BargaJazz, directed by Giancarlo Rizzardi, celebrates its 27th year this August, in Barga. Originating as an arrangement and composition contest for Jazz orchestras, over the years it has also come to include a number of accompanying side events.
As usual, the 2014 competition is divided into two sections: A) arrangements; B) original compositions. This year’s festival is dedicated to the work of Paolo Fresu, one of Italy’s most revered and well-known jazz musicians at home and abroad, who will perform in person, accompanied by the orchestra reinterpreting his pieces.
The Festival also includes the BargaJazz Contest, dedicated to up and coming bands with between 3 and 7 elements.
Applications are open until 14 July, and performances take place from 17 to 30 August, alternating with meetings and lessons with acclaimed teachers.
Details:
by car: from Lucca ss12 towards Abetone, then take ss445 road towards Castelnuovo Garfagnana until Fornaci di Barga, here follow the signs for Barga. Park outside the city wall.
Buses from Lucca.
0583724418, info@bargajazz.it
Barga Jazz was born in 1986 and its editions have been very important for the diffusion and knowledge of particularly significant composers in the history of Jazz music: from Charles Mingus to John Coltrane, from Bill Evans to Miles Davis, from Duke Ellington to Ella Fitzgerald. However, Barga Jazz has also been dedicated to less well known figures, in search of those experiences of contamination which this type of music, born among the Afroamericans in North America, has gone through with other musical traditions. For this reason, the theme for Barga Jazz 96 was based on the relationship between jazz and Latin America, and in ’98 was dedicated to the European composer Gorni Kramer. In 2000 and 2001 the protagonists of the contest were Enrico Rava and Gianluigi Troversi. The 2003 edition was dedicated to Lee Konitz, who played as soloist of the orchestra.
xxvii