Brisbane International Jazz Festival Starts This Week

In case you missed it, Brisbane International Jazz Festival kicked off this week. Running from October 11 to October 25, the event boasts performances from a range of acclaimed jazz artists, including Brooklyn’s NYChillharmonic, Amsterdam’s Tin Men & The Telephone, Italy’s Frederico Casagrande, and many more.

But, most notably, the festival has locked in performances by two of America’s top jazz musicians: Herbie Hancock and Esperanza Spalding. 

Hancock, with a career spanning seven decades, is a force to be reckoned with, garnering a whopping 14 Grammy awards and putting out classic hits like Cantaloupe Island, Chameleon and Rockit. His gig for the Jazz Festival is set for 8pm tonight (October 17), at QPAC Concert Hall. Last-minute tickets are available here.

His fellow headliner and previous collaborator, Spalding, isn’t to be messed with either. The bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer has five Grammy Awards to her name, as well as a Boston Music Award, a Soul Train Music Award, and two honorary doctorates: one from her alma mater, Berklee College of Music, and one from the California Institute of the Arts. She will be playing QPAC Concert Hall later on in the festival, on October 22 at 7pm. You can find tickets for her set here.

The Brisbane International Jazz Festival has a whopping 35 local and international acts to watch, as well as two jam sessions and a young women’s workshop. Some Aussie acts to keep an eye on over the next week or so are Jess Green & Dylan Van Der Schyff, Stoz!, Lachlan McKenzie, and Brisbane’s own Milton Man Gogh. Check out the full line-up below.

Tickets for all of the events happening this week can be found here.

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