News

The influential and active Lithuanian sextet led by keyboard player Dainius Pulauskas will perform at the Southbank Centre, Clore Ballroom on Saturday, 16 November. The concert starts at 2:00pm with the performances of Stan Sulzmann, Benet McLean and DJs Julian+Sushil and Kevin Legendre. The Dainius Pulauskas Group will perform at 5.45pm. This event will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3 Jazz Line-Up.  The project is a part of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union cultural programme in the UK, supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania in cooperation with Music Export Lithuania and the Lithuanian Embassy in London.

Address: Southbank Centre, Clore Ballroom, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX

Timetable:

2.00 – 2.45PM STAN SULZMANN – PERFORMANCE

2.45 – 3.15PM JULIAN + SUSHIL (DJ)

3.15 – 4.00PM BENET MCLEAN – PERFORMANCE

4.00 – 4.30PM KEVIN LEGENDRE (DJ)

4.30 – 5.15PM EMPIRICAL – PERFORMANCE

5.15 – 5.45PM KEVIN LEGENDRE (DJ)

5.45 – 6.45PM DAINIUS PULAUSKAS – PERFORMANCE

Dainius Pulauskas Group

Dainius Pulauskas - keyboards;

Valerijus Ramoška - trumpet, flugelhorn;

Liutauras Janušaitis - tenor sax;

Kęstutis Vaiginis - alto & soprano saxes;

Domas Aleksa - bass;

Linas Būda - drums

The Dainius Pulauskas Group was formed in 1996 and instantly became one of the leading Lithuanian jazz ensembles and an internationally renowned ambassador of Lithuanian jazz. During its first decade the group has performed all over Europe, as well as at jazz festivals in China and India, recorded 5 CDs and a DVD (Trajectories), and recently produced a programme with a symphony orchestra. For several years the group has appeared as a sextet and in the past few years has performed in different combinations. The group's key to success is the artistic excellence of its individual members, their unparalleled ensemble playing, and, of course, their music – a idiosyncratic and vivid version of fusion once described as "a forceful pulse of modern jazz" by Risto Haapsamo. The group's repertoire consists largely of compositions by its leader Dainius Pulauskas. Either marked by Nordic austerity, or seething with energy and peppiness, his music invariably displays the solid structuring of musical textures and colourful combinations of acoustic and electronic instruments.

The group started in 1996. After its debut as a quintet at the Birštonas Jazz Festival, the group was joined by the saxophonist Rimantas Brazaitis and evolved into a sextet; in 1997 they released their debut album Penetration. The Dainius Pulauskas Sextet has beaten all local records by rising to the hall of fame of Lithuanian jazz in an amazingly short time. In 1998 it was joined by the saxophonist Vytautas Labutis. In recent years the group's lineup has bedome more varied, with musicians such as Leonid Shinkarenko, Eugenijus Jonavičius, Kęstutis Vaiginis, Skirmantas Sasnauskas join it for different projects.

The Dainius Pulauskas Group is well established and known not only in Lithuania, but also internationally through its participation in multiple prestigious European and Asian jazz events: JazzBaltica (1998, Salzau, Germany), Beijing, Shanghai and Changchun International Jazz Festival (1999, China), JazzYatra (2001, India), SKIF-5 (2001, St. Petersburg), Copenhagen Jazz Festival (2002, Denmark), Stockholm Jazz Festival (2002, Sweden), Oslo Jazz (2004, Norway), Sibiu Jazz (2005, Romania), Big Band Jam (2007, Washington, USA), Jakarta Jazz Festival (2007, Indonesia), Penang Jazz Festival (2009, Malaysia), Beishan (Zhuhai) and Shenzhen Jazz Festivals (2011, China), Hong Kong Jazz Festival (2011, Hong Kong), Acacia Jazz Festival, Adis Ababa (2012, Ethiopia), Cairo Jazz Festival (2013, Egypt), Cape Town International Jazz Festival (2013, South Africa), Ottawa International Jazz Festival (2013, Canada), Garana Jazz Festival (Romania), Bratislava Jazz Days (2013, Slovakia), London Jazz Festival (2013, UK).

To recognize their achievement, the Lithuanian Musicians' Union awarded the group with the Golden Disc in 2001; in 2004 the group received the LT Identity award of the Lithuanian Institute for promoting Lithuanian jazz.