The 16th iteration of the annual Jazzmandu festival will be commencing on November 1 at various locations around the Kathmandu Valley.

The week-long festival will begin with a free concert for school children at the Alliance Française de Katmandou in Jhamsikhel, followed by Valley jams at various locations—Jazz Bazaar at the Gorkana Forest Resort, Sounds of Latin at Yala Maya Kendra, Jazz at The Temple House and the Jazzmandu finale concert at Hotel Yak and Yeti on November 6.  

“Everything remains constant, except for the artists,” said organiser Samir Chettri, promising to deliver the same eclectic sessions that Jazz-mandu has become known for. “We try to get new artists whose musical taste differs from the others,” he said.

Preparations for the fest began a year earlier, with requests from various artists all around the world, according to Chettri. “The artist selection process is conducted by Nabin Chettri, our artistic director, who looks at their music and the possibility of funding, but focuses mostly on the music,” he said.

This year’s line-up includes Cynthia Abraham and the Adrien Brandeis Quintet from France, Eduardo Mendonça from Brazil, Dave Feusi and The Groove Gang from Switzerland, DACH from Austria and Nick’s Cousin from the US. The festival will also see performances by Kathmandu veterans and Jazzmandu regulars Cadenza Collective, along with Abhishek and Maria, Project Sarangi and classical artists Rabin Lal Shrestha, Manmohan Thapaliya and Dhan Bahadur Gurung.

“We are really excited about this year’s fest as we’ll have different forms of jazz music on stage—Latin jazz, Brazilian and improvised and free jazz,” said Chettri.

The first Kathmandu Jazz Festival was held in 2002, with four international bands, some of Nepal’s top musicians and the Australian jazz legend Don Burrows as headliner. Since then, Jazzmandu has taken place every year with a

changing line-up of jazz artists from across the world.