This weekend Klaipeda’s new Mayor, Vytautats Grubliauskas, greeted guests from Lithuania’s international community with jazz trumpet virtuosity, also singing Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a wonderful World’ very convincingly.

'The Singing Mayor' has introduced a completely new and refreshing sound into Lithuania's political life. A human face with a good ability to communicate with the audience through song and music. This bodes well and should be a source of inspiration for many!

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton became the world's most famous ‘jazz politician’, when he already during the election campaign in 1992 hit new tunes for U.S. politics, playing his tenor saxophone in a very convincing manner.

Lithuania has its own jazz politician through Klaipeda's newly elected mayor, VytautasGrubliauskas, who sings  and plays trumpet in a top professional manner, latest for a large group from Lithuania's international community at an event in Klaipeda this weekend, when members of the British Chamber of Commerce in Lithuania took the road to the coast to a joint programme with the coastal city's international business organization.

The truth is that Mayor Grubliauskas for many years was one of Western Lithuania’s leading jazz musicians, known as the principal soloist of the Doudi Jazz Band from Klaipeda, famous for his trumpet playing and singing with a raspy voice that gave him the nickname ‘Lithuanian’s Louis Armstrong’. For many years Vytautas Grubliauskas shared his time and energy between performing and wide-ranging public activities, as a long-time president of the Klaipėda Jazz Club, Associate Professor and Head of the Jazz Department at the Klaipėda University, artistic and executive director of the Klaipėda Jazz Festival (now as a patron), and finally as a member of Seimas (Lithuania’s parliament) before winning the latest municipal elections and taking the post as Mayor of Klaipeda last month.

I have the suspicion that Mr. Grubliauskas will become internationally known as 'Lithuania’s Singing Mayor', after he introduced a completely new and refreshing sound into Lithuania's political life to the country’s international community this weekend. A human face with a good ability to community with the audience through song and music. This bodes well and should be a source of inspiration for many!

VilNews will revert with a comprehensive coverage of Klaipeda later in June, including an interview with the new Mayor, where we will be discussing politics, society, business, energy, tourism, culture and new visions for the coastal city and the region it is the capital for.

And for all of you who love jazz, please note that Klaipeda’s world famous Jazz Festival takes place the weekend of 3 – 5 June. If you are lucky also you may then be able to listen to ‘Lithuania’s Singing Mayor’!

Read more about the Jazz Festival at http://www.jazz.lt/festival/index.php?lang_id=2

A boat trip is a must when you visit Klaipeda. So also when members of the British Chamber of Commerce in Lithuania this weekend took the road to the coast for a joint programme with the coastal city's international business organization.