The third edition of the Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival will take place in World Trade Center Piscadera Bay on August 31 and September 1 2012. During these two days the festival will cover a wide range of international artists performing at the festival grounds. In the week preceding the festival, the island will submerge itself in jazz, soul, latin, hip hop and r & b, all with a Caribbean touch. In the coming months you can find more information about the program and ticket sales on this website.

One thing is for sure; the Caribbean will swing!

But on which artists are we going to swing? Here are the first acts:

Santana
A guitar legend needing little or no introduction, Carlos Santana (1947) has known success for many decades. The Mexican superstar gained fame in the 60s and 70s, when his band Santana pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion. The list of material he released and awards he won is nearly endless. And even to this day, the guitarist is important to contemporary music. In the past years, Santana turned his collaborations with famous artists into a trademark. In 2010 he released his latest album 'Guitar Heaven', containing covers of guitar classics. For example, he recorded AC/DC’s Back In Black with rapper Nas, and The Beatles’ While My Guitar Gently Weeps with singer india.arie and violinist Yo-Yo Ma. Though in his sixties, he doesn’t even want to think about hanging up his strings. “There are many artists I still want to work with. And at this moment, somewhere in a garage, unknown people must be making beautiful music. I would love to welcome them on a future album as well.”

Ruben Blades
The interest for the performance of Ruben Blades on the second edition of Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival was so big, that we couldn’t fit all his fans in. That’s why this all-rounder from Panama will return to Curaçao for the third edition of the festival. After he was politically active as Minister of Tourism in his home country, Blades is now focussing on his biggest passion: music. And fans are more than happy to welcome him back in the music spotlights. His most recent tour with Seis del Solar sold over a million tickets and gave birth to the DVD production which was awarded a Latin Grammy for Best Salsa album. The latin, jazz and salsa legend was also awarded a Grammy for best singer-songwriter for his album ‘Cantares del Sub-desarrollo’.

Dizzy Gillespie™ All-Star Big Band
lead by Paquito d'Rivera en Paquito d'Rivera sextet
Even when John Birks ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie was developing bebop with Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, he always had a big band ‘up his sleeve’. Smaller combos just weren’t challenging enough for Dizzy’s qualities as a composer and arranger. In 1945 he already toured with a big band that later became known as The Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra. A few years after the bebop pioneer’s demise in 1993, trombone player Slide Hampton and bassist John Lee decided to keep Dizzy’s big band dream alive. The Dizzy Gillespie™ All-Star Big Band includes many Gillespie alumni including Paquito D’Rivera, who will lead the big band during Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival.

James Farm
Saxophonist Joshua Redman is turning forces with a great talent of the new jazz generation pianist Aaron Parks, in this sparkling new band James Farm. They play with a fantastic rhythm section: bass player Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland. These musicians share a fascination for song structure, groove and contemporary influences. With this shared values, James Farm searches for a way to create interesting and inspiring new music: Rhythmic and technical complex and at the same time rich with harmony and melody and compulsory emotion.