Beth Hart, born in 1972 in Los Angeles, does not cut corners in her music, one reason may be because she has struggled with a bipolar condition since childhood. As a teenager, she quit school in order to study piano and cello. With her 1999 debut Screamin’ For My Supper, her career start was impressive with raw, straight-shooting blues-rock. Ever since, Beth has worked her erratic life and personal losses into powerful songs. Between albums, she played the role of Janis Joplin in the successful musical Love, Janis and joined Jeff Beck to pay tribute to blues hero Buddy Guy. Her album Bang Bang Boom Boom has finally given her solid ground under her feet. In high spirits, the blues woman expands her music to include a pinch of jazz and soul and takes the stage with more confidence than ever before. If there is a woman who understands the blues in ist deepest depths, that is Beth Hart. Goosebumps are guaranteed.

Charles Bradley’s life was never easy. He grew up with his grandmother in Florida until his mother brought him to New York. Charles ran away when he was only 14. He lived on the street for two years, learned to be a cook, became a chef, often changed jobs and occasionally performed with a band. As a James Brown impersonator he was more successful, which lasted for 30 years. When his brother was shot by his own nephew, Charles put this experience into a song. The big boss of the legendary soul label, Daptone, heard the song and immediately signed Charles. Charles was already 52, but it still took ten more years before his debut album “No Time For Dreaming” was released in 2011. The world was beside itself with enthusiasm: Charles Bradley is James Brown, Otis Redding and Sam Cook all in one: pure deep soul. Bradley is the “Screaming Eagle Of Soul”, and the major stages of the world are now his home.

The four neighbourhood boys started by jamming together at local festivals, first covering Beatles and Stones classics until they started to write their very own songs, quickly finding that they had great compositional talent. They have thrilled live audiences at major festivals with their melodious, powerful and emotionally charged pop anthems. Irrespective of their great chart successes, they have retained their independence and have continued to experiment in solo projects. Their performance at the BALOISE SESSION reunites Pegasus and proves that these Biel/Bienne natives are amongst the most innovative pop bands in Switzerland.

The name Gruntz stands for powerful innovation and the highest quality, not only for people in the Basel music scene. The fact that the internationally renowned jazz great George Gruntz, who died last year, was the great uncle of the young James Gruntz, does not necessarily make it easier for this newcomer to develop his own identity, however, he has managed just that. After building a solid foundation with his education at the Zurich Jazz School, he has the courage to set himself apart from his family legacy with simple, catchy songs, designing his very own musical world.

What about music? This is the question that Lisa Stansfield’s disheartened fans have been asking themselves for years. After the album ‘The Moment’ in 2004, the singer left music behind, although she had managed to transport eighties pop into the nineties with her debut ‘Affection’ and the worldwide hit ‘All Around The World’ in 1989. As the ‘British Queen of Soul’, she sold more than 20 million albums. After 2004, the Englishwoman preferred performing on theater stages and in TV film series, until she revealed in an interview in 2012 that she was writing songs again. She embarked on a successful tour with these new songs just a few months later. Now, Lisa has finally returned to her fans with her album ‘Seven’. The question of music has finally been answered: Lisa sings soul with such power that it feels like she never took a break.

After the frenzy of punk and new wave, it was almost a relief when, surprisingly it was an English band that came onto the scene with such suave coolness that they brought elegant lounge evenings back into style in 1984. «Whose Side Are You On?» asked Matt Bianco with their debut, before answering the question with their worldwide hit «Half A Minute», convincing us to be on the side of beautiful singing, smooth Latin rhythms and sophisticated pop music. The band was successful with two more albums before Matt Bianco broke up. Although the core duo Mark Reilly and Mark Fisher continued to regularly release albums, Matt Bianco disappeared into the fringe of music history, until the band brought back the original line up in 2004 with the album «Matt’s Mood» which helped to initiate the eighties revival. Ever since then, discerning pop fans enjoy spending their evenings in the lounge or at one of the rare concerts of Matt Bianco.