Italian Jazz Days 2018
TwinsMusic Enterprises is proud to announce the 9th annual Italian Jazz Days Festival, an annual celebration of the Italian influence within the jazz community.
This year, the festival involves 33 jazz musicians performing at 6 different New York jazz clubs: Birdland, Smalls, Minton’s Playhouse, 2E Lounge at the Pierre Hotel, 55 Bar, and the American Legion. The Italian Jazz Days coincides with the celebration of Columbus Day in New York, an important event not only for the Italian and Italian-American communities but for many more. The month of October is considered the month of Italian American culture in New York, making it the perfect time to celebrate the huge and fundamental influences Italian Americans had and continue to have on jazz music. Thanks to the collaborations with the city of La Spezia, Italian Jazz Days is proud to host the winner of the Tiberio Nicola 2018 Award: pianist Simone Locarni, who will be performing at Two E Lounge. Additionally, this year, we are proud to include a new project called Young Jazz Book La Spezia meets New York. Thanks to SIAE’s generous contributions 15 young Italian jazz talents will be flown out from Italy to perform in the Italian Jazz Days series. Participating musicians will include Chiara Izzi, Pasquale Grasso, Giordano Carnevale, Rocco Traettino, Giacomo Tagliavia, Andrea Domenici, Matteo Prefumo, Eugenio Venneri, Francesco Alemanno, Emanuele Filippi, Elias Lapia, Pasquale Fiore, Fabrizio Sciacca, Francesco Ciniglio, Leonardo Corradi, Marco D’Orlando, Daniele Raimondi. These young talents will have the possibility to meet and perform with masters such as Antonio Ciacca, Marcello Pellitteri, Bruce Barth, Essiet Okon Essiet, Joe Lovano, Judi Silvano, Ari Roland, Taro Okamoto, Andy Farber, Luca Santaniello, Joseph Lepore, Darrell Green, Kevin Hays, Robert Jost, Greg Joseph. |
Note from the Artistic Director: Antonio Ciacca
|
The idea of a festival in New York during the month of Italian culture was born from my participation back in 2007 as a musician for the Columbus Day Parade.
I noticed the complete lack of any reference to jazz at the parade. If it’s true that melodrama, Neapolitan songs, Palestrina and Vivaldi were born in Italy then it is also true that the Italians contributed in decisive manners towards the development of jazz music. The festival’s main objective is to create a place of gathering between American and Italian-American masters, and the young Jazz talents coming from Italy: the musicians come to play and study with world-renown musicians to sharpen their skills. The success of an operation in this genre was consequential. If new collaborations, records, or tours are born then that means that we have done what a festival should do, which is create culture and enrich the musicians and the public of experience, knowledge, and human relationships. The story of great, long-forgotten Italian-American jazz musicians, their music and professional life experiences were rediscovered during the years. Thanks to the fundamental collaborations with the Italian Jazz festivals such as Calagonone Jazz Festival, Orsara Musica, Marigliano in Jazz, Capri in Jazz, BasiliJazz, La Spezia Jazz Festival and many others, this event gave Italian students the possibility to enroll in The New School, Beklee College, Juilliard, and City College. Joe Lovano, John Patitucci, Brian Pareschi, George Garzone, Joey DeFrancesco, Pat Bianchi, Dominick Farinacci, Frank Basile, Mike Carubia, Peter Van Nostrand, Paul Gill, Joseph Lepore and all the other great artists that have come to perform in the most prestigious jazz clubs and scenarios of the Big Apple today are a bit prouder of their Italian roots and so are we. |