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.

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.

Omar Sosa

Agustin Moya

Desir et Fiorini

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.

Carolyn Malachi

Haitian 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...

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.

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.