The First Lady of Song - Ella Fitzgerald is the patron of the eleventh edition of the festival. The icon of American jazz, involved in the civil rights movement, she was repeatedly awarded for her artistic achievements (14 Grammy Awards), but also for her social activities. As a festival we follow in her footsteps. By giving the event values beyond the purely aesthetic, we want to turn to the roots of jazz - music of freedom, celebrating dialogue across divides. "We Are All Here" - noticed, valued and appreciated. And we didn’t even know that on February 24th 2022 these words will be more actual than ever.

After a long break, we will meet live again. Traditionally, in the spring, with a finale on International Jazz Day on April 30th. With the special feature of the artists residing in Katowice. Jedrzej Siwek will perform his premiere project "La Mer" evoking Debussy's early sea memories. A talented percussionist from Katowice, Ola Rzepka, will start her artistic residency at JazzArt this year and we will see her many times on festival stages in Poland and abroad.

The program also includes the young French scene (trio Suzanne), a Polish-Danish revelation - the duo for percussion and piano Alfons Slik, and the total project of two winners of Polityka's weekly Passports award, Wacław Zimpel and Alex Freiheit as "Progrom".

Audience favourites are going to return - Paal Nilssen-Love and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, well-known to Polish audiences (they visited JazzArt in 2016 with The Thing) will perform with the Large Unit. Fourteen musicians from all over Scandinavia plus Brazil, and guest Terrie Ex from the legendary underground band The Ex.

Cooperation, exchange, dialogue - the ideas that have been guiding us for years, we are reinforcing live after the virtual break, reflecting on the war in Ukraine. 

http://jazzartfestival.eu/