Jazztime has asked us to pro­gram a top act for the 2013 edition. We are very glad with this request because we are always looking for opportunities to integrate our artists and their music at jazz festivals.

Walter made a lot of picture galleries for SmoothJazz Europe as can be seen on our Galleries and Interviews page.

Galleries of Walter include:

This month Jeff Lorber, Eric Marienthal, Jimmy Haslip & Gary Novak are touring with their Jeff Lorber Fusion Winter 2011 Tour.

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates about other exciting events!

Click here for the interview.

With a full Metropool, the people loved it all!

See the special video & picture gallery here

MEZZOFORTE from Iceland.

On Sept 24, 2011, Mezzoforte will perform as main act on our Smooth Jazz event this year.

L´dia On Bass will be the support act.

For more info click our newsletter
For ticketsale click here

Click here for the interview.

*** CANCELLATION *** AFGELASTING ***

UNFORTUNATELY, THE PERFORMANCE OF JAN TER MAAT KWINTET ON MAY 8TH IS CANCELLED, DUE TO LACK OF TICKET SALE!

HELAAS IS HET OPTREDEN VAN HET JAN TER MAAT KWINTET VOOR 8 MEI AFGELAST ALS GEVOLG VAN TE LAGE KAARTVERKOOP

Please follow the website of SmoothJazz Europe for the upcoming Jazz & Dine concerts.

The Jan ter Maat Kwintet will be performing at the next Jazz & Dine on May 8th, 2011.

See official poster here and the special newsletter about this event here (in Dutch).

Click on image for tickets and reservation

See official poster here and a bio of Richard Smith here.

Click on image for tickets and reservation

*** Jazz & Dine ***
Live Music - Great Food!

It will be held on the first or second Sunday of each month in Holten (OV-NL) in cooperation with Kulturhus Holten and TasToe.

Program so far:

To start the year, please check our updated concert agenda here. SmoothJazz Europe artists are scheduled in Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Turkey and United Kingdom.

Among them Anthony James Baker, Brian Culbertson, Club des Belugas, Deborah J. Carter, Jeanette Harris, Jessy J, Kenny G, Leee John, Marc Antoine, Matt Bianco, Nils Gessinger, Paul Brown, Peter White, Rocco Ventrella, Running Hybrids, Shakatak, Snake Davis.

Enjoy the concerts and maybe we'll meet each other!

Dave Koz & Friends has been a phenomenal concept throughtout the years, whether it is a Summer tour, a Christmas tour or now a fantastic cruise at Sea.
From Sept 26th - Oct 3rd, 2012, Dave will visit ports of call in Spain, Italy and France, accompanied by Marc Antoine, Norman Brown, Jonathan Butler and Michael Lington.

Visit the offical website of this cruise here.

by Ton Ouwehand

“Smoothjazz” triggers a lot of prejudice in Europe with some poor perceptions. Among the regular “jazz environments", it is stated as an undefinable style. Outside the Jazz style, most of the time, the music has a name as being a friendly jazzy variation of easy listening (sometimes perceived as elevator music). Because of this prejudgment, this music style is rarely programmed at the big jazz festivals.
However, Inge Wenzel and Marijn Eland from Almelo wanted to make a change in all this. They are owners of the website www.smoothjazz.eu and with organizing this first (Dutch) SmoothJazz Festival in history, they have made a bold statement in this style of jazz that has been underestimated for years.

Three top musicians from the United States (with excellent resumes and track records) flew over to the Netherlands: Guitaris Chieli Minucci, Saxophonist Tom Braxton and Pianist/Keyboardist Bob Baldwin. Three bandleaders, who performed here without their own group, but collaborated in European musicians with a super band! Supported by the Italian bass player Daniele Labbate and the Dutch musicians Sietse Huisman (drums) and Martin Verdonk (!) (percussion).

The men never shared stage before and just needed one rehearsal to wipe away the prejudice of SmoothJazz once and for all, proving again that music is the universal language.
The musicians were friendly and kind to the audience in contrary to some other jazz musician trends. On stage there was no musical competition among these musicians to show off, there where no individual “egos” trying to be the hero of the night…there were just three musicians with a great “attitude”, giving an amazing concert with help of the Dutch sidemen. They never tried to grandstand with long solo’s, it was a nice variety and cooperation, in which each musician participated and make the songs fresh and exciting.

Whether SmoothJazz is a kind of popmusic without vocals, as one of the visitors stated; that statement lost its force when Bob Baldwin added some vocals to the music. There was no single moment that the evening revealed a jam session of musical ego’s. Also there was a great support act by the young Hengelo’s Jazz Kwintet. Guitar player Chieli Minucci played a song together with these group of teenagers; not with putting up a face like “ I’ m on the posters, I’m 3 times the age of these kids nor “teaching” them that they are not there yet musically. His contribution was modest and inspiring!

You don’t need to have studied a master class of economics to calculate that this first SmoothJazz Festival didn’t generate millions. A small amount of a few hundred people, who received a free goodie bag with cd’s and info from other artists, so you understand there is no financial profit coming with this event, however Inge Wenzel were very satisfied! The music and atmosphere was amazing! The visitors who attended the event would agree!
The “seed” has been planted! On to the next plateau.

read more here: Vincent van de Wijngaard

The American Jazz group Special EFX celebrates their 25th anniversary with a Europe Tour which will start at the Jazz Podium De Tor – The Netherlands by Ton Ouwehand

by Ton Ouwehand

IT took a while, and he estimated it would be something between the 10 or maybe 15 years, anyhow, the American guitar player Chieli Minucci will be coming back to our country. (The Netherlands) Tomorrow night (September 17th), he will be playing with his group Special EFX at the “Jazz Podium De Tor” and Saturday 25, he will be performing in a guest appearance and as musical director at the SmoothJazz Festival in Metropool, Hengelo – The Netherlands.

A unique musician, he's the son of an Italian concert pianist who immigrated to the United States because he loved jazz and saw himself writing music for someone like Nat King Cole. Which actually happened! It was because of Ulpio Minucci that his son Chieli received in 1982 his first record deal with a Dutch record company called Keytone Records from Chris Hinze. “That went with cassette tapes. We copied these and sent them to all the record companies we had ever heard of. Chris Hinze responded to this. I'm sure it was because he recognized the name Minucci. Chris was signed as a classical flute artist with the same record company which my dad worked for, Columbia Records." Hinze helped Chieli with his first record, however Minucci looked back at it with a lot of mixed feelings, because Hinze didn’t show up with a contract until the first day of recording. He received something to sign when the record lights went on. “There was no time to read the contract, let alone to let a lawyer check it out as well." He waited for his royalties for 8 years. But Chieli is not complaining anymore about this because one year later, he and his percussion player partner, George Jinda, signed a contract with the American label GRP. There, they made 10 records before they left to an even more interesting record label, JVC.

George came up with the name Special Delivery. But it appeared there was already a band with the same name. So they had to find a new name for the group and so they came with Special EFX, with a wink of the eye to the movie world because they thought their music could be heard as similar to a soundtrack from a movie.

Special EFX will celebrate their 25 anniversary with a Europe Tour. They have never thought the band would exist so long. “The idea was to bring a good band together. The success that we've had is just what you hope for. We wanted a band with guitar, a lot of percussion and drums. We didn’t want to become one of the many jazz bands with songs that already exist. We wanted contemporary pieces and whether it would be jazz, latin or rock, that was totally not of importance.”

Special EFX is an instrumental group, with some vocals. Percussion player Philip Hamilton, who joined the group in 1995, has been the vocalist in the group since Jinda's death. The group lineup was, and still is: Jay Rowe (keyoards), Jerry Brooks (bass), Lionel Cordew (drums).

Chieli started as a child with piano lessons. But when he came in touch with rock he changed to play guitar. “I liked Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Later on I was fascinated with symphonic art-rock: John McLaughin with his Mahavishu Orchestra and Return Forever from Chick Corea.” These groups had also influence in a way to the sound of Special EFX, which according to Minucci also would be compared and interpreted like the Pat Metheny Group. And this will be strengthened with musicians like Mike Ledford, Paul Wertico who played in both the groups. “People may compare as they do, but I think we've always played a bit more aggressive than Pat Metheny”.

by Ton Ouwehand

“Smoothjazz” triggers a lot of prejudice in Europe with some poor perceptions. Among the regular “jazz environments", it is stated as an undefinable style. Outside the Jazz style, most of the time, the music has a name as being a friendly jazzy variation of easy listening (sometimes perceived as elevator music). Because of this prejudgment, this music style is rarely programmed at the big jazz festivals.
However, Inge Wenzel and Marijn Eland from Almelo wanted to make a change in all this. They are owners of the website www.smoothjazz.eu and with organizing this first (Dutch) SmoothJazz Festival in history, they have made a bold statement in this style of jazz that has been underestimated for years.

Three top musicians from the United States (with excellent resumes and track records) flew over to the Netherlands: Guitaris Chieli Minucci, Saxophonist Tom Braxton and Pianist/Keyboardist Bob Baldwin. Three bandleaders, who performed here without their own group, but collaborated in European musicians with a super band! Supported by the Italian bass player Daniele Labbate and the Dutch musicians Sietse Huisman (drums) and Martin Verdonk (!) (percussion).
The men never shared stage before and just needed one rehearsal to wipe away the prejudice of SmoothJazz once and for all, proving again that music is the universal language.
The musicians were friendly and kind to the audience in contrary to some other jazz musician trends. On stage there was no musical competition among these musicians to show off, there where no individual “egos” trying to be the hero of the night…there were just three musicians with a great “attitude”, giving an amazing concert with help of the Dutch sidemen. They never tried to grandstand with long solo’s, it was a nice variety and cooperation, in which each musician participated and make the songs fresh and exciting.
Whether SmoothJazz is a kind of popmusic without vocals, as one of the visitors stated; that statement lost its force when Bob Baldwin added some vocals to the music. There was no single moment that the evening revealed a jam session of musical ego’s. Also there was a great support act by the young Hengelo’s Jazz Kwintet. Guitar player Chieli Minucci played a song together with these group of teenagers; not with putting up a face like “ I’ m on the posters, I’m 3 times the age of these kids nor “teaching” them that they are not there yet musically. His contribution was modest and inspiring!
You don’t need to have studied a master class of economics to calculate that this first SmoothJazz Festival didn’t generate millions. A small amount of a few hundred people, who received a free goodie bag with cd’s and info from other artists, so you understand there is no financial profit coming with this event, however Inge Wenzel were very satisfied! The music and atmosphere was amazing! The visitors who attended the event would agree!
The “seed” has been planted! On to the next plateau.

by Ton Ouwehand

In 1984 he performed on the stages of North Sea Jazz and about 15 years ago he also played at the Drum Jazz Festival in Rotterdam. Now, after 15 years guitarist Chieli Minucci returned to The Netherlands with a great performance!
It felt like the old days – “Stamp your feet! - Clap your hands, and We want more”, as well as “zugabe” (German for “Encore”) and this all around midnight on Friday the 17th of September in Jazzpodium De Tor – Enschede. For guitar player Chieli Minucci it was the first time in 15 years that he travelled with his group Special EFX from the United States to Europe. And now they finally played their first concert again in the Netherlands, in Enschede!
The music was well received well by all. Not only the audience was excited, but Minucci himself expressed his great enthusiasm. Next to his breathless guitar playing, he expressed his gratitude to the audience more than once! He felt welcome. You could see that he enjoyed playing at this relative small jazz club, where his robust music came off well! Special EFX is not just a band that usually plays small concert gigs.

With an appropriately loud sound mix, this group gave a memorable impression.
As usually happens in the “SmoothJazz” scene. When music is played at concert level, you hear the complexity and refinement of the compositions, and this brings the expressive solo activity much more to the forefront.

This was proved to be true in De Tor: Music which formed an accumulation of craftsmanship and skills, and the joy of playing and aim to a one group sound. With keyboard player Jay Rowe, bass player Jerry Brooks and drummer Lionel Cordew, they formed a group like Pat Metheny for the smaller stages! It is a promising excitement for the coming festival at the Metropool Hengelo on September 25th.

Minucci will join together with saxophone player Tom Braxton, keyboard player Bob Baldwin, and a Dutch rhythm section - a special super band. These are top musicians who will be playing each others songs!