Umbria Jazz Festival 15th July

So after three weeks at the festivals it was time to take a day off and have a look around our lovely surroundings. Perugia is an ancient town, the oldest part perched on top of a hill, with the newer parts spreading down and into the valley below.

With such a long history on every street and around each new corner you will find there is Roman or Etruscan architecture to greet you.

Away from festival time and without the extra crowds just here for the music, Perugia is a great place to relax and take in a still living history lesson.

There are dozens of super restaurants and cafe's to sit and watch the world go by and take in the Perugian way of life.

...and loads of viewing points to enjoy the rolling Umbrian hills, or just pretend to read the paper!



About 30 minutes in the car from Perugia is lake Trasimeno, the oldest and fourth largest lake in italy. Regular boat services take you from the lakeside villages to the island, Isola Maggiore, near the north shore of the lake. Here you can wander along the beach or climb to the church in the middle of the island. There are small cafe's and a selection of restaurants mostly serving fish, caught from the lake, which has been the life blood and history of this lake and it's surrounding towns.

There are several museums that document the lakes history on the island and in the surrounding lakeside towns, they are well worth visiting and inexpensive to look around.

Considering this is a very small island and a huge tourist attraction the costs here are exceptionally reasonable. The ferry costs 6 euros return or 12 euros for unlimited boat travel to and from the island to any of the other towns that offers a ferry service to the island.

This is a great day out and very relaxing after the hectic schedule of the festival, just be careful and take sun and fly protection, as this beautiful place has both in abundance!!

Umbria Jazz Festival 14th July

Our two shows today featured Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra (as we saw in Vienne last week) with special guest Francesco Cafiso - one of the brightest Alto players around at the moment. The other show was the first in a series of 6 being played by the AACM Great Black Music ensemble.

The Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra played a very similar set to last week in the first half of the show, and then when Cafiso came on, the mood lightened up and there was plenty to smile about. Some great interplay between Cafiso and the other sax players in the orchestra and even a little teasing from Cafiso! - a great show that was enthusiastically listened to by the huge crowd in the arena. For a young man Cafiso does play with great maturity and style.

Over in the Morlacchi George Lewis and the AACM were playing Lewis's compositions in the first of their six shows. A real mixture of players and singers put together a very interesting show of scripted and improvised music - very energetic in places and quite soulful in others a real rollercoaster of a show and with five more to come, a lot to look forward to!

Umbria Jazz Festival 13th July

Monday at the festival and the first of three shows by Joe Locke, Dado Moroni and Rosario Giuliani. Joe has played at Umbria Jazz for the past four years and his contribution to the festival is now legendary. Playing and recording these three days with two excellent sparing partners in Giuliani on sax and Moroni on piano - this is a vibrant expansive trio with all three sharing the writing duties. The Cd which will come out on Agea will be well worth investigating - the trio are playing very contemplative music with excellent searching solos from all three.

On the main stage we had a very special show featuring two great exponents of the piano. On the left was Chick Corea, a pianist who's carear needs no introduction on on the right Stefano Bollani a hugely talented pianist (he won the jazz musician of the year prize at the North Sea Jazz Festival a few days ago) who is an electric a personality as he is a pianist. His style swings widely from classical to free improv but he never fails to impress or entertain.

playing a mixture of standards and self penned tunes the pair kept a constant conversation of music through the evening, with humour, inventiveness and sheer mastery of the instruments - this was pure magic. It could be said that they never let rip and 'rocked' for want of a better word, but they kept total control of what they were doing and made the music the event, not the players.





The midnight show on the other hand was a riot of up tempo (latin)beat music. Richard Galliano joined by regular companion Gonzalo Rubalcaba on piano, Richard Bona on bass and Clarence Penn on the kit. It may have been past midnight when the show got under way but the sheer vitality of the music had the whole audience swaying with the beat and the excellent soloing from Galliano, Bona and Rubalcaba. A great show, and the audience would have kept the band in the Morlacchi all night had they been allowed!

Umbria Jazz Festival 12th July

Sunday in Perugia and it is another very hot day in Piazza Italia. Our first show of the day features Brazillian guitarist Guinga. Playing here in a trio with clarinetist Gabrielle Mirabassi and guitarist Lula Galvao. An energetic set of almost chamber music with very nice soloing from Guinga and Mirabassi, who's playing style ( standing on one leg, weaving from side to side) was entertainment in itself!

Guinga

Mirabassi


In the arena at 9.30 was 80's heart throb Mick Hucknall and his band Simply Red who ran through all of their hits with consumate ease.

The midnight show featured trombonist Gianluca Petrella fronting his Cosmic band - a kind of hommage to Sun Ra via John Coltrane. The show was full of energy from the first note, when the band entered the back of the auditorium (which was in total darkness) wearing small spot lights on their heads and played themselves through the audience and onto the stage.

The show got even better with the addition of Paolo Fresu half way through - his trumpet and flugelhorn certainly added a new dimension to the playing and it seemed to come together much better with him on stage. A very energetic but also draining way to end the evening - nothing a huge ice cream on the way down through the old town to the car park could't fix - even at 2.30am!

Now that all the pop and rock acts are over we will be into the jazz proper - tonight it is Chick Corea with Stefano Bollani which promises to be a terrific night especially as the midnight show features Richard Galliano with Richard Bona and Gonzalo Rubalcaba!