Comunicato stampa
In a sort of virtuoso playback, the Padova Jazz Festival 2021 almost completely recovers the concerts of the 2020 edition, which was completely canceled due to the lockdown. And to them he adds numerous innovations, looking to the future. On stage from 10 to 21 November, the twenty-third edition of the Paduan festival will be a hymn to Europe, with an artistic cast from Italy, Sweden, Germany, Russia, as well as a notable representation of American musicians who have made Europe their second home. Spotlight, among others, on David Murray, Enrico Rava with Fred Hersch and on an exceptional presence like that of Charles Lloyd.
The Padova Jazz Festival is organized by the Miles Cultural Association chaired by Gabriella Piccolo Casiraghi, with the contribution of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Municipality of Padova, the support of the Ministry of Culture and the collaboration of the Student Art Center of the University of Padua, a historic city association active since the XNUMXs.
Italy & USA: comparison between big names
Two of the evenings hosted in the Sala dei Giganti (Palazzo del Liviano) will be dedicated to admirers of great jazz firmly anchored to the roots of the Afro-American tradition. On November 13, two phenomenal pianists such as Dado Moroni and Danny Grissett will compete on the repertoire of Charlie Parker (the evening also includes an introductory set with a solo by the vibraphonist Pasquale Mirra). On the 17th, the American saxophonist David Murray will present himself at the head of a trio with an ideal composition to enhance his stylistic path, which started from free and then ended up with a more 'ecumenical' jazz between mainstream, world music, African references (also here a initial set, with winds by Marco Colonna and bass by Silvia Bolognesi).
The evenings at the Verdi Theater will be inaugurated, on the 18th, by the only Italian date of the saxophonist Charles Lloyd. A legend of sixties jazz, Lloyd is one of the soloists with the most intense expressive charge among those in business: the spiritual vibrations that radiate from his incandescent post-bop are proof of this.
Also at the Verdi Theater, on the 19th there will be a new face to face between American and Italian jazz, with the meeting between the trumpeter Enrico Rava and the pianist Fred Hersch, a duo that is one of the most poetic moments of the current jazz scene .
Jazz on the loose
The evenings with the great interpreters of jazz in the tradition will be accompanied by appointments with indomitable, libertarian jazz, decidedly allergic to pre-established schemes, entrusted to the care of the Art Center of the University of Padua. At the Sala dei Giganti, the Swedish Angles 7 will be listened to, demonstrating their ability to steer with unprecedented dexterity between expressive opposites (November 10, opening concert of the festival); the pianist Fabrizio Puglisi with his Guantanamo, a group dedicated to the great rhythmic heritage of the Afro-Cuban tradition, revisited with a touch of acid psychedelia (the 11th, preceded by the mystical sounds of a solo by the saxophonist Dimitri Grechi Espinoza); the Monk's Casino, a German quintet in which the presence of the pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach stands out, with a musical menu of all Monk, made frenetic and urgent by the band's free propensity (the 15th, with a set of the double bass player Federica Michisanti in duo with the saxophonist Errico De Fabritiis at the opening of the evening).
The most advanced music will also be granted the honor of the main city stage, that of the Verdi, where on the 20th the Fire! CBA Orchestra. The concert, the result of an original production by the Centro d'Arte in collaboration with Padova Jazz Festival and the University of Padova, will be the first of this formation, a team of fifteen instrumentalists involving Scandinavian artists (led by the Fire! trio, which functions as the nucleus of the enlarged ensemble) and a group of 'reckless' Italian musicians.
Jazz at Caffè Pedrocchi
Inevitable, at the Padova Jazz Festival, are the evenings in jazz club style. And Caffè Pedrocchi is confirmed again this year as a privileged venue for these informal concerts, in which there is no stage barrier between artists and the public. Art café by day, the historic city center venue will turn into a live music club for three evenings: on November 12 with singer-songwriter Lucy Woodward, who with her band offers a personal R&B blend with a very marked groove and tinged with jazz ; on the 14th with the Expanding Trio by pianist Greg Burk, advocate of a modernism that maintains a deep relationship with tradition; on the 16th with saxophonist Maurizio Giammarco, whose quintet Halfplugged Syncotribe winks at the crossover between classic and modern.
An epilogue at the tip of your fingers
The closing concert of the festival, on November 21 at the Church of San Gaetano, will be under the sign of intimacy and chiaroscuro, with the duo formed by the guitarist Ermanno Maria Signorelli and the double bass player Ares Tavolazzi.
All-round jazz life
As has become tradition, the main concerts of the Padova Jazz Festival will be accompanied by the Jazz @ Bar appointments, which bring live music to numerous clubs in the center and in the outskirts.
Finally, various appointments confirm the profound link between the festival's concert program and the visual arts, essential as historical documentation but also capable of defining the aesthetics of jazz: the photographic exhibitions dedicated to the shots of Carlo Verri (Scuderie di Palazzo Moroni, from 5 to November 30) and Giuseppe Craca (Caffè Pedrocchi, from 9 to 28); the presentation of a photographic book by Alessandra Freguja (Caffè Pedrocchi, 14).
