This year's edition of the Malta Jazz Festival will open on Monday with a performance by the Stjepko Gut Quintet and the launch of a photographic exhibition by Joe P. Smith. 

Events will kick off at The Phoenicia, the festival's main partner, at 8.30pm, with the performance in the hotel's gardens and Mr Smith's exhibition Jazz Island in The Phoenicia's Palm Court Lounge. 

Serbian jazz trumpeter Stjepko Gut studied jazz trumpet at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern, Switzerland, and at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. As a conductor, he won first place in the first Austrian Big Band Competition. He played in the orchestra of Radio Novi Sad, was a member of the band of Woody Herman, the RTB Big Band and performed with the Lionel Hampton All Stars in the early 1980's.

Stjepko is a member of the faculty at the Graz Institute for Jazz and a Guest Professor at the Jazz Department of Belgrade Music Academy. He has conducted Workshops and Masterclasses at numerous universities around the world and formed part of the group Trumpet Jazz Summit in Marsiac, France with Clark Terry, Benny Bailey, Jon Faddis, Wynton Marsalis, Terrell Stafford, Roy Hargrove and Nicholas Payton.

Photographer Joe P. Smith.

The trumpeter has played with some of the world's greatest jazz musicians including Clark Terry, Louie Bellson, Lionel Hampton, Alvin Queen, Melissa Stott, Charly Antolini and Mark Murphy, amongst others. He also made international tours, performances and recordings with Vince Benedetti, Sal Nistico, Clark Terry, Wild Bill Davis, Horace Parlan, Mel Lewis, Kenny Washington, and Dusko Gojkovic. Stjepko plays at festivals and clubs all over the world.

Joe Smith has been following the Malta Jazz Festival since the very beginning, photographing the greats of Jazz on his own terms. Smith is no stranger to an international audience, having recently exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

For jazz aficionados, Joe’s selection at The Phoenicia Jazz Island retrospective is a who’s who of the international jazz scene; Ambrose Akinmusire, Avishai Cohen, Brian Blade, Michel Camilo, Danilo Perez, Dave Holland, Eric Harland, Mark Guuiliana, Joe Sanders, Marcus Roberts, Lincoln Goynes, Richard Bona, Esperanza Spalding and Tom Harell are just some of the performers selected in the exhibition.

Suspended in time, the word for every image is evocative, giving a new perspective on the jazz greats that have performed at the Malta Jazz Festival throughout the years.

Following previous summer exhibitions at The Phoenicia by Jeni Caruana and Charles ‘City’ Gatt, also to coincide with the Malta Jazz Festival, this exhibition by Joe Smith at the iconic property is an outstanding example of Maltese artistic talent, and as the featured visual artist for European City of Culture the hotel could not have made a better choice. 'Jazz Island' is open to the public from July 16 until Monday 21.

For further information, visit The Phoenicia website, its Facebook page or call 2122 5241.