Ireland at InJazz Rotterdam 2019

With all details announced over the weekend at jazzahead!, we’re happy to say there will be a significant Irish presence at InJazz in Rotterdam, with IMC Director Kenneth Killeen sitting on discussion panels, performance from Dublin-based band Alarmist, and the announcement of our 12 Points Festival 2019 artists.

InJazz is the biggest jazz network and showcase event in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, taking place on the 27/28th June 2019. It brings together the entire jazz sector in a dynamic setting in two days. During the day, the conference programme is attended by professionals such as composers, musicians, representatives of national and international clubs, venues and festivals, as well as booking agencies, record labels, management companies and media from several foreign countries. At night, inJazz hosts a showcase festival with a variety of bands which is free of charge and open to the public.

Panels
At InJazz, Kenneth Killeen will join a panel including Maxwell Wright of Formentera Jazz Festival, Balearic Islands, and Giorgos Koulas of Paradise Jazz Festival, Cyprus to debate the influence, of an island’s natural boundaries on its jazz scene. What does it mean if you have to grow and operate within natural boundaries when you consider yourself an open-minded, modern jazz musician? Will you leave your homeground behind? Is the internet the answer to every limitation? The individuality created by an island’s boundaries, and its inherent limitations will be the subject of discussion for festival producers, programmers and musicians from a huge number of islands.

12 Points Announcement
This year’s 12 Points Festival will be based in the Netherlands, making InJazz Rotterdam a perfect occasion to announce the programme. Twelve young European jazz acts will perform at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam from 25 through 28 September 2019. 12 Points is renowned as a high-quality pan-European showcase of rising talent, attractive to the audience and industry representatives alike. At InJazz, the chosen artists for 12 Points 2019 will be announced, and an interview and discussion will take place between 12 Points director Kenneth Killeen, Bimhuis director Mijke Loeven and Jazz Promotion Network’s Ros Rigby.

There is still time for bands to apply HERE, before the closing date of May 10th.

Performances
InJazz’s InFestival sees talented Irish band (and 12 Points alumnus) Alarmist performing in Rotterdam, amongst a top-quality array of European artists.

Dublin is a musically vibrant place, and this is reflected in the DNA of Alarmist, whose backgrounds range from jazz, math rock, electronica and formal composition. They’re crafting very personal and detailed music, and it offers further proof that the next generation of musicians are untethering themselves from the old stylistic dogma. Genres are harvested and manipulated, and as multi-instrumentalists, they take a quasi orchestral approach that allows their music to hover in its own instrumental space, gravitationally pulled toward a rock aesthetic but constantly implying other philosophies in a way that excites.

Also performing at InJazz will be 12 points alumni, OZMA and Gerri Jäger, amongst a host of other fantastic bands!