Daydream Jazz Festival 2026 opens Chapter IV.

Daydream Jazz Festival 2026 opens Chapter IV. Every edition has been shaped by friendship, curiosity, and artists who remind us why live music matters. We are deeply honoured to welcome John Carroll Kirby (US) with a solo performance, alongside Eddie Chacon theartists whose music has inspired us for years, and whose presence feels like a dream come true. Joining them are two exciting voices from the Baltic contemporary jazz scene: Riga-based instrumental trio EKLEKTIKA (LV) and Lithuanian experimental jazz trio Duck Saved Jones (LT), each bringing their own adventurous approach to improvisation, rhythm and sound. John Carroll Kirby Though Kirby’s background is steeped in jazz, his signature sound blends genres and styles. A sought-after collaborator, he's worked with the likes of Miley Cyrus, Frank Ocean, Harry Styles, and Solange. Kirby earned a Song of the Year Grammy nomination in 2023 for his contribution to Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit.” Since 2020, he’s focused on his vibrant solo career—releasing eight LPs and earning two Libera Award nominations for Jazz Album of the Year. His work has received praise from Pitchfork, The Fader, and the Los Angeles Times. As a film composer, Kirby scored the soundtrack for Cryptozoo, which received the NEXT Innovator Award at Sundance. He also composed the score for The Luckiest Man in America, starring Paul Walter Hauser and Walton Goggins. Most recently, his music provided the soundtrack to the Oscar-nominated short film Retirement Plan. Eddie Chacon Eddie Chacon is an American singer, songwriter and recording artist whose recent work has established a distinctive space between soul, R&B, jazz and understated psychedelia. First known to a wider audience through the duo Charles & Eddie, Chacon returned to music in 2020 through a collaboration with John Carroll Kirby, opening a new and deeply personal creative chapter. Since then, he has developed a refined, atmospheric sound built on warm analogue textures, spacious arrangements and his unmistakably intimate vocal delivery. His albums Pleasure, Joy and Happiness and Sundown were followed by 2025’s Lay Low, made with Nick Hakim. Across these records, Chacon explores love, solitude, memory and the passage of time with remarkable restraint and emotional clarity. Elegant, unhurried and quietly adventurous, his music feels both timeless and entirely contemporary. For Daydream Jazz, Eddie Chacon will perform with The Zenmenn- our good friends and true dreamers, whose warm, exploratory sound makes this collaboration feel especially close to the spirit of the festival. [https://www.instagram.com/eddie_chacon_/](https://www.instagram.com/eddie_chacon_/) EKLEKTIKAis an instrumental trio from Riga featuring drums, saxophone and clarinet. Their distinctive sound blends jazz, funk and fusion with progressive rock, Eastern influences, minimalism and psychedelia, expanded through electronics and additional instrumentation. Their self-produced debut album Encounters (2024) earned multiple nominations at Latvia’s 2026 music awards, establishing the trio as an adventurous new voice in the local contemporary jazz scene. Duck Saved Jones is a Lithuanian experimental jazz trio operating in the fertile space between improvisation, groove and electronics. Built around keys, bass and drums, their music folds hip hop, R&B, lo-fi textures and dance-floor pulse into a restless jazz language - urban, atmospheric and constantly in motion. Rather than settling into fixed forms, the trio lets each performance breathe, shift and react to the room. [https://www.instagram.com/duck_saved_jones_/](https://www.instagram.com/duck_saved_jones_/) John Carroll Kirby Eddie Chacon Eklektika