The Winter Red Sea Jazz Festival, taking place February 22-24, 2018, showcases a fascinating combination of local Israeli culture together with the jazz world in all its diversity - from classic to traditional jazz through bebop, hard bop and New Orleans, to fusion, salsa, rock jazz and world music scented ethnic jazz.  During the winter session, the festival takes place in the Isrotel Theater in the Royal Garden Hotel, at the Queen of Sheba Hotel and at the bar, Mike’s Place.

This year among the guest participants is Edmar Castaneda who began playing the harp in his youth focusing mainly on Colombian folk music. He discovered jazz when he moved to NY at the age of 16 and took up trumpet. Today Castaneda has a unique and distinct way that has established an original voice that smoothly shifts between musical worlds and genres, from Colombian music to Latin jazz and classical music. He has released three albums as a bandleader, composed music for symphonic ensembles, and participated in various intriguing global musical collaborations sharing the stage and the international language of music with musicians from different corners of the world among them, John Scofield, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Marcus Miller, Hiromi, John Patitucci, Sting, Rickie Lee Jones and Paco de Lucia.

In a special collaboration for the 2018 Winter Red Sea Jazz Festival, Brazilian harmonica master, Gabriel Grossi, features percussionist, Joca Perpigan and guitarist Marcelo Nami, both today Israeli musicians who were born in Brazil. Gabriel Grossi, one of the leading harmonica players in the world, is also an acclaimed composer producer and arranger. With tenacity and insistence, he has found unique ways to incorporate the harmonica into the richness of Brazilian music and jazz, creating a modern and innovative musical style. The meeting of these three Brazilians in Israel will include original arrangements for classic pieces from the rich repertoire of Brazilian music as well as their own original materials, a fine mix of Brazilian music as well as their own original materials, a fine mix of Brazilian jazz, some choro, some samba, bossa nova, Afro-Brazilian rhythms as well as vocals and improvisation.

Flying in from Switzerland is the piano trio VEIN composed of twin brothers Michael and Florian Arbenz, piano and drums, and bassist Thomas Lahns.  They all attended the City of Basel Music Academy, classical music students who dived into jazz and immediately began to produce freely. The Guardian UK describes them as “one of Europe’s most exciting ensembles”.

The Red Sea Jazz Festival was established in 1987 with the aim at further stimulating the already vibrant local jazz scene whilst giving opportunity to visitors and participants alike to enjoy the seaside resort of Eilat.  Orchestrating a brilliant composition of international and Israeli artists, the Red Sea Jazz Festival is highly regarded around the world today.  Featuring outstanding original Israeli jazz alongside first-class virtuoso guest jazz artists from around the globe, each evening includes concerts followed by the traditional jam session.  The Red Sea Jazz Festival is held in the last weeks of August and the last week in February every year.