The Roma Jazz Festival returns to Rome from November 1st

“Today’s jazz, and even more so that of tomorrow, is the fruit of post-global creativity. Its evolution will no longer depend only on the scene of New York, Los Angeles, London or Berlin but on that of Lima, Abidjan or Baku. From its diffusion through social platforms and new technologies, including artificial intelligence. This will lead to total hybridization.” With these words the artistic director Mario Ciampà introduces Hybrid, the guiding concept that runs through the 48th edition of the Roma Jazz Festival, ready to enliven the Capital from 1st to 23rd November with 23 concerts in the “Ennio Morricone” Auditorium Parco della Musica, the Casa del jazz and the Monk, a photographic exhibition and a series of events dedicated to the little ones who this year expands even further, reaching the very early childhood age group.
Produced by the IMF Foundation in co-production with the Musica per Roma Foundation, the Roma Jazz Festival 2024 is created with the contribution of the MIC – Ministry of Culture.

Close to half a century of life, the Roma Jazz Festival once again confirms itself as one of the densest and liveliest events on the international level, without ever ceasing to question the infinite evolutions of a genre that seems to know no boundaries today more than ever. As the musician Paolo Damiani states “today the question: ‘will it be jazz?’ seems most out of place”

Infinite hybridizations – be they expressive, stylistic, cultural or geographical – that run through the program, whose opening on November 1st is significantly entrusted to the American saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, ready to amaze the festival audience with that explosive fusion of jazz, R ‘N’B and funk that comes out of her latest album, Phoenix: a great homage to her New York resurrected from the pandemic like a Phoenix but also to her own “resurrection”, after having miraculously escaped a road accident. A double metaphor that is also intended to be a hope regarding the catastrophe that is impacting the current world.

As always, the festival has no shortage of big names, those who need no introduction. This is the case of Pat Metheny, icon par excellence of fusion guitar, who on November 4th at the Roma Jazz Festival will perform an extraordinary concert, appearing on stage alone to present some songs from his latest album MoonDial, retrace his most famous compositions for acoustic guitar and abandon himself to an overwhelming river of improvisation in which the American guitarist will push his technical skills to the limit. Another great protagonist of this edition, the American saxophonist Bill Evans who after 30 years of solo career today never stops innovating by creating new relationships with musicians of different backgrounds.

L’November 11th he arrives at the Roma Jazz Festival 2024 with a stellar lineup, The VansBand All Stars, in which the great Gary Husband and Felix Pastorius (son of the legend Jaco) stand out. Among the giants of the world scene there are also the British double bass player Dave Holland who returns to the Festival on 19 November with Crosscurrents Trio formationthat is, in the company of percussionist Zakir Hussain and saxophonist Chris Potter, connecting jazz with Indian music; and the American percussionist with an incredible career, long-time drummer of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the standard-bearer of musical (and cultural) Pan-Africanism Famoudou Don Moye, on November 16th with the Odyssey&Legacy Trio formation. Decidedly younger but already a brilliant star on the international scene is the saxophonist James Brandon Lewis. 41 years old, from Buffalo, New York, with a gospel background and Christian education, Lewis manages to find the perfect balance between spiritual intensity and the freedom of improvisation. Leading the Red Lily Quintet, he will perform on November 22nd, inspired by the unforgettable gospel star Mahalia Jackson, to whom he dedicated his latest album For Mahalia, With Love.

Moved by unstoppable curiosity and strong sensitivity, the Roma Jazz Festival continues to turn its gaze towards “other” geographies compared to those consolidated in the jazz field. Thus within the programming of the 48th edition there is ample space for musicians from Azerbaijan, Syria, the Czech Republic and Norway. From Baku, for example, comes the pianist and composer Isfar Sarabski who returns to the festival in a quartet on November 23rd after having enchanted the Capitoline audience in 2022. His is an impressionist jazz full of references to the Azerbaijani folklore tradition but at the same time marked by minimalism and open to electronic experiments, thanks also to the various collaborations with some of the protagonists of the clubbing scene of his hometown. The award-winning pianist born in the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk Aeham Ahmad, who then fled the persecution of the ISIS militiamen to land, after a long trip to the Mediterranean, Europe. Since then he has released several albums, winning the International Beethoven Prize for human rights, peace, freedom, poverty reduction and inclusion and was awarded the Yorum Prize for his civil commitment, having never stopped in recent years to play for peace and freedom.

Which he will also do on November 22nd at the Roma Jazz Festival. The pianist and composer Nikól Boková is a leading figure on the Czech Republic scene and on November 21st she arrives at the festival in the quartet lineup to present her latest album Expedition, which puts jazz in dialogue with classical music, minimalism and pop music. The Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær, considered a pioneer of nu jazz, is instead a special guest, together with the extraordinary percussionist Michele Rabbiaon November 13th of (R)Evolution, a project entirely written by Alessandro Contini and Elisabetta Antonini and inspired by revolutionary figures, in various fields and in their own way, such as Fela Kuti with his political commitment, Salgado with his environmentalist one and Pina Bausch on the front of the radical transformations it has brought to contemporary dance. Moreover, as artistic director Mario Ciampà states “themes such as peace, gender equality, civil rights and inclusiveness they are returning to the center of jazz values, highlighting the role of female artists and the multidisciplinary approach, as a tool for emancipation and social redemption”.

As is now the tradition of the Roma Jazz Festival, there is a strong female protagonism within the programming. In addition to Lakecia Benjamin, Nikól Boková and Elisabetta Antonini, the 48th edition is marked by the presence of leading artists such as the singer Camilla Battaglia who on November 23 presents Elektra, a concert inspired by archetypal female characters still today linked to social stereotypes that hybridizes jazz with literature. Or like the Greek pianist and composer Tania Giannouli, at the Trio festival on November 21st to present her sounds, the fruit of multiple inspirations and characterized by an interdisciplinary approach, embracing an impressive range of styles in a creative and borderless fusion of the global reality of Today. The approach of a true star of Italian jazz like the pianist is also interdisciplinary Rita Marcotulli ready to accompany the festival audience on November 20th on a visionary journey through Caravaggio’s work which is, at the same time, a great homage to Italian art.

From jazz, electronic, classical, contemporary and the texts by Stefano Benni, Caraviaggianti is a real multimedia show that will leave spectators enchanted. Finally, the great personality of Nubya Garcia, saxophonist and composer but above all champion of the new English scene, who on November 10th will go on stage alone to play sax, drums, keyboards and bass in a vortex of jazz, R’N’B sounds , dub, ska and broken beat that surround his latest album Odyssey but also the previous Source, defined by the New York Times as “a broad jazz panorama with Afro-Caribbean influences, which contains the experiences of a lifetime in an hour of listening” .

On the nu jazz front in Italy the lights are certainly on the kaleidoscopic trio Tommaso Cappellato – Collettivo Imaginary, exponents of that wave that is strongly revitalizing the peninsula scene, bringing together jazz with 70s electronics, Piccioni’s soundtracks and Umiliani, Brazilian funk and rhythms, under the spiritual guidance of artists such as Hermeto Pascoal, Herbie Hancock and Azymuth. On November 10th they will present the compositions from their latest album Oltreoceano at the festival. Contamination is also the watchword of Murubutu, one of the absolute protagonists of the Italian hip-hop scene and creator of a particular and highly original form of rap in close dialogue with literature, poetry and songwriting that arises from his profession as a teacher of history and philosophy.

At the Roma Jazz Festival he will perform on November 21st together with the Moon Jazz Band thanks to which he recently revisited his hip hop repertoire in a jazz key.
Ample space is also dedicated to younger peopleboth on the artistic and public front. We start immediately on November 7th with the Orchestra Nazionale Jazz Giovani Talenti directed by Paolo Damiani, a Fondazione Musica per Roma production, created to enhance new emerging talents in the Italian jazz scene.

They are well 4 appointments reserved for childrenbetween 16 and 23 November: A piano like the sky for children aged 0 to 3 years, Jazzole stories and cuddles in a jazz key for children aged 3 to 8 years and Piano reading for children aged 4 to 10 years. On November 17th it will be the turn of The Jazz Orchestra I would like – L’Aquila directed by Pasquale Innarella, an extraordinary initiative that involves children and young people between 8 and 18 years old and stands out for an original approach that does not aim exclusively at artistic excellence but is transformed into an educational model aimed at promoting integration, mutual respect and overcoming inequalities. Inclusivity is then the concept behind BIO – Blind International Orchestra, made up of blind musicians between the ages of 12 and 65 of different nationalities and born from the vision and intuition of the composer and conductor Alfredo Santoloci. They will perform at the festival on November 17th in the company of the famous Argentine saxophonist Javier Girotto. 

November 23rdFurthermore, together with the concerts of Isfar Sarabski and Camilla Battaglia, the Roma Jazz Festival also hosts Nero a mezzo Experience, a great tribute to Pino Daniele performed, among others by those who knew him and accompanied him on his artistic journey: Gigi De Rienzo, Ernesto Vitolo, and Agostino Marangolo.

In the end, from 9 to 24 November, in the Art space of the Auditorium Parco della Musica – Ennio Morricone the collective photographic exhibition entitled Jazz and the energy of the smile created by AFIJ – Association of Italian Jazz Photographers will be set up while from 3 to 24 November at the Casa del Jazz Marcello Piras will talk his Detective stories, a series of investigations into some of the most particular figures in the history of jazz.