Seoul Jazz Festival to feature stellar musicians
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Top from bottom are Damien Rice, Jamie Cullum, Wouter Hamel and Kings of Convenience.They will perform at the Royal Night Out event opening the 2016 Seoul Jazz Festival (May 28-29) at the Olympic Park in southern Seoul. / Courtesy of Private Curve
By Park Jin-hai
The Seoul Jazz Festival, celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, will kick off for a three-day run here, Friday. Festivities will kick off with the star-studded Royal Night Out event on the first night.
The annual festival, which has grown into one of the city’s major events over the decade, will be held at Olympic Park from May 27 to 29.
This year’s event will boast a lineup of over 40 acclaimed musicians to soak audiences in the syncopations of jazz as well as other diverse music genres ranging from pop to R&B and soul to welcome the summer.
Opening the festival, four audience-favorites from the past nine years will take the stage.
They are Jamie Cullum, an English jazz-pop singer who topped the most popular list last year, Norwegian folk-pop duo Kings of Convenience, Dutch pop singer Wouter Hamel who earned the nickname “Mr. Silky Voice” for his soft voice, and Irish singer-songwriter Damian Rice.
The Saturday main stage headliners will be Pat Metheny, one of the most influential American jazz guitarists who’s picked up 20 Grammy Awards, and Mark Ronson, best known for the 2014 smash hit “Uptown Funk” with Bruno Mars. Local acts including rapper Beenzino and electronic/house duo Peppertones will perform during the day.
Festival organizer Private Curve said this year’s event has focused more on “urban leisure.”
“It is a great opportunity to see artists who are rarely seen in other festivals. The performances of Pat Metheny and the Nat King Cole Tribute are surely the must-see performances,” said a Private Curve spokesman. “Music classes will also be held, where visitors can learn skills like deejaying and jazz piano playing. Compared with last year, the food sections have also been upgraded to provide diverse selections of quality foods to make it a more enjoyable event.”
Sunday performances will include the Nat King Cole Tribute featuring Ramsey Lewis and John Pizzarelli, Corinne Bailey Rae, Jason Derulo, Hamel and Redfoo.
Jang Beom-jun, the Korean singer-songwriter behind the hit song “Cherry Blossom Ending,” will perform the finale of the festival. Jang, who debuted as guitarist and vocalist of the band Busker Busker through Mnet’s talent show Superstar K in 2011, became widely popular here with hit songs mainly themed on youth and love.
Tickets cost 135,000 to 220,000 won. For more information, call (02) 563-0595 or visit ticket.interpark.com/global