Tauragė Jazz 2026 I NADINE AXISA ir KAUNO BIGBENDAS (MT-LT)

Instant jazz magic that settles on your eyelashes like a memory and makes you want to listen to it, feel it and live it. This is the “Jazz Flash” program with Kaunas Big Band and Nadine Axisa (MT), who will spin a carousel of famous jazz vocal and instrumental compositions. “Misty”, “All or Nothing at All”, “A Foggy Day”, “I Remember You”… These are just a few jazz flashes that travel through decades, voices, different concert halls of the world and create stories each time: about love that cannot be half-hearted – either all or nothing; about a lonely day in the fog, which is unexpectedly brightened up by meeting a special person; about a love so strong that the world starts spinning, and you remain a little “drunk”.

Nadine Axisa – Maltese jazz singer, especially appreciated for her love of smooth jazz, Latin, swing and soul music. She began studying classical singing as a child and discovered jazz while performing in clubs and bars in her teens. She regularly performs in local jazz venues in Malta, and has also appeared at numerous international jazz events and festivals in Poland, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Austria, Egypt and Turkey. In 2014, she released her debut album, Velvet, featuring twelve original smooth jazz compositions, mostly composed by Maltese authors, to great international acclaim. Her second album, released in 2019, was also very successful. In it, Nadine reinterprets Maltese songs from the 1960s and 1970s, and this work earned her the Malta Music Awards 2020 for Best Maltese Album. In addition to her concert activities, since 2021, Nadine has hosted the jazz show Nadine’s Jazz Boutique on the national Maltese radio station.

Kaunas Big Band (chief conductor – Tomas Botyrius) is the first professional jazz orchestra in Lithuania, founded in 1991, just one year after the restoration of Lithuania’s independence. For more than 30 years, the orchestra has been one of the most important flagships of jazz culture in Kaunas and Lithuania. During its activity, the big band has become a witness, participant and creator of significant jazz events in the country, and for several generations of musicians – a real school of jazz life. Annual Lithuanian jazz festivals – “Kaunas Jazz”, “Birštonas Jazz Festival”, “Klaipėda Castle Jazz Festival”, “Šiauliai Big Band Festival” – are difficult to imagine without the Kaunas Big Band.

The orchestra has organized many memorable concerts and introduced many world-class music celebrities to the audience: Randy Brecker, Richard Galliano, Bob Mintzer, Gunhild Carling, Claire Martin and many others. Together with these performers, the Kaunas Big Band toured Latvia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Poland and other countries.