
A special concert is being streamed this Sunday, July 12th, to celebrate the 44th year of the North Sea Jazz Festival, the world’s largest indoor live music event. Though the COVID-19 lockdown resulted in the long-running festival being cancelled, the organisers in collaboration with the award-winning Dutch music ensemble, Metropole Orkest, and Netherlands broadcaster, NTR, recently produced a concert that billed as Metropole Orkest & Friends.
The orchestra, which convened for the first time since lockdown, is joined by several stellar guests who contributed their parts remotely: they include American soul-jazz singer Gregory Porter, British singer and pianist Jamie Cullum, together with trumpeters Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and Ibrahim Maalouf, and the British singer-songwriter Yola, who used to sing with soul group, Phantom Limb.
“Although we will all miss the festival this year, I am incredibly happy that we were able to organize this together with NTR, Metropole Orkest, and some great artists,” says Jan Willem Luyken, the director of the North Sea Jazz Festival. “Many thanks go out to our sponsors NN Group, Port of Rotterdam, Surmount Ventures and Fundashon Bon Intenshon, without whom this would not have been possible. The fact that we can hold this concert is a huge boost for us.”
The concert will be available to stream on the festival’s Facebook page here at 18:20 GMT on Sunday 12th July.