While waiting for the next year, when Fenice Jazz will be held inside the restored historical venue of Teatro La Fenice, the 2004 edition will take place at Lido di Venezia inside the glamorous Palazzo del Cinema, home of the Venice Film Festival, during two consecutive week-ends (June 11-12 and 18-20). The choice of location is an important one, destined to enrich the musical offering with the fascinating beauty of the place and, at the same time, giving importance to the Lido beside the Film Festival. Thus, the Lido will become the house of a longer season of first class cultural events and shows.
Fenice Jazz has many goals. On the one hand it will bring new contents to the cultural life in the Lido, in the last days of spring, when the concerts might conclude a wonderful day spent on the renowned Lido's beach or visiting the marvellous town of Venice. On the other hand Teatro La Fenice is renewing its commitment to jazz music and its greatest performers.
After some 20 years without jazz on its stage, this decision has very deep reasons. Hosting Fenice Jazz, Teatro La Fenice shows the essence of an important European cultural entity, interested in promoting and sustaining with its own resources projects of a very high artistic profile. In the case of jazz, Teatro La Fenice considers dutiful to pay homage to a kind of music which is certainly American, but which is also the result of musical stimuli migrated from Europe and Africa to the New World, where they were reshaped in the forms of a new music.
Jazz, as George Gershwin used to say, “is the result of the energy stored in America". As an institution used to think of music from a perspective that spreads from Europe to the other continents, Teatro La Fenice will host this concert series dedicated to a musical genre which embodies the relationship between American, European and African cultures.
With this aim in mind, Teatro La Fenice decided to rely on a production staff put together for the occasion in close collaboration with the major American realities of this musical field. Thus, La Fenice's audience will be able to enjoy an exceptional series of concerts, all of which are produced in exclusive for Italy.
Fenice Jazz will focus on the 'main way' of Modern Jazz, the one emerged from be bop and, later, hard bop: the strong languages of jazz, those which were able to impose themselves as long lasting musical models and to conquer the greatest international audiences. Fenice Jazz will look like a festival of worldwide significance, featuring the most authoritative protagonists of jazz music: an annual appointment through which Teatro La Fenice will offer an exhaustive view of the many realities of this musical genre to its spectators.
On June 11, the opening of Fenice Jazz will be under the sign of the great bass player Ron Carter, who will lead his quartet with piano, drums and percussion: a situation for unconventional sonorities which will give prominence to Carter's unique sense of melody and to the technical perfection of his unforgettable style of accompaniment.
On June 12, Fenice Jazz will be honoured by the presence of a wonderful all-stars quartet co-led by Roy Hargrove and Cedar Walton, featuring Reginald Johnson and Willie Jones III. Hargrove is definitely the undisputed star of the Young Lions movement, internationally acclaimed and praised. On his side we will find one of the greatest pianists-composers of Modern Jazz: Cedar Walton, a name which always reminds of the most superb Jazz Messengers' line up, along with the names of J.J. Johnson, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, Lee Morgan and the like.
On Friday, June 18, music will start again with the sensational trio led by pianist Mulgrew Miller and featuring Ray Drummond on bass and Ben Riley on drums. It is an all-stars by all means, a showcase for one of the most important pianists of his generation.
On Saturday, June 19, when the great American singer Patti Austin and the BBC Big Band will walk on stage, we are going to assist not only to the main attraction of Fenice Jazz, but to a major event in any sense. The BBC Big Band, made up of 22 elements and conducted by Jiggs Whigham, will fly directly from London for the occasion. Patrick Williams, former arranger for Ella Fitzgerald, wrote the arrangements for this project, entitled For Ella: an homage to the great singer made by another vocal star.
Another project of great appeal is the one proposed for the conclusion of Fenice Jazz on Sunday, June 20: the duo formed by pianist Benny Green and guitarist Russell Malone. These two stars of the New York jazz scene will perform a program of jazz standards originally intended as music for the movies: an homage to the history of cinema performed in a venue of the highest importance in the cinema world.
Along with the program of concerts, several cultural institutions in Venice are working on the organization of relevant side events, intending to use the other cinema halls of Palazzo del Cinema for screenings of jazz movies and other events. During the period of Fenice Jazz, Lido di Venezia will be the true capital of jazz in Italy.
This series of five concerts will project Teatro La Fenice and Palazzo del Cinema at the centre of the European modern music market, distinguishing itself for quality, artistic and institutional prestige, lucidity in the choice of programs.
Fenice Jazz will be a musical window of extremely high level, capable of imposing itself among the most important jazz events at international level.
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FENICE JAZZ 2004
PALAZZO DEL CINEMA
LIDO DI VENEZIA
ITALY
June 11-12 & 18-20, 2004
Friday, June 11, 9:30 pm
RON CARTER QUARTET
Ron Carter, double bass
Stephen Scott, piano
Payton Crossley, drums
Steve Kroon, percussions
Saturday, June 12, 9:30 pm
ROY HARGROVE / CEDAR WALTON QUARTET
Roy Hargrove, trumpet
Cedar Walton, piano
Reginald Johnson, double bass
Willie Jones III, drums
Friday, June 18, 9:30 pm
MULGREW MILLER / RAY DRUMMOND / BEN RILEY TRIO
Mulgrew Miller, piano
Ray Drummond, double bass
Ben Riley, drums
Saturday, June 19, 9:30 pm
PATTI AUSTIN
For Ella
For more information contact All About Jazz.
