Koktebel Jazz Party international festival comes to an end

Koktebel Jazz Party international festival comes to an end

The highlight of the third day was the traditional Jazz at the Speed of Light program with Dmitry Bril, Robert Anchipolovsky and Valery Grokhovsky, who played a jam session via an Internet video conference. The main theme was to show that jazz has no borders.

"The problem is that musicians need to play as a synchronized ensemble. If someone's tempo is slow, there's no synch. The musical ear can hear a 50 millisecond delay. We needed to create an Internet speed and precision that will eliminate the delays. Then a linked ensemble can work," the festival's founder, journalist Dmitry Kiselev, told the audience before the Koktebel-Moscow video conference.

Anchipolovsky and Bril jammed with Grokhovsky in Moscow.

Sponsored by special partner Smolenskiye Brillianty Company, the People's Choice Award went to Carter and the Anchipolovsky Quartet.

The three-day festival saw performances by 14 groups from 15 countries, including Germany, the US, France, the UK, and Japan. They performed over 150 compositions. Organizers estimate attendance at over 12,000 people.

The Voloshin Stage at noted Russian poet Maximilian Voloshin's house museum was open throughout the festival with lectures and jazz workshops. Young and talented jazz musicians from Crimea performed with famous musicians for the first time in the festival's history. By tradition, admission to the Voloshin Stage events was free.