The Red Sea Jazz Festival is a jazz festival held annually in Eilat, Israel.
The Red Sea Jazz Festival was first held in 1987. It is a four-day-long event featuring 9-10 concerts per evening, 6 workshops with guest artists and nightly jam sessions. All performances are held outdoors at the Eilat port. The workshops take place at a nearby hotel.
The festival offers a combination of performances by international jazz artists and local talent. It also provides a venue for collaborative efforts, with special productions exclusive to the festival. Some of these special productions have included Randy Brecker & Mark Egan, The Jazz Beatles, Miroslav Vitous & John Abercrombie, and Charlie Haden & John Scofield.
The festival draws audiences of 70,000, with an average of 2,500 people per concert. It is run as a non-profit organization and enjoys the support of the Municipality of Eilat, the Ministries of Culture and Tourism, the Eilat Hotel Association and various business sponsors.
In 2008, Israeli jazz bassist Avishai Cohen was named artistic director, replacing Dan Gottfried, who initiated the festival and served as artistic director for 22 years. During his tenure Gottfried has showcased over 1500 world-famous Jazz artists and established the reputation of the festival as one of the leading Jazz events worldwide. Under Cohen's direction in 2009, the festival showcased young talent and original compositions along with world-renowned jazz artists.
The festival is held in November.
A 3-day Winter Jazz Festival, held on the third weekend in January, was initiated in 2010.
Notable artists
2006
Mory Kante Gonzalo Rubalcaba Suthukazi Arosi Latin Groove Orquestra The Mingus Dynasty Rick Margitza Franck Amsalem
2007
Tomasz Stanko Chris Potter Incognito Sara Lazarus Steps Ahead Conrad Herwig Joey DeFrancesco
2008 Randy Brecker Bill Evans Kurt Elling Carla Bley Mike Stern Richard Bona Ben Riley Oregon Terri Lyne Carrington John Fedchock Omar Sosa Zbigniew Namyslowski Avishai Cohen
2009 Dee Dee Bridgewater John Scofield Eli Degibri Rob Ickes Paquito D'Rivera Lionel Loueke Jean-Michel Pilc Chano Domínguez Kurt Rosenwinkel
Israeli jazz acts included: The Apples Funk'n'Stein Amos Hoffman Marina Maximilian Blumin
2010
Rickie Lee Jones Dave Weckl Gary Burton Nikki Yanofsky Jeff Watts Hermeto Pascoal Dave Douglas Stefon Harris
Israeli acts included: Berry Sakharof Marsh Dondurama Ofer Ganor
2011
Avishai Cohen Michael Kaeshammer Steve Smith Grégoire Maret Gretchen Parlato Assaf Avidan
Israeli acts included Yael Deckelbaum, Yoni Rechter, and Zohar Fresko, among others.
2012
Christian McBride Carmen Souza Richard Bona Sean Jones YES! trio (Aaron Goldberg, Omer Avital, and Ali Jackson) Minvielle/Suarez/Dufour trio Gilad Hekselman Geri Allen Kenny Garrett
Israeli acts included: Karen Malka Tomer Bar Trio Dudu Tassa Daniel Ori Yuval Cohen, among others
2013
Al Foster Antonio Sánchez Nicholas Payton Gerald Clayton Jeff Ballard João Bosco Motion Trio
Israeli acts included Ester Rada, Tatran and Tammy Scheffer among others.
2014 Fred Hersch Antoine Roney Dayna Stephens Lee Konitz Leny Andrade Dr. Lonnie Smith Dave Douglas & Uri Caine
Israeli Acts included Marina Maximilian, Omer Avital and Ofri Nehemya among others.
See also Culture of Israel Music of Israel
References
External links Official site