PATRICK JORAY

One of the great Swiss talents: Jazz saxophonist and composer Patrick Joray introduces his quintet

Winner in 2023 of the Kulturstiftung Kurt und Barbara Alten Prize in Solothurn, young saxophonist Patrick Joray (born in 1999) is one of the great promises of Swiss Jazz. For the first time at JazzAscona, the former student of the Basel Jazz Campus presents his quintet and quartet. Brought together by a passion for the American Jazz tradition, the quintet is made up of newcomers to the international scene and experienced musicians such as Elmar Frey on drums and American pianist William Evans, an artist who accompanied such Jazz stars as Dizzy Gillespie and Jimmy Witherspoon in the 1980s and has been active for many years as a teacher and mentor in Switzerland’s most important Jazz institutions.  The meeting of the two different generations of musicians gives rise to musical dialogues of the highest quality, in which the combination of tradition and modernity always provides new inspiration. Alongside new interpretations of Jazz standards, the quintet presents compositions by the bandleader in which his sensitivity for catchy melodies and his skill as an arranger come to be expressed.