Umbria 14th July Stefano Bollani, Chick Corea Freedom Band and Julian Lage

Chick Corea Freedom Band

Stefano Bollani
Tomorrows shows feature Nick Battsch's Ronin, Pat Metheny and Enrico Rava

Umbria 13th July Bobo Stenson, Joe Sample with Randy Crawford, Manhatten transfer and Louis Sclavis

Bobo Stenson

Anders Jormin

Joe Sample & Randy Crawford

Louis Sclavis Quintet


Tomorrow's shows feature Stefano Bollani, Chick Corea Freedom Band and Julian Lage

Umbria 12th July Mark Knopfler, Trio Reinhardt, Bobby Hutcherson & Cedar Walton

Tonights show features Mark Knopfler in the arena and around midnight at the Morlachi the great Bobby Hutcherson playing with the Cedar Walton trio.

But first in the beautiful oratorio Santa Cecilia we saw the great David Reinhardt (grandson of Django) playing with rhythm guitar and bass. A wonderful player in his grandfathers footsteps and a great band who played with great flair and no little humour too. They were joined by the bass players sister for two vocal numbers at the end - great stuff!

Mark Knopfler

Bobby Hutcherson and the Cedar Walton Trio

Tomorrow's shows feature Bobo Stenson, Joe Sample and Randy Crawford, Manhatten Transfer (again) and The Louis Sclavis Quintet.

Appologies for the stop start nature of the blog due to a severe lack of time and a very flaky wifi internet that is sometimes here and someti

Umbria Sunday 11th July Marcus Miller

The concert for us this evening featured Marcus Miller doing his Tutu Revisited 'The music of Miles Davis' show.

On trumpet Sean Jones was sensational, never trying to compete with the original and always playing it in his own way and did it beautifully.

Marcus was his effervescent self, again never hogging the show and playing some really groovy , thumping bass.

Tomorrow Mark Knopfler and Bobby Hutcherson with the Cedar Walton Trio

Umbria Jazz Festival Saturday 10th July Roy Hargrove

After a very long drive from our overnight stop near Parma (home of ham and cheese) we arrived in perugia in time to catch the end of the evening show in the main arena - a band called La Notte Della Taranta from Puglia. Literally the dance if the Tarantula - a frenetic music and dance folk based show - great entertainment !

The midnight show at the Morlacchi featured The Roy Hargrove Quintet - Roy was at his bouncy best and produced some sparkling music - bringing on stage some members of the New Orleans Marching band who do the parade through town twice a day. They ended up jamming at a local bar until 5am!

Diana Krall & Elvis Costello

Our last night at the Vienne Jazz Festival and two cracking shows to see. Opening the family affair - and as cool and calm as I have seen her was Diana Krall - she allowed us to photograph her from the pit (thank you!!!) - not like last time from the back of the antique theatre.

She played a very laid back set (there was no set list - 'I'll just play what I feel like') and the mood was very much in the calm and thoughtful Diana groove.

Diana played a long set and came back for a great encore which was much appreciated by the sold out crowd.

Next up was husband Elvis and the Sugarcanes - playing country blues/bluegrass music.

It sounded great from the bar

We are off to Italy in a few hours and my next report will come from the Umbria Jazz Festival in a couple of days - see you then!