The Brazilian music icon Ivan Lins is this year’s guest of honor at Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. With his unique blend of Brazilian rhythms and jazz harmony, he has captivated audiences around the world for decades—as a composer, pianist, and singer.

His melodies, filled with warmth and elegance, have been interpreted by some of the world’s leading artists, making him one of Brazil’s most significant musicians.

During the festival, Ivan Lins will offer a musical experience out of the ordinary—a true highlight of this year’s program.

Dave Holland is this year’s guest of honor at the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. The British-born bassist, composer, and bandleader comes to Ystad with his outstanding new ensemble, KISMET.

Dave Holland’s career spans more than five decades. He has released over thirty albums under his own name and appeared on hundreds of others. In the late 1960s, the young bassist was recruited by Miles Davis and contributed to the albums Filles de Kilimanjaro (1968), In a Silent Way (1969), and Bitches Brew (1970). He has collaborated with numerous other jazz greats, including Thelonious Monk, Stan Getz, Chick Corea, and Kenny Barron, and has led several groups of his own, ranging from duos to big bands. The quartet Aziza is among his more recent projects.

After Aziza’s concert at Fasching in Stockholm in 2022, DN’s Johannes Cornell wrote of Dave Holland: “At 76, he plays with the same agility and articulation as ever—completely in the spirit of Scott LaFaro. On the one hand. At the same time, he has the weight and drive of a truly great rock bassist. That versatility, and the incredibly high standard he maintains regardless of setting, defines him.”

The American drummer Billy Cobham is this year’s guest of honor at the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. He is regarded as one of the pioneering musicians of fusion jazz. “Few drummers could combine the complexity of jazz with the aggressiveness of rock the way he did, and his style set the standard for generations of drummers,” notes the article in the Swedish National Encyclopedia about the jazz festival’s guest of honor.

Jan Garbarek is a musical icon who, with his unmistakable sound on soprano and tenor saxophone, has been a unique voice in the world of music for over 50 years. Garbarek’s group includes, among others, the Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu, who is also a composer and leads many of his own projects.

American saxophonist, composer, arranger and big band leader Bob Mintzer has been named as the Guest of Honour for YSJF 2022.

In addition to being a member of the Grammy Award-winning Yellowjackets, he is chief conductor of the WDR Big Band in Cologne, a position he took up in 2016, and holder of the Buzz McCoy endowed chair of jazz studies at the University of Southern California.