Out of the 26 bands that entered the competition, nine have been selected to take part in the Jazz Juniors 2018 auditions (the finals). These include musicians from Italy, Poland as well as – for the first time in the competition’s history – an ensemble (octet) from Taiwan.
As in the previous years, many groups submitted their recordings for the preliminary round. An international jury: Jordi Pujol (Fresh Sound Records), Tommy Caggiani and Rafał Sarnecki – listened to the demos submitted by bands representing Poland, Russia, the USA, Norway, Italy, Hungary, and Taiwan. Most of the candidates (seventeen entries) were young bands from Poland.
S’yo Fang Octet is the first Jazz Juniors finalist from Taiwan in the more than 40-year-long history of our contest. The band’s leader and pianist S’yo Fang comes from Taiwan, while the line-up is international: Priscilla Nokoe (The Netherlands), Yoojin Ko (South Korea), Emilio Parrila Garcìa-Pelayo (Spain), Albert Kerekeš (Slovenia), Dimitri Elegheert (Belgium), Alessio Bruno (Italy) and Richie Struck (Germany). The other finalists are: RASP Lovers (Poland, Warsaw), Entropia Ensemble (Poland, Łódź), Arek Czernysz Trio (Poland, Gdańsk), The Cuban Latin Jazz (Poland, Wrocław), RAME (Italy), the Marcin Pater Trio (Poland, Katowice), Monika Malczak Quintet (Poland), and the Ergio Valente Trio (Italy).
Auditions will be held on 29th and 30th November from 4 pm onward at the Theatre Hall of the ICE Congress Centre in Cracow. ENTRY IS FREE OF CHARGE!
We warmly congratulate all the finalists of Jazz Juniors 2018!