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CHALLENGERS

Challengers

Challengers

Driven by a passion for jazz, seven musicians met at a “jazz combo” seminar in Port-au-Prince in 2010. They successfully performed together the “live” show at the end of the seminar. Since then, they’ve kept on playing jazz standards, pieces created by jazz masters as well as traditional Haitian tracks reworked in the style of Kreyol Jazz. Conscious of the scale of the challenge, those enthusiasts took the name: Challengers.

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Sarah Jane Rameau

Sarah Jane Rameau

During the ten years she spent in Montreal and Bordeaux, Sarah Jane Rameau managed to blend into each of those musical worlds, thanks to her participation to various activities and concerts with numerous talented and renown artists. Back in her hometown, Sarah Jane is building her identity through her talents that brought her an architect’s diploma and through her unique voice. Thanks to a style that unites jazz and funk, Sarah Jane is a rising star of her generation, both in the Haitian and in the international musical community.

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Omar Sosa

sosa

Omar Sosa

Born in Camagueÿ (Cuba) in 1965, Omar Sosa was influenced both by classical music (Chopin, Bartok and Erik Satie) and by the African heritage present in Cuban music. In 2003, he received an award from the Smithsonian Associates in Washington for his career achievements. His musical universe offers a new understanding of the jazz and African roots of his native land, by blending everything sacred in this heritage to Latin Jazz and contemporary sounds.
Sosa’s music unites Africa with Latin Jazz and Hip Hop. It’s one of those rare artists whose talent for piano is close to that of Chick Corea or Chucho Valdes.” – Ben Ratliff, New York Times
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_8gEmrhQsw
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Agustin Moya

Moya

Agustin Moya

Tenor saxophonist and Composer Agustin Moya is acknowledged as a key player in the Chilean Contemporary Jazz scene. He was born and raised in the city of Santiago de Chile. He has studied with David Liebman and George Garzone and already recorded 3 albums as a solo artist: Doble Viaje (2006), Infinito (2010), and Espacio Elástico (2012). All three were nominated to the Altazor Award. He gets his inspiration from Lester Young, Stan Getz and Sonny Rollins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YybzruZ09w
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Desir et Fiorini

Desir

Desir et Fiorini

Renette Désir a singer who needs no introduction: her album Yon Jou, Haïti un autre regard, Haiti cœur de femmes, Carifiesta…
Fabian Fiorini, a talented pianist: Aka Moon, Magik Malik… They started collaborating in 2013 in Belgium and performed then at the Festival d’Avignon in July 2015.
The duo composed of Haitian singer Renette Désir and Belgian pianist Fabian Fiorini evokes in a very clever way the different musical traditions born from the historic trauma of the slave trade” – Stéphane Ollivier in Jazz Magazine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbwFVOPmc1I
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Pie Grande

pieGrande

Pie Grande

Pie Grande was formed in 2010 in Aguascalientes, Mexico. They’ve already recorded two albums, one of them live, and have also taken part to various international jazz festivals, in Jamaica and Indonesia among others, on top of touring Mexico regularly. Their style is a fusion of jazz harmonic roots with other popular urban rhythms such as funk and progressive rock, which accounts for the use of the trumpet in an otherwise traditional line-up: keyboards, guitar, bass guitar and drums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAB1vWX57WU
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Carolyn Malachi

Malachi

Carolyn Malachi

From the Washington, DC / Baltimore area’s Blues, Jazz, Spoken Word, GoGo and R&B scenes emerges Carolyn Malachi with a fresh blend of music that garners international praise, includingMTV naming her an R&B artist to obsess over.
Carolyn Malachi’s GRAMMY-nominated single “Orion”, was named to its 10 Songs PublicRadio Can’t Stop Playing list. She’s using her music and social media platforms as forces for good, she advocates for global access to education and technology through collaborations with the School Fund, GRAMMY U and the Global Fund for Women.
In 2015, Carolyn Malachi received from her alma mater, Shepherd University, an honorary doctorate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aNRdOIg64k
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Haitian All Jazz Stars

HAJS2Haitian All Jazz Stars

Take the best musicians on the Haitian jazz scene, place them together on the stage for the opening night of the Xth PAPJAZZ, and you’ll have a hint of the surprise that the Port-au-Prince International Jazz Festival team has in store for you! Those 6 talented musicians teamed up under the name of Haitian All Jazz Stars will set the Parc Historique de la Canne à Sucre on fire...

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Johnny Ventura

jVentura

Johnny Ventura

Le Dominicain Johnny Ventura,”El caballo mayor”, Merenguero de renom qui connut la gloire dans les années 60 et 70, est le père du merengue moderne tel que nous le connaissons aujourd’hui. Très influencé par la vague du rock’n roll, Johnny Ventura a su capter son énergie en y mêlant des sonorités inspirées d’Elvis Presley. Très en avance sur son temps, il a continué à enregistrer jusqu’en 1990 et a ouvert la voie à des musiciens tels que Wilfrido Vargas et Juan Luis Guerra.

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Oliver Jones

Oliver-Jones

Oliver Jones

Oliver Jones is one of Canada finest musicians. He’s recorded scores of albums, and has received, in the course of a career that has lasted more than 70 years, most awards any public figure could only dream of, and not only in the musical field. His public career, that started when he was nine, intertwines with the history of his hometown Montreal, and interacts with the history of jazz,  and with that of Oscar Peterson, his mentor, lifelong friend and influence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiS6dfkzBHU&noredirect=1
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