Jazz at Konserthuset

Welcome to a star-studded and poignant tribute to Georg Riedel, one of the greatest musicians and composers of Swedish jazz. Radiojazzgruppen’s Nisse Landgren hosts the evening and pianist Calle Bagge conducts a house band featuring elite members of the Swedish jazz scene, as well as vocalists including Nicolai Dunger and Sarah Riedel.

With the passing on 25 February this year of jazz bassist, composer and arranger Georg Riedel at 90 years of age, one of the most versatile composers of Swedish music fell silent.

Georg Riedel composed music for Astrid Lindgren’s films, as well as innovative jazz for Radiojazzgruppen and his own duos, trios and quartets. His oeuvre includes opera, orchestral works and music for films, ballet and church services. He is among the musicians who brought Swedish folk music to jazz stages. Jazz på Svenska (“Jazz in Swedish”), his album with Jan Johansson, is the most sold Swedish jazz album.

To celebrate this doyen of jazz, Stockholm Jazz Festival presents a full evening at Stockholm Konserthuset, in which a wide selection of Riedel’s compositions will be performed by carefully selected artists – many of whom worked with the man himself over the past 20 years. This retrospective of Riedel’s work will link the golden age of the 1950s to contemporary jazz of the 2020s.

“Georg Riedel’s contribution is utterly massive, and so is the empty space he has left behind. But his music will live on, now and forever. It therefore feels particularly gratifying to open this year’s jazz festival with an evening that pays tribute to him,” says Eric Birath, CEO of Stockholm Jazz Festival.

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When four international musicians join their respective duos together into a quartet, the result is simply beautiful. The quartet, comprising a kora, cello, accordion and saxophone, channels several different influences into a poetic universe of jazz, traditional, classical and avant-garde styles.

Malian kora-player Ballaké Sissoko and French cellist Vincent Segal have worked together for many years on several exciting projects.

Saxophonist Émile Parisien and accordionist Vincent Peirani have a similar history together, both as a duo and in bigger ensembles. All four are gifted with a responsive sense of musicality that leads to incredibly surprising musical dialogues.

Their debut album, Les Egarés, is a poetic playground – a haven for this quartet’s cross-fertilized and genre-transcending music. Jazz, griot tradition, tango, cumbia and rhythms from the Iberian Peninsula are combined with the quartet’s own magical ingredients.

This international quartet is now coming to Stockholm Jazz Festival and Konserthuset’s Grünewald Hall, and tickets are selling fast.

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Singer, composer, and visual artist – the versatile Cécile McLorin Salvant has carved out her own niche that expands jazz beyond its conventional boundaries: in addition to jazz, she touches upon vaudeville, blues, folk, and baroque music.

It's an original and irresistible mix where the common denominator is the theatrical and powerful storytelling through text and music. She has been awarded numerous prizes and won several Grammy Awards. Her latest album was Mélusine (2023), where the Florida-born artist predominantly sings in French. Another example of her creativity is Ogresse – a 90-minute song cycle with her own lyrics, which she first performed in 2018 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Cécile McLorin Salvant has appeared at Konserthuset Stockholm several times since her debut in 2017. With her, she this time brings an experienced trio featuring pianist Sullivan Fortner, who also contributed to Salvant's Grammy-winning album The Window, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, known for his exquisite yet swinging bass playing, and on drums, Kyle Poole, who has made a splash on New York's jazz scene in recent years.

In cooperation with Stockholm Jazz Festival.

Many are looking forward to this exciting encounter: John Beasley and Magnus Lindgren join forces with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in the Blue House Jazz series, with special guest Michael Mayo! American pianist John Beasley and multi-instrumentalist Magnus Lindgren have collaborated several times before, and this time it’s with unique arrangements for the symphony orchestra. Alexander Hanson conducts the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

Grammy- and Emmy-winning composer, arranger, and pianist John Beasley has performed with legends such as Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Dianne Reeves, Steely Dan, Marcus Miller, Chaka Khan, and James Brown. He has also worked in film music. For several years, he was the Music Director at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, now the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz.

Magnus Lindgren, along with trumpeter and vocalist Peter Asplund, is the artistic director of the Konserthuset's Blue House Jazz Orchestra. Recently, he was Artist-in-Residence with the SWR Big Band for three years. He has collaborated with a large number of top artists, including Herbie Hancock, Gregory Porter, James Ingram, Bobby McFerrin, Ivan Lins, Till Brönner, and John Scofield.

Special guest is the highly exciting vocal virtuoso Michael Mayo, who has had Herbie Hancock as a mentor, and who seamlessly moves across soul, jazz, R&B, and art music.