Estival Jazz (also Lugano Estival Jazz) is an annual music festival that takes place in summer in the Swiss city of Lugano in the canton of Ticino. It is an open-air and free of charge festival. [1] [2]
The event, which is usually spread over a total of three days, takes place in Lugano and is dedicated to jazz with all its styles. In recent years, the musical spectrum has also been expanded to include world music. Depending on the year, the event includes between 20 and 30 free open-air concerts with numerous well-known international musicians.
The foundation for Estival Jazz, first performed in 1979, was laid in 1977 with the concert appearance of Archie Shepp together with Mal Waldron, Wilbur Little and Clifford Jarvis. A concert series followed the following year with performances by Elvin Jones, Gary Burton, Don Cherry, Abdullah Ibrahim and Mal Waldron. In 1979 the Estival Jazz was launched, which developed into the largest jazz event in Europe. The concert series has around 250,000 visitors a year and is broadcast live by the Ticino television station RSI live.
Among the most notable of the approximately 300 artists who have performed since the inaugural Estival Jazz are Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Keith Jarrett, Ray Charles, Bobby McFerrin, Herbie Hancock, B. B. King, Pat Metheny Trio, Friedrich Gulda, Tito Puente, Chick Corea, The Manhattan Transfer, Take 6, Gato Barbieri, Maynard Ferguson, Cesária Évora, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Carla Bley, Barbara Hendricks, Wynton Marsalis, Cheb Mami, Noa, Oscar D'León, Jon Hendricks, Paco de Lucía, Van Morrison, Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal, Cheb Khaled, Jethro Tull, Gianna Nannini, Roger Hodgson, Chucho Valdés, Level 42, Candy Dulfer, Snarky Puppy, Manu Dibango, Hugh Masekela, Richard Bona, Marcus Miller, and Lokua Kanza.
Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader. Primarily an alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and flautist, Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence during the same era. His use of the bass clarinet helped to establish the unconventional instrument within jazz. Dolphy extended the vocabulary and boundaries of the alto saxophone, and was among the earliest significant jazz flute soloists.
The Festival international de Jazz de Montréal is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz festival. Every year it features roughly 3,000 artists from 30-odd countries, more than 650 concerts, and welcomes over 2 million visitors as well as 300 accredited journalists. The festival takes place at 20 different stages, which include free outdoor stages and indoor concert halls.
Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He started playing professionally in New York in 1950, after graduating from college. In the following dozen years or so Waldron led his own bands and played for those led by Charles Mingus, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, and Eric Dolphy, among others. During Waldron's period as house pianist for Prestige Records in the late 1950s, he appeared on dozens of albums and composed for many of them, including writing his most famous song, "Soul Eyes", for Coltrane. Waldron was often an accompanist for vocalists, and was Billie Holiday's regular accompanist from April 1957 until her death in July 1959.
Pori Jazz is a large international jazz festival, held annually during the month of July in the coastal city of Pori, Finland. It is one of the oldest and best known jazz festivals in Europe, having been arranged every year since 1966.
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of visitors to New Orleans each year. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation Inc., as it is officially named, was established in 1970 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (NPO). The Foundation is the original organizer of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell Oil Company, a corporate financial sponsor. The Foundation was established primarily to redistribute the funds generated by Jazz Fest into the local community. As an NPO, their mission further states that the Foundation "promotes, preserves, perpetuates and encourages the music, culture and heritage of communities in Louisiana through festivals, programs and other cultural, educational, civic and economic activities". The founders of the organization included pianist and promoter George Wein, producer Quint Davis and the late Allison Miner.
Johnny Mbizo Dyani was a South African jazz double bassist, vocalist and pianist, who, in addition to being a key member of The Blue Notes, played with such international musicians as Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, David Murray, Finnish guitar player Jukka Syrenius, Pierre Dørge, Peter Brötzmann, Mal Waldron, fellow South African Dollar Brand, and Leo Smith, among many other prominent players.
Jim Gilbert Pepper II was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and singer of Kaw and Muscogee heritage.
Marion Brown was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, writer, visual artist, and ethnomusicologist. He was a member of the avant-garde jazz scene in New York City during the 1960s, playing alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai. He performed on Coltrane's landmark 1965 album Ascension. AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow described him as "one of the brightest and most lyrical voices of the 1960s avant-garde."
Dee Dee Bridgewater is an American jazz singer and actress. She is a three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award-winning stage actress. For 23 years, she was the host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater. She is a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The Chicago Jazz Festival is an admission-free, four-day annual jazz festival in Chicago's Millennium Park. It is run by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and programmed with the assistance of Jazz Institute of Chicago during Labor Day weekend, integrating international and local artists playing many forms of jazz music.
Ricky Ford is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.
David Friesen is an American jazz bassist. He plays double bass and electric upright bass.
Pheeroan akLaff is an American jazz drummer and percussionist. He began playing in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan and Ann Arbor, with R & B keyboardist Travis Biggs, funk keyboardist Nimrod “The Grinder” Lumpkin, The Ebony Set and The Last Days. He moved to New Haven, Connecticut, and formed a group with saxophonist/flautist/percussionist Dwight Andrews. He debuted with saxophonist Bill Barron in 1975, followed by a tenure in Leo Smith's ‘New Dalta Ahkri’ (1977-1979).
Makaya Ntshoko was a South African drummer.
Mawazine is a Moroccan International music festival held annually in Rabat, Morocco, featuring many international and local music artists. The festival is presided over by Mounir Majidi, the personal secretary of the Moroccan King Mohammed VI and founder and president of Maroc Culture, the cultural foundation that organizes Mawazine and other events.
Allen Blairman was an American jazz drummer best known for his performing and recording with Albert Ayler and Mal Waldron.
Palatia jazz is a jazz festival in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It has been held annually in August since 1997. The concerts take place at castles, churches, monasteries and historic parks near Kaiserslautern, Heidelberg and Mannheim in the Palatinate of southwestern Germany.
The Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival is a 12-day festival of South Indian classical music and dance in Cleveland, Ohio, and is held each year around Easter weekend. The festival is a celebration in honor of Tyagaraja, the famous composer of Carnatic music, who composed thousands of devotional compositions, most in Telugu and Sanskrit language. The festival began in 1978, and has since grown to become the largest South Indian classical music and dance festival outside of India. The festival draws its audience from all over the United States, as well as from Canada and other parts of the world.
Matteo Mancuso is an Italian jazz and rock guitarist and composer from Palermo, Sicily. Mancuso is known for adapting a quasi-flamenco/classical right-hand technique to the electric guitar and improvised solos without the use of a pick. Steve Vai, Al Di Meola, Joe Bonamassa and others have publicly praised him, with Vai calling him "the future" of electric guitar.
The Ticino Musica Festival is an international classical music festival that takes place every year from the 18th to the 31st July in Ticino, in the southern Switzerland. It includes masterclasses, the International Opera Studio "Silvio Varviso", concerts and other events.