For the past 13 years, Guadeloupe has hosted the Jazz à Pointe-à-Pitre Festival. This year, collective efforts have managed to put together a broad based international jazz festival, IloJazz, bringing together local and international musicians. The IloJazz (derived from the phrase Iles aux Jazz or “isles of jazz”) International has been called “Carrefour des musiques créoles,” the crossroads of Creole music.” The festival will take place from December 11 to 13, 2009, from the Sonis Cultural Center to Place de la Victoire in Abymes, Guadeloupe. The festival will feature free concerts and master classes, as well as many related events.
Previous editions of the Jazz à Pointe-à-Pitre Festival have featured artists such as Barrel Coppet, Barrets Sisters, Luther Allison, Etta James, Strings, Nina Simone, Willy Colon, Akyio, Monty Alexander, Jean-Luc Ponty, William Cepeda, Archie Shepp, Trio Ménard, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Mali All Stars, Mayra Andrade, Guy Konket, Jacques Schwartz Bart, Eric Bonheur, Franck Nicolas, Christian Laviso, Emmanuel Bex et Monica Passos, Rhoda Scott and Ladies Quartet, The Temptation, Soft, Dominik Coco, Airto Moreira, and Flora Purim, Susheela Raman, Mukta, Tania St-Val, and the Caribbean Jazz Workshop, among many others. This year’s artists have so far not been announced.
For more information, see http://www.ilojazz.com/Festival_International_IloJazz.html
For full article (in French), see http://www.gensdelacaraibe.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4120:festival-international-ilojazz-carrefour-des-musiques-creoles&catid=45&Itemid=200238
