, Washington DC, San Jose, Atlanta, New York – USA; Kaslo, Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver – Canada; Burghausen, Berlin, Regensburg, München – Germany; Klaipeda, Kaunas – Lithuania; Riga, Saulkrasti – Latvia; Pori, Imatra – Finland; Tallin – Estonia; Glogow, Cracow, Warsaw – Poland; Stockholm – Sweden; London – England; Hradec Králové, Prague – Czech Republic; Bansko – Bulgaria; Graz, Vienna, Wiesen – Austria; Sarajevo – Bosnia and Herzegovina; Udine, Venezia, Lecco – Italy; Sines, Portiamo – Portugal; Baku – Azerbaijan; Seben, Garana, Targu Mures, Ploiest – Romania; Nis, Novi Sad, Belgrade – Serbia, Ulaanbaatar – Mongolia; Almaty – Kazahstan; Bishkek – Kirgistan; Kuala Lumpur, Penang – Malaysia, Dubai – United Arab Emirates, Koktebel, Lviv – Ukraine; The Hague – The Netherlands; Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Bale, Korcula, – Croatia; Bratislava, Kosice, Nové Zámky, Presov, Nove Mesto – Slovakia; Crete – Greece; Moscow, Kaliningrad, Perm, Saint Petersburg – Russia, Brussels – Belgium, etc.

Djabe plays unique music in which the elements of jazz are mixed with various parts of Hungarian and world music, in addition with progressive rock. The main composer of the band is Tamás Barabás, who – at the same time – is the most virtuoso Hungarian bass guitarist.
Djabe means freedom in the African Ashanti language. The founder and other composer of the band is Attila Égerházi – playing the guitar and being the leader of the band, too –, who interprets this freedom primarily by freely mixing the styles and instruments.
At the drums sits the internationally acclaimed, Artisjus Award-winner and Grammy Award nominee Péter Kaszás, who was drummer for Al Di Meola’s band, World Sinfonia, for 10 years.
Áron Koós-Hutás multiple award-winning trumpet player performed at many gigs of the band between 2008 and 2010. He joined to Djabe as a permanent member in 2016.
Keyboardist of Djabe is Zoltán Bubenyák played with exceptional Hungarian and foreign jazz giants along his career.

Djabe has more than 100 physical releases. 16 studio albums and 26 live recordings in many formats: LP, CD, DVD, DVD-Audio, Blu-ray, 2 track master tape, 4 track reel-to-reel, MC, plus 5 club CD, 2 club VHS.
In 2017 Djabe and London based Cherry Red Records started a cooperation. In the last six years Cherry Red released 7 albums under their Esoteric Antenna label. The Summer Storms and Rocking Rivers, Life Is A Journey – The Sardinia Tapes and the Life Is A journey – The Budapest Live Tapes, Back To Sardinia, The Magic Stag, the Journey Continues and Live in Győr album got a great international recognition and distribution.
Djabe’s vinyl records are used as test LPs at High-End shows and in showrooms, because of their world class audio quality. In 2023 Djabe released direct-to-disc 45 RPM double LP, recorded with fully analogue equipment at Artone Studio in The Netherlands. At the 2023 Munich High-End Show this album was great success because of it’s sounding and music content.
Their DVD-Audio surround discs are well-known from Brazil to Japan. As a sound engineer Tamas Barabás has won the recognition of the experts at Abbey Road with many Djabe stereo and surround recordings. Sheafs Are Dancing album was nominated to Surround Music Award in Los Angeles in 2004.
Djabe in the past 28 years worked together with several musicians from all over the world and Hungary. Ben Castle, John Nugent, Malik Mansurov, Gulli Briem, Oleg Butman, Mihály Dresch, Ferenc Muck, Viktor Tóth and Tibor Mótyán are just a few names to mention.
Since 2007 Djabe has joint concerts regularly with the former guitarist of Genesis, Steve Hackett. The outstanding project of the band, the show of ‘Djabe & Steve Hackett’ not only contains Steve playing Djabe tunes, it includes playing Genesis and Hackett classics with Djabe. At the Garana Jazz Festival in Romania, 13.000 music fans enjoyed the music of Djabe and Steve.

Lilly Martin und Band

Lilly Martin ist Gewinnerin des Swiss Blues Award 2020. Die gebürtige New Yorkerin stammt aus einer kubanischen Musikerfamilie und ist im Künstlerviertel Greenwich Village aufgewachsen. Sie hat in der Schweiz ihre zweite Heimat gefunden und prägt seit Jahren die hiesige Bluesszene mit. Ihr urbaner Blues und Soul ist von der musikalischen Vielfalt ihrer Herkunft geprägt. Ihr neues aktuelles Album heisst "Lookout".

Micke Simpson und Band

Micke Simpson und Band UK

In the early 1980's Mick worked as a session guitarist and was spotted by Elkie Brooks who asked him to tour in her band. BBC Radio One's Tommy Vance spoke to Mick backstage after a gig and as a result he played some of Mick's Instrumental tracks on his ‘Friday Night Rock Show’.

In the mid 1990's Mick worked with John Parr of 'St Elmo's Fire' fame, featuring on his album 'Man With A Vision'. A number of tracks from the album have featured on smash hit films, such as 'Running Man' with Arnold Schwarzenegger and 'Three Men And A Baby' with Tom Selleck. Mick then toured with ex Rolling Stone Bill Wyman's 'Rhythm Kings' and in 2004 his original track 'A Father's Son' won the International Songwriters Award sponsored by the Brits Trust. The track received major TV and radio airplay along with Mick's song 'Looking Through My Eyes' which was released to raise money and awareness of Autism, which is a cause close to his heart.

In June 2005 Mick guested at the 80th birthday of blues legend BB King at his blues bar in New York. He has also played alongside other guitar heroes such as Gary Moore and Snowy White.

In 2010, Mick released his long awaited debut solo album ‘Hard Road’ on the Mad Ears Productions label. The album received support from Paul Jones (BBC Radio 2), and was play listed on the U.S. Blues Radio Network. One of the tracks from the album, ‘Sometimes I Get So Lonely’, was nominated for best original song at the 2011 British Blues Awards (The Kevin Thorpe Memorial Award).

Mick teamed up once again with producer and co-writer, Andy Littlewood, to record his second studio album, ‘Cruel World’. This 11-track blues-rock album was released in March 2012, and features a guest vocal appearance by female artist Malaya on the track ‘Find Another You’. The Instrumental track, ‘Road To Memphis’, was licensed for the soundtrack of the short film, ‘Road To Hell’, and was also used in the award winning indie documentary, ‘A Message To Myself’’.

In 2014, Mick released his third album, ‘Unfinished Business’, 14 tracks of soaring blues guitar, driving rock anthems and melodic country blues. Album highlights include the southern rock epic, ‘Playing the Losing Hand’, the ‘in your face’ rocker, ‘Trouble Brewing’, and the laid back jazzy blues title track, ‘Unfinished Business’. There’s also a Gary Moore tribute in the shape of a 9-minute guitar fuelled extravaganza titled, ‘Drowning in my Tears’. The album received airplay on BBC Radio 2 with tracks played by both Paul Jones and Alex Lester, and the single 'Playing the Losing Hand' reached the number one spot in the Dutch 'Hit Tracks 100 Music Chart'.

Mick's 4th studio album, 'Black Rain', was released in 2017. The album features a diverse range of blues and rock guitar styles influended by the likes of BB King, Gary Moore, Peter Green, Jeff Beck, Derek Trucks, Django Reinhardt, and Robert Johnson. Production duties are once again carried out by Andy Littlewood, and guest musicians include Dave Hunt, Michael John McElligott, Pete Nelson, B Veiga Sanchez, and top Italian singer Eva Carboni who performs lead vocals on the track 'River of Life'.

In 2018, Mick did a series of successful live dates with the members of the original Gary Moore Band, and also toured with his own group that included legendary drummer Sam Kelly (Robert Plant, Billy Ocean), and renowned bass player Andy Hodge (Whitesnake). For the past few years Mick has worked as a session guitarist and has featured on recordings by a variety of artists such as Starship, Eva Carboni, Malaya Blue, Dave Hunt, and Last Chance Saloon.

Mick's latest album 'The Slow Blues Sessions', is a collection of his finest works recorded over the past 12 years, showcasing modern-day blues classics such as 'Love Me Tonight', 'Unfinished Business', and 'Shelter from the Storm', as well as a new instrumental epic called 'Remember'. This 11-track album is out now, available to download and stream on all major platforms

Riccardo Grosso Blues Band

Riccardo Grosso Blues Band [ITA]

Seit 2014 rockt Signor Riccardo Grosso die Bühnen von kleinen Clubs, spontanen Gigs an Italiens Strandpromenaden bis hin zu großen Festivals in ganz Europa. In Flavio Plaudetti an der Gitarre hat er seinen perfekten Komplizen gefunden.
Die “Riccardo Grosso Blues Band” gilt als eine der aufregendsten und energiegeladensten Blues-Bands überhaupt und wird von Legenden wie dem großartigen Mundharmonikaspieler Charlie Musselwhite, Dale Spalding von Canned Heat und The Original Blues Brothers Band-Frontmann Rob Paparozzi gelobt.
Der leidenschaftliche Gesang von Riccardo Grosso, der humorvolle Texte und viel Charisma liefert, führt die Band mit seiner feurigen Mundharmonika an. Der Sound dieser vierköpfigen Combo ist schon beim ersten Ton erkennbar: voller, kräftiger und äußerst lebendiger Blues. Und das macht ihre Show einzigartig und interessant für die neue Generation von Zuhörern. Dazu hört man ausgefeilte Arrangements, groovige Songs und originelle Blues-Songs – mal mit traditionellem Soul, mal mit Punk-Attitüde in den Texten – und natürlich italienische Leidenschaft.

https://rgband.com/

Grace Quaranta

An artist with a powerful and sensual voice, with a strong musical background built with "blood, sweat and tears"during a long "live on stage" apprenticeship around the world, also passing by the "Nice jazz festival (duetting with John Ellison), the "Porretta soul festival"(two different times), the "Blues in Las Vegas" festival, several Italian blues festivals, a performance went down in history for the marriage of M° Luciano Pavarotti, where she entertained an exceptional audience duetting, among others, with Bono Vox and "The Edge" of the legendary band U2.
She was rewarded by the web with an impressive visibility, which brought her videos to be appreciated and shared all over the world, surpassing eleven millions of views.

brighton blues cartel

Boogielicious

...ist ein deutsch-niederländisches Boogie-, Blues- und Jazz-Trio, das sich 2007 zunächst mit Eeco Rijken Rapp (Klavier, Gesang) und David Herzel (Schlagzeug) als Duo gegründet hatte, aber schon ein Jahr später als Trio mit Dr. Bertram Bechers Blues-Harmonika noch homogener und abwechslungs-reicher geworden ist.Boogielicious ist momentan wohl eine der außergewöhnlichsten Boogie-Formationen der Szene in Europa, die die sehr populäre Musik der 20iger, 30iger und 40iger Jahre in das aktuelle Jahrhundert katapultiert.Inzwischen haben sich die drei Musiker mit ihren sechs Alben auf die vorderen Ränge ihres Genres vorgearbeitet. Staunten die Medien beim Debüt-Album „Boogielicious“ von Eeco Rijken Rapp und David Herzel noch über die durchgehende Qualität ihres gesamten Albums (Pressestimmen: „Mühelos, schwerelos, einfach wunderbar“), so wird auf den folgenden Alben der unverwechselbare typische Sound des Trios auch durch die im Boogie eher selten eingesetzte Blues-Harmonika geprägt.Die Live-Auftritte geraten immer wieder zu umjubelten Highlights der Konzert-saison und das Unternehmen „Boogielicious“ erreicht auch international eine neue Dimension.Die enorme Spielfreude der Band springt nicht nur bei ihren zahlreichen erfolgreichen Konzerten in Deutschland, sondern auch bei Konzerten in Frankreich, der Niederlande, der Schweiz, Belgien, England und Portugal auf die Zuhörer über.Boogielicious ist ein Trio, das die Liebhaber handgemachter Musik elektrisiert und Boogie Woogie-Fans, Alt-Rock'n Roller und traditionelle Jazz- und Blues-Anhänger gleichermaßen hocherfreut.Die drei Musiker bestechen durch ihre unglaubliche Virtuosität, die Einzigartigkeit ihres Repertoires und überzeugen mit ihrem brillanten Zusam-menspiel – der Jazz scheint für sie ein Lebensgefühl zu sein!Boogielicious erschließt sich Hörerschichten weit über den Boogie Woogie und Blues hinaus und lockt mit ihrem unverfälschten und bodenständigen Sound mittlerweile auch wieder viele junge Fans zu ihren Konzerten!

Big Daddy Wilson

ABOUT BIG DADDY WILSON

Big Daddy Wilson was born more than 50 years ago in a small town called Edenton, North Carolina. The population of Edenton counts less than 6000, 55% African Americans, 25% below the poverty line. “We were very poor but I had a very beautiful childhood“, Wilson remembers. “Me and my sisters were raised by Mom and Grandma. We lived a simple life, we went to church every Sunday, school on weekdays. I also worked back then on the tobacco plantation and in the cotton fields, I was a real country boy.“ Wilson sang in church but he never thought about going on stage. “I was extremely shy.“ His guardians meant well for the fatherless boy and they often sent him to church also during the week. “That won´t hurt him, keeps little Wilson away from drugs and off the streets.“

Young Wilson quit school at 16, and sometime later joined the US Army. Being a poor black man in the south and living in a small town, jobs were scarce. After being stations in Germany, the young man became homesick. “I found out the quickest way to go back home was to see that you got married. They’ll allow you a vacation time about two weeks to go home to get married. Wilson convinced his officers of his impending wedding and returned Stateside, refusing to return to Germany. After six weeks his mom was so worried that she begged him to go back to the military. “And so I was back in Germany.“

A few years later Wilson met a German girl who became his wife. She is the reason for him staying and also the reason for a poem which became Wilson´s first song.

And then Wilson heard the blues for the first time. Back in Edenton he had listened to music only in church and from the local, country radio station. But now he went for the first time to a real blues concert. “I met the blues here in Germany. I didn’t know what the blues was before“ Big Daddy Wilson says. “It was here that I found a part of me that was missing for so long in my life.“ It did not take long and the shy guy who had written some poems started looking for melodies. He went on stage, jammed all over the German blues scene and made an impression with his warm and soulful voice. He began touring with bands and as a duo and even released a few records. “My sister came all the way to see me perform and she couldn’t believe it. No, that’s not my brother. It seems like all my shyness was gone – thanks to my music. “

Champion Jack Dupree, Louisiana Red, Eddie Boyd... many musicians who made Europe their home and brought the blues with them succeeded here better than in the U.S. Even Luther Allison lived in Europe for 14 years before his big break.
And now there´s Big Daddy Wilson, an American singer and songwriter who found his home in northern Germany. But something is different regarding Big Daddy Wilson. When he came over from the U.S. there was no blues in his baggage. He initially discovered the blues here in Germany which is where he will begin his international career.

With his international solo debut on RUF Records Big Daddy Wilson is going to take one step further in his late career as a musician. For “Love Is The Key“ he recorded his own songs exclusively with a small band; taking it back to the roots, often reduced to acoustic instruments, but always full of soul. You can listen to his very first song here,“ Anna“ the song about his wife. Gospel is the foundation for “Keep Your Faith In Jah“, but this doesn’t keep the songwriter Wilson from praising the talents of a gypsy queen from New Orleans, “Jazzy Rose“. In “Hard Days Work“, Big Daddy uses monotone drones for hypnotic effects on the listener, while breezy off beats Jamaica-style let “Dreaming“ to swing along. Autobiographic aspects can be found elsewhere: “Ain´t No Slave“reminds us of the African-American history and at the same time makes us aware of Wilson’s grown confidence. His good friend Eric Bibb guests on two songs about Wilson’s roots ,”Country Boy” , “Walk A Mile In My Shoes”. He’s very proud of Bibb´s presence because “I’ve learnt so much from him,” says Wilson.

The fruits of this learning can be tasted on Big Daddy’s imminent European Tour. Does he dare to imagine that he could take this music all the way back to his roots in North Carolina?

“That’s a dream, but one that makes me nervous“ the Father of three laughs; it’s clear that his homesickness is gone – along with his shyness.

TasCru USA

About Tas Cru

Above all else Tas Cru is a songwriter. “He is a real writer,” says Bruce Iglauer – owner/producer of the renowned Alligator Records. High praise comes from Downbeat magazine, describing Cru as one of the most unique of roots musicians plying his trade today; and with fresh melodies and his trademark well-crafted lyrics, Cru has the ability to cast a magical hook. According to Tas, himself, “I insist that the words serve more than to treat the listener like a hitch-hiker desperate to reach the guitar solo!”

Surely Cru ‘s stock-in-trade is undeniably the blues, but his songs show that he is truly a roots eclectic who refuses to let his music be bound to any one genre. This seasoned songwriter-singer-guitarist has a repertoire of well over 100 original songs from multiple albums. With five albums in the last seven years, Cru released Riffin' The Blue this past February 2023 In addition to his tried-and-true studio stalwarts, Tas enlists solid help from a few others, most notably Mike Zito (courtesy of Gulf Coast Records) and world-class keyboardist, Bruce Katz. Riffin’ continues to enjoy wide international airplay. Praise for the album includes: A gem of an album that drives right to the heart of the blues” (Living Blues), “A real winner here, this is blues done up right” (Blues Blast Magazine). Cru was honored with his first Blues Foundation Blues Music Award nomination in 2018 for, Simmered & Stewed. That album and the two that followed (Memphis Song & Drive On) were all recipients of the Syracuse Area Music Awards for best blues recordings (adjudicated awards in Cru’s home region affectionately known as the SAMMY’s). His 2021 album, Broke Down Busted Up was nominated by Blues Blast Magazine (Best Acoustic Blues Album) and the Independent Blues Awards (Modern Roots Album, Modern Roots Artist and Content Creator Award).

Tas Cru is based out of Central New York and performs in multiple formats ranging from a six-piece backing band to solo acoustic. He sings and plays a wide variety of guitars - at home on either electric, acoustic, resonator or cigar box and is known to sprinkle in a bit of harmonica from time to time. In his early bands, Tas was introduced to the great Sun Records sound and the country blues that later served as a counterpoint to the rock-blues he idolized as did so many young aspiring guitar players of his time. Cru grew up in a very musical and generally unquirky family (except for him). Unlike his talented older brother and sisters, he did not pursue music in school. A brief attempt to play the trombone abruptly ended after being kicked by his middle school music teacher, whose name actually was A (Arden) Sharpe! Tas says he deserved it. Instead, Cru explored and developed his talent by taking up with a rougher crowd of older, self-taught musicians where he was introduced to the Sun sound and Chess legends like Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters. His first foray into the blues came after leaving the US Navy when he was asked to join a band formed by a former shipmate. Delray Streeter was rural Arkansas-raised and a performer with boundless bravado and attitude albeit with limited singing and harmonica skills. That partnership, though short-lived proved to be very influential as Streeter’s repertoire leaned toward older, rough-hewn blues.

Today Tas tours extensively throughout the US and international touring includes Europe and Canada. He has performed and recorded with numerous blues luminaries and has recorded with several contemporaries including the aforementioned Mike Zito and Bruce Katz, also Victor Wainwright, Anne Harris and Anthony Geraci. Tas is a Delaney Guitars (Austin TX) endorsed artist and is signed to Subcat Records, Syracuse NY. Cru is also a recipient of the Blues Foundation (Memphis TN) Keeping the Blues Alive Award in recognition of his blues education programs that he presents while touring. Tas Cru is represented by Anne Bello Productions and in Europe by Martin Scheschonka (Electric Blues Bash).

BLUESICK CH

Seit 2010 begeistert BLUESICK aus Bad Ragaz SG das Publikum mit bodenständigem, erdigen Blues und Blues Rock. In der Besetzung Gesang, Gitarre, Hammond, Bass und Schlagzeug versteht es die sympathische und spielfreudige Band aus dem St.Galler Oberland, Songperlen berühmter Blues-Ikonen unterschiedlichster Epochen überzeugend zu interpretieren: sei es von B.B King über Jimmy Hendrix oder Gary Moore bis hin zu Joe Bonamassa oder Henrik Freischlader. Der unverkennbare, einzigartige und energetische BLUESICK-Stil überzeugte auch an der Swiss Blues Challenge 2022 im Volkshaus Basel und bescherte der Ostschweizer Blues Rock Band einen Finalplatz.

BLUESICK sind:

Nicki Andenmatten – Lead Vocals