When front man Maurice White shakes his booty, it’s just as hip as it was back at the beginning of his career in 1969. He may not shake it as fast, but he still does it with the same elegance, flexibility and energy as always. His secret is the sound that he produces with the band he founded: Earth, Wind & Fire. It’s so hot, that you can’t sit still when they play eternal hits like ‘September’, ‘Let’s Groove’ or ‘Fantasy’. Funky beats, razor-sharp horns, grooving bass and a driving rhythm guitar are the elements, combined with a dazzling stage show and sensational choreography, that the band have brought to sheer perfection for more than 40 years. Often unfairly labelled a vile disco band by music purists, upon closer inspection, the band’s high musical quality and precision, which is exemplary in the genre, is unmistakeable.

Accomplished singer-songwriter Katie Melua makes her second appearance at the AVO SESSION festival. She presents her new, mysterious and profound album «Secret Symphony». Like the rain of gold and platinum with her earlier albums, this album has been at the top of the charts for many weeks. It shows that even superstars have hard times, like Katie Melua with her burnout. Her art was making this crisis into a source of creativity by turning it into new songs. This great music dynamic speaks for the quality of her new works. She mixes pop, jazz and folk intuitively and adeptly, her songs are heartfelt, natural and unpretentious. Pop and poetry don’t get any closer than this – as you will see at this evening at AVO SESSION Basel.

Alice Cooper brings his new album «Welcome 2 My Nightmare» to the AVO SESSION Basel. The star, who rightfully can call himself the world’s most easily identifiable music brand, brings his legendary and bombastic black rock show to Basel. Alice Cooper shocked audiences with boa constrictors and guillotines, now he does it with spider costumes and horror masks, but the good old 70s rock has remained a constant. That’s Alice Cooper’s remedy for the irritations and confusions of our time: spectacular electric guitars, old school style. The shock rocker brings our dark side back to the stage.

Football, religion and politics do not interest Dieter Meier, but when it comes to his stories, music lovers have to stop and listen. Stories literally pour out of him; he is a waterfall of clever ideas, sometimes slightly crude remarks and unsettling descriptions. Meier is art. His experiences are endless: singer in Yello, organic farmer in Argentina, watch designer, director, book author, poker player, innkeeper, photographer and performance artist, among other things. It makes sense that his new music project Out of Chaos (where he is joined by Nicolas Rüttimann, guitar, Ephrem Lüchinger, piano, Tobias Preisig, violin, Thomas Wydler, drums and Ralph Sonderegger, bass) is hard to describe with mere words. Perhaps like this: accomplished musicians from the jazz and rock scene, unusual instruments, no genre boundaries and at the centre: Meier. He sings, screeches, whispers and talks. And he tells stories, sometimes without any music at all.

With her fascinating voice and her stylish compositions, the charismatic, young Franco-Comoran singer Imany exudes an aura of warmth and intimacy. And

she is just as trusting as the meaning of her name in her mother tongue. In Swahili, Imany means hope or faith. The singer spent seven years commuting between her native country and the Parisian suburb where she still writes her songs, and also New York, where she worked as a highly demanded fashion model. Two years ago, she decided to give up her modelling career to commit herself fully to her true passion: music. Her courage was rewarded: her debut album «Shape Of A Broken Heart» was not only a critical success, the public also fell in love with it. She is blessed with a voice that you will never forget even after the first hearing. This is only the beginning of what we are convinced will be a meteoric and long-lasting career.