Charles Lloyd, Makaya McCraven, Anouar Brahem, Nicole Mitchell, Shabaka Hutchings, Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith, Vincent Courtois and Grzegorz Tarwid – the Jazztopad concerts have a programme as diverse as the contemporary scene of jazz and improvised music.

Jazztopad Festival surprises as always and this year invites its audience to the Meditation Day, during which Ned Rothenberg and Sainkho Namtchylak will appear.

Since the premieres are the hallmark of the festival organized by the National Forum of Music, we will hear five new works. Charles Lloyd, associated with Wrocław for some time now, will present the new project Wild Man Dance – the one commissioned years ago by the Jazztopad Festival. This time, his well-received suite, published by the prestigious Blue Note label, will have some new parts added and will be arranged for symphony orchestra. In addition, Artifacts Trio will join forces with the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, Vincent Courtois Trio will play with the Lutosławski Quartet, and Danilo Pérez will present a new work for the Global Messengers line-up. Piotr Damasiewicz will also return to the festival – six years after the release of the ground-breaking Alaman album, his band returns to the phonographic market and it is during the Jazztopad Festival that he will reveal the premiere material.

As always, one of the festival days will be dedicated to the jazz microcosm of a specific country – this year it is time for our neighbour, the surprising Austria. One of the concerts will take place in Mleczarnia, which traditionally will host the festival club. There will also be a Melting Pot project, full of spontaneous improvisation, in addition to concerts in private homes, meetings with artists and evening Jazztopad improv sessions.