Earl Klugh coming for Stanbic Jazz Festival

Daily Graphic Music Jan - 31 - 2015 , 10:12

Highly-rated American jazz guitarist, Earl Klugh, will be the main act at this year’s Stanbic Ghana Jazz Festival slated for February 19 -20 at the Accra International Conference Centre.

The festival was instituted last year by Stanbic Ghana to help bring back the jazz verve in the country and to offer local players an opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the best professionals in the genre.

At a media launch of the 2015 festival last Tuesday, Mr Mawuko Afadzinu, Head of Marketing and Communications at Stanbic Ghana, said following the huge success of last year’s event which had British guitarist, Peter White, on the bill, there was a huge demand from jazz lovers for Earl Klugh to play here this year.

“There was an overflow of requests and we agreed to that because Earl Klugh is arguably one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time,” Mr Afadzinu said. “He is remarkable when it comes to fusion jazz. He is the benchmark when it comes to smooth jazz and for crossover jazz, there is no other name than him.

Earl Klugh has, since the mid-1970s, recorded a large number of accessible but always intense musical albums in a fusion mould. He currently has over 30 albums to his credit. In addition to his highly successful albums, the guitarist has also made a niche for himself in film music.

In a telephone conversation with the media at the festival launch last Tuesday, Earl Klugh said he would play material from his entire repertoire of songs and that, he is looking forward to a wonderful time with jazz lovers in Ghana.

According to Mr Afadzinu , his outfit was working at getting Ghanaian guitar legend, Ebo Taylor, and other local musicians to also play at the festival.

The February 19 concert would be for guests of Stanbic Ghana and the various partners and service providers for the festival. The February 20 concert is open to the public.