Music Lea Gasser 5tet wins ZKB Jazz Prize 2024

The Lea Gasser 5tet has won the first prize of CHF 15,000 at the final of the ZKB Jazz Prize Festival at the Moods jazz club in Zurich.

Second place, worth CHF 5,000, went to the Chloé Marsigny Sextet, as the organizers and ZKB announced on Friday night. The international jury described the winners as an unbeatable team and added: "Lea Gasser proved that she has already found her very own and unique musical language, which her band knew how to support excellently."

The jury was very impressed by all the musicians and consisted of Yilian Cañizares (musician), Mira Lu Kovacs (musician), Andrew Read (co-founder of Dot Time Records & editor-in-chief of Jazz in Europe), Christof Thurnherr (editorial director of Jazz'n'more) and Simon Steiner (Moods member and audience representative). They said of the second-placed Chloé Marsigny Sextet: "Chloé Marsigny has a very clear vision, both when it comes to the sky and the stars and when it comes to translating them into a musical language." Precise compositions and arrangements, as well as witty turns of phrase, had impressed the jury.

The Maud Paquis Quintet received the ZKB Audience Award and thus a performance at Moods next year. In addition to the three winning bands, LELE GORRI, the Meraki Sextet and the Polarbaeren were nominated for the Young Talent Award. The prize money is to be used for music; for studio productions, CD and label costs, for instruments, advertising or bookings. The ZKB Jazz Prize promotes young, innovative Swiss bands in order to enrich the diversity of the national jazz scene.