Welcome to
COPENHAGEN BLUES FESTIVAL
15th edition Sept. 22nd - 27th 2015
It's Autumn, and then of course time for "Blue Copenhagen".
From Tuesday, Sept. 22nd once again the Blues will sound all over the city,
and we invite all blues fans to visit the city's many clubs and venues for a week
of world class international blues, and some very good homegrown blues.
Our musical ambition is to cover all blues style variations in the best possible way,
and to present The Blues in a fine balance between tradition and new expressions.
So, as always, you'll find seasoned blues veterans performing alongside
some very talented young artists, who carry the torch into the future.
BLUES AWARDS
The festival opened at Amager Bio with the presentation of the two Blues Awards:
"Danish Blues Act of the Year" & "Danish Blues Album of the Year"
"Danish Blues Act of the Year" went to Big Creek Slim, A.K.A. Marc Rune
and
"Danish Blues Album of the Year" went to Mike Andersen for his CD "Home".
Congratulations to both award recipients!
See videos from previous award events at our Facebook page.
This year is our 15th anniversay, and on opening night the birthday was celebrated with a
double concert with Danish Thorbjřrn Risager & the Black Tornado and American John Németh.
FESTIVAL PROGRAMME 2015
This year's festival programme offers 50 blues concerts at 18 venues all over town.
Please find the full programme in the top left menu, click the concert names to see
articles and photos. Note: several venues have direct links to on-line ticket sale.
If you click the picture top right, you'll find the printed festival catalogue,
but only in Danish.
The programme this year is influenced by the recent loss of one of the greatest
blues acts of all times, Mr. B.B. King, who died in May this year.
B.B. King would have been 90 years old this September. Now he is gone,
but Copenhagen Blues Festival wishes to pay tribute and commemorate
his music and his heritage with some special events.
Thursday night at 8 pm Amager Bio celebrates 'The King of the Blues',
with a great live concert. A long string of artists are paying their respect
to B.B., backed by a real 'B.B. King style' bigband.
As a matter of fact, we already start Tuesday night
with the film about B.B. King's life, "Life of Riley"
at Cinemateket in Gothersgade.
The cinema immediately agreed to take part in
this special event. It's on Tuesday 22nd at 9:45 pm .
The old guard of well known and beloved jazz-, blues- and rock artists through
the 50'ies, 60'ies and 70'ies are disappearing these years, one by one.
In the last 3 years alone we have lost Etta James, Louisiana Red, Bobby Bland,
J.J. Cale, Magic Slim, Joe Cocker, Jimmy Dawkins, Johnny Winter and two of
The Holmes Brothers.
Even Danish music has lost one of our great profiles, the world
famous bass player, Hugo Rasmussen, who died August 30th,
just a few weeks before the festival, where he should play
several concerts. He will be missed !
But the old stars are not forgotten - they have had, and will
continue to have - great impact as inspiration for all blues
musicians, who follow in their footsteps.
And fortunately, the blues scene keeps evolving, and it's
exciting to see the young talents maturing and stepping up
in the front row.
This is a dynamic process, which also works as a motor for
the live scene and for this festival.
There is a lot of other exciting stuff in the stew, for instance:
Selwyn Birchwood from Tampa, Florida, who along with
John Németh from Memphis are seen as great international
class up-and-coming blues stars.
But you'll also find a couple of more seasoned acts:
John Primer and Mississippi Heat, both out of Chicago City,
and both strong performers of the 'real deal' Chicago blues.
As usual, the city is crawling with Danish blues acts in all styles, forms, shapes and sizes:
Delta Blues Band, Thorbjorn Risager & the Black Tornado, Copenhagen Slim, Mama's Blues Joint,
Big Creek Slim & Peter Nande, The Fried Okra Band, Esben Just, Hans Knudsen & Ronni Boysen,
H.P. Lange, Paul Banks & Jorgen Lang, Kjeld Lauritsen & Miriam Mandipira, Troels Jensen, Jes
Holtsoe, Mik Schack. And from Norway and Sweden Hungry John Blues Band, Svante Sjoeblom,
Jan Gerfast Blues Band and Steve Grahn & Mattias Malmand many more.
In the Danish line-up you'll find almost all previous recipients of the festival's award,
"Danish Blues Artist of the Year" - that doesn't happen very often.
The festival always tries to find new events to supplement the many concerts
and the by now traditional offers, Blues Brunch with blues music, the Blues
Sermon at the Grundtvig Church, also including a blues concert, blues jam etc.
This year you can cruise around in the harbor and canals of Copenhagen,
of course with live blues on board.
There's a special treat for dancing bluesfans
- it's usually difficult to find dance space at the crowded venues.
'Blue Copenhagen' is usually blessed with a beautiful 'Indian Summer' weather.
We hope, that the Global climate changes leave us alone again this year, so
people can enjoy their walks to and from the many venues and great musical
experiences that await them.
We wish everyone
a great Blues Festival !
See you there.
Enjoy the Blues !
Arne Jaegergaard
Chairman
The Festival board wishes to thank all,
who contributes in making this festival possible.
Thanks to our sponsors and partners,
to our many venues around town,
and to members, co-workers and volunteers
and not least to all the great musicians !
Hear news about the festival on Radio Blues Time and on Radio Jazz in September.
Radio Blues Time Monday at 6 pm on the internet:
http://www.ch-radio.dk/christianshavns_kanal_stream.m3u
Radio Jazz every second Tuesday on the internet:
http://www.radiojazz.dk/Forside.html
Copy these links to your browser:
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