American trombonist Fred Wesley is going to start his European tour tonight in Hannover with his quintet, a project that celebrates organist Jimmy Smith.
The Jimmy Smith Celebration project started this June with a premier performance in Amsterdam. During October it will be presented in Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
The project celebrates the works of Jimmy Smith who passed away in 2005, only few days after he received the most honorable award in jazz – the NEA Jazz Masters Award by the National Endowment for the Arts. Smith is best known as an artist who contributed to the popularisation of the Hammond B-3 organ in jazz and through performances with Quincy Jones, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and Dee Dee Bridgewater among others.
Wesley is at the moment performing within three projects, the mentioned Jimmy Smith Celebration ensemble, his own band The New JB’s and the Abraham Inc. project with which he will be coming to Sarajevo on 05 November to open this year’s 17th Jazz Fest edition.