Jazz keeps the continent together: The Südtirol Jazzfestival Alto Adige celebrates its 40th birthday with selected highlights from the past ten years’ country focuses.
In 1982, the Trio Codona with Don Cherry, Collin Walcott and Nana Vasconcelos opened the Bolzano Jazz Summer, which later became the Südtirol Jazzfestival Alto Adige. The three musicians at that time built bridges between the most diverse musical cultures and continents with such poetry and playfulness, as if there had never been anything dividing them. The festival has continued to preserve this cosmopolitan and experimental spirit to these days. Four decades later, the Südtirol Jazzfestival Alto Adige will be presenting highlights from the country focuses of the past ten years. For this exclusive best-of program, the festival has invited great bands and soloists from many European countries. From June 24 to July 3, the jazz avant-garde of an entire continent will perform in South Tyrol. This year’s program includes 58 concerts at over 30 venues. With 16 concerts, the Kapuzinerpark in Bolzano will once again become the most important jazz location of the entire region.
Back in 2012, the Südtirol Jazzfestival Alto Adige adopted specific country focuses, starting with a journey through the Swiss jazz landscape. In 2013, the festival continued its exploration by presenting unorthodox bands of the two musician collectives Tumult (The Netherlands) and COAX (France). In 2014, extraordinary French musicians led a musical “Tour de France”, and in 2015, the British jazz scene presented its avant-garde. In 2016, Austria's and Italy's emerging jazz scene came together in South Tyrol, while in 2017, the festival brought together contemporary jazz from Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. In 2018 it was the turn of Scandinavia and in 2019 of the Iberian Peninsula. Last year’s festival program followed the Danube's course through southeastern Europe, exploring jazz scenes who, rather than simply drifting downstream, swim against the current.
With this programming approach and the careful selection of unusual concert venues, the Südtirol Jazzfestival Alto Adige positioned itself off the beaten track and as a showcase for innovative and stylistically boundless music. Soloists from the past ten years, whose projects have shaped the country focuses or who were invited as "Artist in Residence", will be back this summer. The opening on June 24 in Bolzano's Kapuziner Park will definitely be an all-stars show. On this evening - for the first time ever - London-based South Tyrolean bassist Ruth Goller, British saxophonist Soweto Kinch, French singer Leila Martial, Dutch guitarist Reinier Baas, U.S.-born Italian saxophonist Dan Kinzelman, Slovenian cellist Kristijan Krajnčan and Finnish saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen will all perform together. European experimental jazz musicians will meet in South Tyrol and create new sounds together. This is also a message of peace, which is especially valuable and important in the present times.
More info: http://www.suedtiroljazzfestival.com/
