KAUNAS BIG BAND AND VICTOR MENDOZA: LA FIESTA LATIN JAZZ

KAUNAS BIG BAND AND VICTOR MENDOZA:  LA FIESTA LATIN JAZZ

(Mexico – Lithuania)

Victor Mendoza – vibe

Admired for unorthodox premieres presented in the past festivals, Kaunas Big Band this year brings an exceptional gift on occasion of Birštonas Jazz anniversary – a collaboration with one of today’s finest Latin jazz artists, Mexican-born vibraphonist and composer Victor Mendoza.

It is the musicians’ second joined programme weaved from the fiery rhythms and melodies intrinsic to various Latin American regions.

Victor Mendoza’s career comprises performances with his own group and as guest soloist around the globe. Recent appearances include collaborations with the World Festival Orchestra under the direction of Paquito D’Rivera and the Milan Svoboda Orchestra in Prague, the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and in Tel Aviv. The vibraphonist was a soloist with the Carlos Chávez Symphony Orchestra in Mexico City, the Granada Symphony in Spain and Banda del Puerto under the direction of Isidro Coll Ballesteros in Valencia.

Previous recordings and performances with artists such as Paquito D’Rivera, Claudio Roditi and Giovanni Hidalgo have earned him the respect of critics and jazz fans around the globe. This is Why, one of Victor’s albums, prompted Latin Beat Magazine to name him one of the Outstanding Latin Jazz Artists of the Year; Modern Drummer Magazine nominated his Black Bean Blues as one of the Best Latin Jazz Recordings of the Year; while Jazziz Magazine dubbed him “the genre’s leading vibraphone practitioner” and “one of today’s most resourceful composers.”

In addition to his concert career, he serves as a Professor at the Berklee College of Music, labelled the forge of jazz stars, and as clinician for Yamaha and Vic Firth. Victor has earned an international reputation as a jazz educator, regularly conducting master classes at major music schools, universities and music conferences around the world.

The birth of Kaunas Big Band is closely linked to the dawn of the restoration of the Independence of Lithuania. Formed in 1999, this band has been a must-attribute to the Lithuanian annual jazz festivals – Birštonas Jazz, Kaunas Jazz, Klaipėda Castle Jazz festival and Šiauliai Big Band Festival.

A member of the concert institution “Kauno santaka”, Kaunas Big Band has always been in the centre of the most important jazz music events. Over more than twenty-five years of its existence, it has become a significant leader of the city’s and Lithuanian jazz culture. Kaunas Big Band can be heard in prestigious concert halls and multi-thousand seat arenas, its programs feature jazz and pop musicians of the highest calibre.

The orchestra has hosted a number of memorable concerts and presented to the audience many a world-class music celebrity including the Finnish jazzmen Eero Koivistoinen and Jukka Linkola, Swedish trumpeter Lasse Lindgren, American jazz composer Frank Mantooth, trumpeter Randy Brecker, trombone player Jiggs Whigham, saxophonist and composer Bob Mintzer, German organist Barbara Dennerlein, French accordionist Richard Galliano, Spanish percussionist Jorge Perez, clarinet virtuoso from Norway Felix Peikli, and the young Estonian jazz star Sofia Rubina.

Kaunas Big Band has represented Lithuania’s jazz culture in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Poland, the Netherlands, Latvia, Russia, Belarus and Estonia. It has partnered almost every celebrated Lithuanian jazz master, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra. The exponents of other artistic medias have collaborated with the collective in educational programs. Several generations already have considered Kaunas Big Band as a symbol of a live jazz school.

The Big Band’s late leader Romualdas Grabštas (1943–2009) stood at the collective’s helm for 18 years. The founder’s aspirations were pursued by Skirmantas Sasnauskas and Tomas Botyrius. Currently, Big Band’s wheel is in the hands of Petras Tadaras, the collective’s old-timer.

In 2006, the Lithuanian Musicians’ Union presented Kaunas Big Band with Gold Disc for its achievements. In 2009, for his contributions to Lithuanian jazz Romualdas Grabštas was posthumously granted the Vilnius Jazz Award.