12 Points! Saturday

Time: 20:00 - Mark McKnight Trio, Belfast/Ireland

This supple and inventive young guitarist has been performing and recording in good company, including Jason Rebello, Sam Yahel, Tim Warfield and Terell Stafford. He’ll be on the road this summer with The European Jazz Orchestra, the annual road show of Europe’s best emerging soloists. Before that he arrives match fit in the middle of an eleven date tour with a new trio featuring ascendant Scottish bassist Euan Burton and one of London’s busiest young drummers James Maddren.

Time: 21:30 - Pablo Held Trio, Berlin/Germany

The ascendant Pablo Held has an exceptional grasp of piano trio aesthetics, and seems to have few technical obstacles to his artistic appetite. His critically acclaimed debut CD Forest of Oblivion confirms that he is maturing into an intelligent pianist with a mastery of light and shade, force and sensitivity. Held’s dialogue with bassist Robert Landfermann and drummer Jonas Burgwinkel is intense and dynamic, alive to all the possibilities to manipulate time and texture.

Time: 23:00 - Jazzanitza, Sofia/Bulgaria

Influenced by Balkan music, Jazzanitza’s roots are in Sofia where saxophonist Dimitar Liolev and drummer Borislav Petrov met while playing in folk bands before both moving to The Netherlands to study in 2002. They have fashioned something personal from elements of Bulgarian folk melody and dance rhythms coupled to firm roots in jazz. They are joined by fellow Bulgarian Raya Hadzhieva (trumpet), Polish bassist Maciej Domaradzki and Dutchmen Tony Roe (piano) and Ben Van Gelder (saxophone).