Bonita & The Blues Shacks to headline inaugural Jazz Garden concert series on April 28…

The Dubai Jazz Festival is an annual institution that has brought some of the biggest acts in the world to UAE since it first launched in 2003.

While the likes of Sting and Mariah Carey both put on great shows at recent iterations of the festival, no one would fault you for thinking that calling them (or any of the previous year’s pop-heavy headliners) ‘jazz’ might be a bit of a stretch.

We suspect that the festival’s organisers, Chillout Productions, are not unaware of this, which is why “due to high demand from fans and partners alike” they announced earlier today the relaunch of Jazz Garden – The Series at the Habtoor Grand Resort, Autograph Collection in Dubai Marina on April 28th.

Originally a multi-day event that was last held over five nights in 2014, the newly revamped concert series will bring one-night events to the city throughout the year. They will be free to attend for registered guests and will focus on bringing world-class jazz and blues artists to the city.

Headlining the inaugural concert on April 28 will be Bonita & The Blues Shacks, a collaborative outfit made up of highly-lauded jazz and blues musicians from the US, Europe and South Africa.

Support will be provided by soul and jazz collective The JT Project featuring Todd Scheflin and Jacob Webb, with local act Soul Gorillas & StillRaw opening the show.

Speaking about the series Anthony Younes, co-founder and CEO of Chillout Productions stated “our goal is to continuously support and further the jazz movement that we started, showcasing it through the return of the long awaited event Jazz Garden – The Series,” he further added “We can only say that this is a start to make the jazz audience grow bigger as much as our line up in the coming editions this year leading to the Jazz Festival in 2018”

While no further dates have yet been announced, we confirmed with the organisers that there are at least two other concerts planned for after the summer, with another scheduled for January 2018 – pending the success of this first event.

Registration for attendance is now open via the Dubai Jazz Festival website.

Jazz Garden – The Series, Fountain Garden, Habtoor Grand Resort, Autograph Collection, Dubai Marina. 28 April, 6:00pm (doors open) –  11:30pm. Tickets: free (with registration). Tel: (04) 341 1196. dubaijazzfest.com

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