Jazz concerts for adults։ When my generation has passed, the spaces for jazz music will shrink even further։ Video, Photos

The week night features two quartets in succession, Lux by and with Myra Melford and Rob Mazurek with Fabrizio Puglisi, Chad Taylor and Ingebrigt Haken Flaten.

Although tiredness is felt, the two performances are of absolute value.

Rob Mazurek quartet

The Melford group begins, with Allison Miller on drums, Scott Colley on double bass and Dayna Stephens on saxophones, and immediately you can feel the geometry and compactness that distinguish the compositions of the two musicians. Allison is overflowing, Colley is magnetic, Melford is the perfect director while Stephens is delegated the task of lead voice. Great set.

Mazurek and Taylor

The Mazurek quartet is also in great shape in the evening, the leader makes limited use of the usual electronics to a few bars and gives us an acoustic concert of rare beauty and significance, with long solos on the trumpet. Puglisi proves to be the ideal partner and the rhythm section is simply monstrous.

The last day of the festival offers a rich array of free concerts in the morning. To get the ball rolling while it’s hot, we head to an old brewery, still in operation, located in a building dating back to 1400. The star is always her, Zoh Amba, the real star of this edition of the festival. She appears in a duo, with double bass player Nick Dunston and, as I have learned by now, delivers a set of rare emotional and sonic power.

The afternoon/evening sees four more concerts scheduled. The first is for the 18 elements of Ralph Mothwurf’s orchestra, young Austrian musicians who perform scores and arrangements by the leader. Fresh and well played.

The meeting between Michiyo Yagi and Hamid Drake unfortunately isn’t centered and is a waste of time. The two look for each other but only at the end do they find partial common ground. Too different musical cultures of origin, both fly but on different levels and fail to establish a lasting contact.

Michiyo Yagi and Hamid Drake

Zoh Amba again, this time in a trio, the same as the last album, Bhakti, with the acrobatic Micah Thomas on piano and Chris Corsaro on drums. We go from fiery tones to thoughtful moments in a flash, with a very dense dialogue without breath.

Bhakti

The worthy closing of the festival is entrusted to the new quintet of Dave Douglas. New themes, very beautiful, new companions of adventure, among which Joey Baron, the usual leader on drums, and the powerful voice of James Brandon Lewis on tenor stand out. A little intimidated, and perhaps initially penalized by incorrect amplification, Marta Warelis gradually recovered well supported by the agile Nick Dunston on double bass. A powerful and refined concert that preludes the release of the new album.

Dave Douglas quintet

At the exit of the Auditorium the organizers, staff and volunteers form a long double line that welcomes the fans with a long applause. A beautiful moment.

Some final conclusions: the festival has a long history, much has changed since the beginning, but not the coherence and the spirit of innovation and research. No names taken from pop or rock with the usual excuse of expanding the audience. There is no need.

The public responded by decreeing a sold out at every concert, even the free ones scattered around the town and the various locations. There was also a large female participation, equally distributed throughout.

The ideas of involving the population with free concerts of different genres in the park along the river were very successful, as were the continuous flash mobs and the expertly distributed food street.

Let’s get to the sore points: if it is true that the public responded with continuous sold outs, it is unfortunately also true that the vast majority is of retirement age or well beyond. When my generation has passed, the spaces for jazz music will shrink even further, and it is better not to imagine how.

Ironically paraphrasing the famous phrase by Alessandro Baricco, as often quoted as it is profoundly wrong, “if you don’t know what it is, then applaud”, I note that the audience has given more or less warm applause in an egalitarian manner both to the most successful concerts, the vast majority, and to the few disappointing ones. It is difficult to understand whether this is a matter of a priori generosity or a lack of understanding of what happened.