Accra goes live with jazz

Over the past five years, the city has hosted the festival, as put together by Alliance Francaise, which has become an important event in the Ghana’s jazz calendar. The festival culminates with a celebration of the International Jazz Day.

This year the event will comprise performances, conferences, fairs and workshops, which will be attended and facilitated by local and international artists.

The festival opens with a concert tagged Orchestrated Jazz, which features the National Symphony Orchestra backing the Bi-Tonic Singers and the Gramophone chorus. According to a statement by the organisers, the “chorale Jazz concert will leave you asking for more”.

A workshop on 'creating harmony' will take place from 17 to 19 April. “With this special three-day intensive workshop, participants will be schooled on what harmony is, why it is essential to create music and how to easily access it,” the organisers said. The workshop will be facilitated by the musician Victor Dey Jr.

On 21 April, Sandra Huson will perform at a concert headlined by popular saxophonist Steve Bedi.

A midweek concert with young acts will take place on Wednesday 25 April. Young acts will “thrill the audience with an interesting blend of contemporary highlife tunes played from a jazzy perspective as well as drama and dance thereby creating a cosmopolitan fusion of [these] art forms". Kwesi Klutse, The Soul Groove Band and Rashid are some of the scheduled artists.

The festival’s closing concert will take place on Saturday 28 April with performances from South Africa’s Mihi Matshingana, Benjamin Boone from the US and the Victor Dey Quartet. Activities at this year's edition will come to a close with a commemoration of International Jazz Day on 30 April. The popular +233 Jazz Bar & Grill will play host to an assortment of musicians, all of whom “embody the true meaning of jazz”.