GIVE EVERYONE HIS JAZZ

A season involving famous artists and national opening nights, with Jarrett and the gospel

The association Spaziomusica has been organising an excellent jazz festival in Ancona, involving famous artists like Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Stan Gentz, Lionel Hampton, Chet Baker, Art Blakey, Art Pepper and the main Italian musicians for twenty-four years now.

The new jazz season confirms the quality of the choices made in the past years. Various venues of the city will be involved although the most important events will be on stage at Muse where Brad Mehldau and the famous Keith Jarrett will perform between April and July.

The quartet of Al Foster, one of the most famous percussion players of the Seventies, will perform in the “historic” hall of Hotel Emilia. He was discovered by Miles Davis who immediately included him in his group. Al Foster is a sensitive, powerful and effective artist and his timing is as hard as concrete. He is the right introduction to the traditional November festival.

The Sixth Ancona Jazz Festival looks beyond the market logic, towards the unusual experiences of the Afro-American music.

During the opening night at the Experimental theatre (14^th November) the Boulou and Elios Ferré brothers, famous French gypsy guitarists, will perform with the elegant pianist Alain Jean-Marie, followed by the two most astonishing New York jazzmen (a European exclusive): the tenor sax  Eric Alexander  and the guitarist Peter Bernstein.

During the second evening, the encyclopaedic pianist Mike LeDonne, of the  Bernstein quintet, will perform in a trio with John Webber playing double-bass and Joe Farnsworth, playing drums. They will be followed by a top sax who has marked the history of the jazz, Charles McPherson,  the pillar of Charles Mingus’s groups in the Sixties, in Italy for the first time.

With the swing of one of the most famous white tenor saxes, Jerry Bergonzi, and the quartet of the double-bass player Dave Santoro, the Festival will arrive at the small theatre of Le Muse and, on 16^th November, the powerful and amber voice of Dianne Reeves  will be in the main hall of the Massimo.

After the Festival, the jazz will continue in the main hall of Le Muse on 27^th December, with the gospel singer Bobby Jones and a 20-member choir. On 2^nd January  Ray Gelato and his Giants will wish everybody a “Happy New Year” in the Fifties’ style.

Finally, in April, the trio of the young pianist Brad Mehldau, the most promising student of the refined  Keith Jarrett, who will be on stage at Le Muse with Jack DeJohnette and Gary Peacock in July.