Barga Jazz 2010 is dedicated to Steve Swallow, a major character of contemporary jazz. Barga Jazz, directed by Giancarlo Rizzardi, is an international contest for jazz big band arrangements and compositions. It is a very important event during the Tuscan Summer, and in Italy, is one of the most interesting festivals for jazz lovers.
The competition is divided into four sections: one for arrangements, one for original compositions, one for emerging composers and one reserved for emerging bands. Each year a significant composer’s music is chosen and arranged for Jazz band by the competitors. The Barga Jazz band then performs the pieces under the direction of Bruno Tommaso along with the original compositions. Still in Barga, the groups participating in the performance section give concerts. After the concerts, the Enojazz session opens. In a Jazz club atmosphere, the musicians carry on playing and the public continue to drink and listen to good music into the late night.
Beside the contest, the Festival features the concerts of “Girando alla tonda/turn around”, which are held in places of particular interest, from a cultural or natural point of view, a kind of invitation to discover the Garfagnana area through quality music performances.
On Sunday the 22nd of August the historical centre of Barga will be invaded by more than 10 jazz bands: it’s Barga IN Jazz, the Jazz feast.
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.