Alfredo Rodriguez + Blu/Bry + Stivín-Zbrožek-Slavík

A concert evening celebrating the 25th anniversary of JazzFest Brno brings three distinctly different musical worlds to one stage.

Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez grew up in Havana in a musical family and received rigorous training at Cuban conservatories, where he honed his technique on Bach, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff. He absorbed Afro-Cuban rhythms simultaneously outside the classroom walls - and this very tension between European classicism and Havana street culture shapes his artistic voice to this day. The turning point came in 2006 at the Montreux festival, where producer Quincy Jones discovered him. In 2009, Rodriguez emigrated to the USA, leaving his family and home behind, and under Jones's guidance released his debut Sounds of Space. Albums followed, including The Invasion Parade, which was nominated for a Grammy. On stage, he plays percussively and explosively, transforming the instrument into a complete rhythmic body.

Polish quintet Blu/Bry began forming their shared musical vision in 2019 and has performed under this name since 2021. The members studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen. The band builds on modern European jazz, naturally weaving in elements of classical music, folk inspiration, and electronic textures. They won the Grand Prix at Jazz nad Odrą, Jazz Juniors, Bielska Zadymka Jazzowa, and the Brno Central European Jazz Showcase, and were named "New Hope of the Year" in Jazz Forum magazine's Jazz Top 2024 poll. Brno audiences first saw them at last year's Central European Jazz Showcase.

The evening closes with a meeting of three Czech multi-instrumentalists under the banner Stivín-Zbrožek-Slavík. All three move across a wide stylistic range and are inventive composers - on stage they perform as equal partners in improvised dialogue.