Rising Star: Tom Ibarra
The LetterOne Rising Stars Jazz Award has named Europe's most promising jazz artist. The winner is the 18-year-old guitar sensation Tom Ibarra from France.
As winner of the Rising Stars Jazz Award, Tom Ibarra is going on an extensive tour to seven leading European jazz festivals, among them Nice Jazz Festival (FR), Heineken Jazzaldia in San Sebastian, Cheltenham Jazz Festival - and Kongsberg Jazz Festival. In addition to the tour, he also receives extensive assistance from the London-based Air Artist Agency with marketing, PR and booking. The work is led by agent Burkhard Hopper, who has previously worked to launch artists such as Diana Krall, Brad Mehldau and Esbjörn Svensson. Together with the tour, this amounts to a value of almost NOK 700, which makes this one of the world's largest jazz prizes measured in monetary value.
Guitarist Tom Ibarra impressed the jury, which included jazz superstar Jamie Cullum, with his accomplished style in which he mixes jazz, funk and fusion into his very own expression. Tom Ibarra was born in 1999, and has been playing guitar since he was six years old. Among his sources of inspiration we find Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, Weather Report, Wes Montgomery and more. Tom Ibarra released his debut album '15' in 2015 - four years after he had seriously started composing his own songs. Several star guitarists, such as Marcus Miller, Richard Bona, Didier Lockwood and Sylvain Luc, have recognized Tom Ibarra's unmistakable talent and invited him to share the stage with them on various occasions.
Don't miss Europe's next jazz star: Tom Ibarra!
