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Winner of two Grammy Awards, 12 DownBeat magazine awards for Best Female Jazz Vocalist, named America’s Best Singer by Time magazine, Cassandra Wilson is one of the world’s leading vocal divas. Her music is a successful mix of the commercial and avant-garde, as well as a combination of jazz, blues, country, rock and folk music. The performance at the opening of this year’s festival will be her first in front of the Belgrade and Serbian audience. Trio Harriet Tubman, named after the legendary African-American activist from the US Civil War times, are Brandon Ross (guitar), Melvin Gibbs (bass) and J.T. Lewis (drums). The three renowned contemporary jazz/rock/funk/blues artists have gained vast experience performing on the international jazz and rock scene in numerous bands, from Henry Threadgill and The Lounge Lizzards to Lou Reed and Sting.

The music in their joint project Black Sun is both familiar and fresh, yet free of genre labels. At the same time one can feel various influences: from the transcendent spirituality of the acoustic blues of the Mississippi Delta, to the electric explosion of Miles Davis’s jazz-funk bands of the 70s; from African roots, through Coltrane, to hip-hop. Members of Harriet Tubman use all their experiences to create a vision of musical freedom and musical invention for those who give themselves up to the journey.