The international jury has awarded the Grand Prix of this year’s Jazz Juniors to the Marcin Pater Trio, while RASP Lovers and RAME Jazz Quintet from Italy won the other two prizes and the title of winner.
For more than forty years, Jazz Juniors has paved the way to major festivals and the international music scene for its participants more and more effectively, striking a balance between tradition and modernity in response to the increasingly demanding market and to growing artistic standards. This year, jurors from all over Europe have been invited to assess the candidates. The international jury consisted of: Branislav Dejanović (Artistic Director of Nisville Jazz Festival, Serbia), Enrico Moccia (founder of Emme Produzioni Musicali, owner of Tube Recording Studio, Artistic Director of Fara Music Festival, Italy), Viktor Radziyevsky (VR Jazz Agency, Russia), Yaroslav Sartakov (Artistic Director of UralTerraJazz festival, Russia), Tommy Caggiani (Artistic Director of NiCaJazz Festival, Spain), Wojciech Siwek (co-founder of Jazz on the Odra festival, head of the International Jazz on the Odra Foundation, Poland), and Tamás Bognár (Director of Opus Jazz Club in Budapest, Hungary).
The Grand Prix of the 42nd Jazz Juniors went to the Marcin Pater Trio from Poland (Marcin Pater – vibraphone, Piotr Narajowski – bass, Adam Wajdzik – drums). The Grand Prix involves such awards as:
– invitations to festivals (NiCaJazz, Fara, Nisville, Ural Terra Jazz, and Jazz on the Odra);
– an invitation to Opus Jazz Club at the Budapest Music Center;
– an invitation from VR Jazz Agency to the Jazz Festival Moscow;
– invitations to concerts in China organised in cooperation with the Chinese Jazz Association and Jazz Po Polsku;
– an invitation to play a concert at the seat of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice;
– prize money – PLN 10, 000 for the recording and release of an album under the Emme Record Label.
RASP Lovers from Poland – the 2nd prize winner – received an award of PLN 5, 000 funded by TVP S.A. (the Polish state television) as well as an invitation to appear in TVP Kultura’s broadcast “Scena Klasyczna”.
The 3rd prize winner, RAME Jazz Quintet from Italy, were presented with the special award of the SAWP Polish Association of Music Performers, amounting to EUR 1,000.
Another special award (of PLN 1,000) presented at this year’s Festival, the Golden Double-Bass (for an outstanding bassist), was initiated and funded by the Andrzej Cudzich Foundation to commemorate the 15th death anniversary of that eminent double-bass player. This award went to Rafał Różalski of Entropia Ensemble.