Joss Stone, Buena Vista Social Club lead Sing Jazz 2016 line-up

SINGAPORE — The Singapore International Jazz Festival, also known as the Sing Jazz Festival, will be returning for its third edition in March, with a line-up organisers hope will entertain all music lovers.

At a press conference yesterday at the ArtScience Museum, David Lyndon Smith, co-founder and artistic director of Sing Jazz, said that the festival will take place from March 4 to 6 next year, and will feature two stages, which will allow attendees to enjoy seven hours of continuous music from 3pm on the second and third days of the festival.

The organisers also announced the first wave of artistes to perform at the festival. These include English singer-songwriter Joss Stone, who has more than 12 million album sales to date, and will be leading the line-up on the main stage. Other international acts include Cuban jazz act Buena Vista Social Club, which is on its farewell world tour, and British acid jazz band Incognito, which will be performing at Sing Jazz for the third time. Alongside these names are local musicians Jeremy Monteiro and Charlie Lim, both of whom will perform on the main stage.

Singapore-based electronic music label Darker Than Wax will be curating the music on the opening night of the festival, with sets by Canadian trio BADBADNOTGOOD (BBNG), American DJ-producer-keyboardist-beat-boxer Taylor McFerrin and Australian future-soul quartet Hiatus Kaiyote.

Other acts performing on the main stage include Dutch saxophonist Candy Dulfer, Italian jazz musician Enrico Rava and Nigerian act Seun Kuti & Egypt 80.

The remaining Singapore-based and international acts to perform at the festival will be announced at a later date.

“It’s a very long journey we’ve started on. If we were just music organisers, we would just make money off tickets and sponsors. But the whole idea (for) supporting Sing Jazz is because we need the stage for our own local musicians,” said Michael Tay, executive director of The Foundation for The Arts and Social Enterprise.

“If you don’t have a platform to allow your local musicians to perform with the best of international musicians, (and use) some of their branding and pass it to our musicians, we will be in a rut for many years.”

“We are carrying the torch for a whole lot of Singapore musicians and that means a lot to me,” said local singer-songwriter Charlie Lim. “It’s not so much that we are playing on the main stage because we’ve played a lot of festivals over the last few years. (But) these guys are taking a gamble putting a local act on the main stage next to Joss Stone and Hiatus Kaiyote, to show just how much local musicians are worth.”

Sing Jazz Festival 2016 will be held from March 4 to 6 at the Marina Bay Sands Event Plaza. Early bird tickets from S$65 are available from today, 10am, (Nov 26) to Dec 13 from EventCliQue and Marina Bay Sands. For more details, please visit http://www.sing-jazz.com.