JAZZ FESTIVAL, FEATURING GREAT NAMES

Over three days, from 14th to 16th November, Ancona will be hosting the sixth edition of its Jazz Festival, scheduled to end with Dianne Reeves’ performance.

“The festival - states Massimo Tarabelli, chairman of the SpazioMusica association that organises AnconaJazzFestival, - follows a line that joins the originality of the pieces played with the rediscovery of historic musicians and the performance by at least one famous jazz figure. Jazz represents a musical culture whose fundamental values should be discovered, and whose identity should be protected. Based on our knowledge of the recording material produced in Europe and Overseas, we do not follow, as so many summer festivals do, the passing trends of jazz within world music, in fusion or in contemporary music. We do not follow the laws of the market and do not passively accept proposals by so many international managers who nonetheless recognise in us a high level of quality in terms of programme and audience”

Ancona is, in short, a place of discovery.

“That’s right. A number of musicians started off in Ancona and went on to gain recognition all over Italy. We are quite proud of this. In twenty-four years of activity, Spazio Musica has in fact organised the first Italian concert by Wynton Marsali who was still under twenty years of age and played with other groups, and is now a worldwide star. But also musicians emarginated from the market due to their age, such as Jimmy Scott two years ago, or Deena De Rose, a singer who is gaining international renown at an incredible pace”.

Let us discuss the programme for this edition of AnconaJazzFestival.

“We heard a wonderful record of two fifty-year-old French guitarists, Boulou and Elios Ferré, two gypsy brothers who have never been to Italy but who have made a lot of records in France. We contacted them by phone immediately, and in two days we had arranged a date. From the Ferré brothers, we set out with the idea of creating an open contrast with an opposing style on the same night, and so we thought of swing on an American guitar by Peter Bernstein. Both events, not on tour, are national exclusives”.

This is our meeting with the history of jazz.

“For the second evening, we focused on classic jazz, the more historically acclaimed and more important genre, which the majority of festivals does not offer because they follow trends. The American Mike LeDonne trio (piano, double-bass, drums) that rarely makes an appearance in Italy, followed by the Charles McPherson quartet, led by a great figure who has written the history of jazz, playing with Charles Mingus’s groups for almost ten years, and who was one of the innovators of sax alto. Although he is almost sixty, we are presenting him for the first time in Italy with his quartet: another novelty”.

Last but not least, the third evening, featuring great names.

“While the first two evenings are scheduled to take place at the Sperimentale Theatre, the third will be hosted at Le Muse with a prologue at the Foyer held by Jerry Bergonzi, a fifty-year-old sax player who has played with Dee Brubeck and who, returning to classic jazz, creates a continuum with the second evening. And then, in the main hall of Le Muse, the stage will be set for a great name, of international renown, i.e. Dianne Reeves. The suave-voiced singer is only playing two dates in Italy, the first in Ancona and the second in Rome. A highly prestigious event, which should fill all 1057 seats at Le Muse”.

Your audience.

“We realise that our programme is by now recognisable on a national scale and beyond. The audience comes to our concerts blindly because they trust in our choices; they know they will hear good music. Ancona is now an important location, and we have recognition from managers all over the world who find their answers here, and an audience to suit. We take this as a compliment. And as for the audience that comes from all over Italy, we get information requests from as far afield as Norway. It is a prestige that allows us to contact musicians of absolute standing such as Brad Mehldau (scheduled for April 2003, editor’s notes) and the elusive Keith Jarreth (July 2003, editor’s notes) who was extraordinarily difficult to contact”.

(For the entire jazz season in Ancona, read the article in the previous issue of Musemagazine)