
Summer jazz festival brings ‘cool jazz’ to Taiwan
The annual National Theater and Concert Hall Summer Jazz Festival will kick off in August. "Sounds Cool!" is this year’s theme, which is inspired by cool jazz and the spirit of legendary American trumpeter Miles Davis. FTV reporter Stephany Yang has the highlights!
Vocalist Lo Yen-ting take the stage joined by Rich Huang, Stacey Wei, Toru Hayakawa and Tseng Yi-tseng. Lo will perform a series of original works inspired by landforms.
Lo Yen-ting
Vocalist
In my concert, I will do something very personal. It will be very contemporary sounds, combining with world music and folk music. It might not be the traditional jazz that you might expect, but I hope everyone can come and keep an open mind and experience how I describe how I see in these outdoor scenes with my music.
The annual National Theater and Concert Hall Summer Jazz Festival’s is back under the theme, "Sounds Cool!" It was inspired by Cool Jazz and the spirit of legendary trumpeter Miles Davis. One of the musicians will be Grammy-nominated Fred Hersch, whose piano trio pays tribute to Miles Davis.
Stacey Wei
Curator and trumpeter
In the 50s, jazz had different styles like cool jazz and hard bop and bebop and even Latin jazz. This time the NTCH Jazz project this summer, we will bring cool jazz style to the audience. The band has a 12-piece band, so it is a pretty large band. We have trumpet, we have trombone, and saxophone. This year, we picked up the theme of cool jazz so if you think about cool jazz, the first musician you will think of is of course Miles Davis.
Other highlights include a concert by Cécile McLorin Salvant, a three-time Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist. The festival will feature performances by Grammy Award-winning jazz stars from Taiwan and abroad.
Liu Yi-ruu
NTCH general and artistic director
Most of the jazz musicians we invited have won multiple Grammy Awards or received Grammy nominations. We have Fred Hersch performing jazz piano, and a female vocalist, Cécile. We aim to bring the world’s finest jazz musicians to Taiwan to perform. At the same time, we strive to systematically introduce jazz-related elements — whether it’s historical background or musical styles — to Taiwanese audiences through this jazz festival. This year, we focus on cool jazz.
In addition, there will be outdoor jazz parties and educational workshops. The annual National Theater and Concert Hall Summer Jazz Festival will take place from Aug. 9 to Aug. 30.
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2025-07-02