Perfectly on time, Malta’s capital city is back with another edition of the Jazz Festival this weekend. While people chill, drink, sway, and pretend like they know shit about jazz, some great musicians will be gracing the stages for a diverse three days. Why? Because the acts included are super diverse. So diverse, in fact, that even jazz-noobs will feel welcome and amazing at this year’s festival.

Here’s this year’s unmissable lineup.

1. Yotam Silberstein Quartert

Kicking off the festival’s first day at 8pm, the quartert will be taking over City Gat this Thursday.

Touring across five different continents throughout 2018, Yotam Silberstein managed to enter New York’s jazz elite within less than a decade. With a Sundance Time Warner Award for film music under his belt and a new album out, Yotam and his three trusty musician pals will definitely be the stylish openers the Jazz Festival deserves.

2. The MCO Big Band does Count Basie

In a tribute to the swing legend, the Malta Concert Orchestra will be playing the jazz multi-instrumentalist’s legendary 1960 album Kansas City Suite.

Arranged by the equally legendary Benny Carter, the album had received critical acclaim. Over five decades later, Malta’s very own Concert Orchestra Big Band will be playing Kansas City Suite in its entirety at the beautiful Pjazza Teatru Rjal this Thursday.

3. Karim Ziad

An Algerian world music drummer and vocalist, Karim emigrated to Paris at 20, quickly building an impressive portfolio which saw him working alongside artists like Cheb Mami and the WDR Big Band.

Combining traditional rhythms from Maghreb with European and American sounds, Karim is not solely focused on jazz. His performance of his beloved Ifrikya in front of the Law Courts will be closing Thursday night and promises to be an unmissable part of this weekend’s festival.

4. The Blue Tangerine

A Franco-Maltese collaboration stemming from the Fringe Youth Jazz Orchestra Initiative, The Blue Tangerine is a nine-piece extravaganza featuring four Maltese heavyweights in the local jazz scene.

Inspired by Brazilian music, the band also has a number of original music written and arrange by the leading lad, Vincent Jacqz. Rest assured they’ll be playing them come Friday, when they’ll open the night at Ta’ Liesse.

5. Christian McBride’s New Jawn

Bass virtuoso Christian McBride moved to New York in 1989 to pursue classics studies at Juiliard. Soon enough, though, he was recruited by saxophonist Bobby Watson. The rest was history.

Five-time Grammy Awards later, McBride is now a giant in the jazz scene. If you know what’s up, there’s nowhere else to be come Friday night.

6. Bokanté

This newly-formed international music ensemble is named after the Creole word for “exchange” and brings together some highly accomplished musicians from all around the world.

Among eight musicians from four continents (all hailing from beloved acts like Snarky Puppy, Sting and Yo-Yo Ma) stands Malika Tirolien, a Guadeloupe resident who went from quitting seven bands to taking the lead in Cirque Du Soleil’s La Nouba. The young jazz star will be belting out some beautiful harmonies alongside the all-new world music supergroup, closing off Friday night the only way they know how to do; excellently.

7.Chick Corea Trio

Just a month after the legendary American jazz musician’s 77th birthday, Saturday night starts with a bang thanks to the reuniting of Chick with longtime brothers-in-music John Patitucci and Dave Weckl.

The whipshot runs and lyrical flights that they pioneered decades ago in Chick’s Elektric Band will return with a new classic acoustic piano trio tour… the first in more than 20 years!

What a time to be alive.

8. João Bosco

Loved in his home country of Brazil ever since the 1960s, Bosco went on a major tour of the US in the early 90s. Soon enough, the whole world fell in love.

Achieving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Recording Academy during 2017’s Annual Latin Grammy Awards, Bosco is one of the Latin world’s foremost jazz musicians.

Showcasing numbers from last year’s release Mano Que Zuera and his all-time classics from over the decades, Bosco will be closing off the Malta Jazz Festival in timeless style on Saturday.

It’s all going down this weekend, and here’s how you can win free tickets!

You heard that right; tickets can be bought from right here, and you can visit www.maltajazzfestival.org for more information on set times and the artists performing.

But if you’d like to win free tickets for yourself and three friends, all you need to do is comment on this post, tagging the people you’d love to take with you to the Jazz Festival!

So what are you waiting for? Tag three friends you’d like to take with you to the Jazz Festival for a chance to win four free tickets!

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).