The festival returns to spread the spirit of jazz, environmental awareness and community spirit through international concerts and initiatives.
It will be the garden ofHotel del Campo Of Matera to host the first evening of the 37th edition of Gezziamoci, the jazz festival that has been telling and interpreting the places of Basilicata for almost forty years, this year with fifteen events in which music, nature and art will dialogue to offer the public international moments of great involvement.
“For 2024 too, Gezziamoci wants to bring music and artistic quality, not only to Matera but throughout the region with fifteen events of high cultural value” explains Kevin Griecoco-artistic director of Gezziamoci together with Gigi Esposito “the Onyx jazz festival has managed to give continuity to an artistic and cultural project for almost forty years thanks to the constant commitment of a close-knit team that always manages to renew itself and open up new points of view, to offer high-level concerts artistic and at the same time listening to the requests of local communities through constant dialogue with local institutions and associations. This year it will be possible to purchase packages for the concerts scheduled from 23 to 25 August in order to allow the public not to miss any appointment of the Matera session and to fully enjoy three days of music and meetings under the aegis of jazz”.
The concerts
The first phase of the festival begins in Matera on 19 July with Gianfranco Menzella Quartet: together with the saxophonist from Matera, Eugenio Macchia on the piano, Carlo Bavetta on the double bass and Pasquale Fiore on the drums will open this 2024 summer edition.
The August 1st it will be instead San Severino Lucano to host the Neapolitans Ars Nova for the second evening of the festival: thanks to a deep connection with tradition, Ars Nova have managed to delve deeper into ethno-musical research from all over Italy, bringing popular culture and free artistic expression into every concert.
Friday 2 August in the Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo of Montescaglioso it will be up to Miriam Fornari – a very young artist who published Mora, her first work, with the Onyx Dischi label in October 2023 – talk about her music.
Gezziamoci’s journey in Basilicata continues Wednesday 7 August to reach Sasso di Castaldawhere the “Concerto Lucano” of Conturband he was born in Mo’ Monk PT Quartet The dedication ceremony of a panoramic square in the town to the IJT will be accompanied by the Typical Jazz Indication, a quality label for culture, proposed by the Onyx Jazz Club association to reward the commitment of individual municipalities in the diffusion of music in their territory and in the valorization of artistic talents with particular attention to young people.
We also stay in Sasso di Castalda Thursday 8 August when the sound trekking will start at 9.30am together with the Distilled: alongside Tino Tracanna there will be four of the best soloists on the Italian scene, the saxophonist Massimiliano Milesi, the trumpeter Paolo Malacarne and the trombonist Andrea Andreoli who will end the day with a concert on the newborn IJT square
Friday 16 August on the terrace of the Le Monacelle Foundation the double bass player Giuseppe Venezia will be in Trio with Emmet Cohentalented and highly original American pianist, and Elio Coppola on drums.
From the 21st to 25th August we enter the hottest phase of Gezziamoci: in garden of the Hotel del Campo and on the suggestive view of the Murgia of Matera Le Monacelle Foundation concerts, workshops, musical listening and networking moments will alternate. This year it will be possible to purchase Gezziamoci concerts on the Ticket SMS circuit starting from the end of May.
Wednesday 21 August in the garden of the Hotel del Campo we begin with Raffele Fiengo Quarteta group born from the union of four young musicians, all students of the Giuseppe Verdi music conservatory in Milan, with a repertoire mainly of original pieces by the saxophonist Raffaele Fiengo, strongly aesthetically influenced by the jazz music of the contemporary New York scene, and by reinterpretations and arrangements of movements and sonatas from 20th century composers such as Vincent Persichetti, Bèla Bartòk and Arthur Honneger.
Thursday 22 Augustagain in the eighteenth-century garden of‘Hotel del Campo, it will be the turn of Avishai Darash in quartet with Antonio Moreno Glazkov on trumpet, Ivan Ruiz Machado on bass and Shayan Fathi on drums.
Pianist and composer, Avishai Darash brings to the stage an original style that derives from the mix of traditional North African music, with classical music, American jazz and the folk music of his native Israel: jazz, classical music and Western harmonies come together with the art and scales of Maqam music and Arabic music in a unique and universal sound that goes beyond stylistic limits and also imposes itself as a cultural message of coexistence of different cultures and peace between peoples.
Friday 23 Augustlulled by the summer breeze from the terrace Le Monacelle Foundation, at 9pm it will be possible to listen Pasquale Innarella on tenor and soprano saxophones with Ettore Carucci on piano, Stefano Cantarano on double bass and Lucrezio de Seta on drums.
After the concert, at 11.30pm in the background of the exhibition Ego and Narcissus between myth and tragedy with the paintings of Stefano Sigillinoin the church of San Giuseppe of the Le Monacelle complex Pasquale Innarella, Gianfranco Menzella, Pepi Romaniello on saxophones will perform in the performance Art in the women’s gallery.
Saturday 24 August will be Daniel Karlsson Trio with Daniel Karlsson on piano, Christian Spering on double bass and Fredrik Rundqvist on drums to lower the summer temperatures with the Northern European sound with a compelling sound and dazzling compositions: overflowing with creativity, Daniel Karlsson’s music flows through rhythmic illusions and melodic experiments with precise Nordic flavour; pianist and composer, he is considered one of the most brilliant and exciting Swedish pianists.
This year too the concert at dawn in the secret place formula, Daniel Karlsson will fill it with music with his piano the early hours of August 25th in an intimate and intimate concert.
The concerts on the terrace end Sunday 25 August at 9pm with the training of Panagiotis AndreuGreek-born bassist of the dynamic group of creative New York musicians who are redefining the contemporary music scene.
The sonic alchemist who is transforming electronic jazz, Latin and Balkan music through contamination, freely mixing heavy doses of funk, dazzling vocal improvisations and rhythmic variety beyond the confines of traditional genres. Together with him on stage Tasos Poulios, kanun and vocals, Yiannis Papadopoulos, piano and keyboards, Jason Wastor, drums.
Gezziamoci’s musical proposal for the summer phase continues Sunday 15 September with Ballad for a Tree Dialogue between a saxophonist and a tree, a performance in collaboration with the Venice Art Biennale 2024 – Italian Pavilionfor which Gezziamoci was chosen together with 5 other Italian festivals whose leader is Novara Jazz Festival.
Sunday morning Felice Mezzina on the tenor sax he will speak at the foot of the large centuries-old oak, one of the monumental trees registered by the Basilicata Region, located about 1 km from the Borgo Venusio FAL station.
A green festival
Gezziamoci joins Jazz takes the green: made up of 30 festivals distributed geographically across 15 regions, from North to South, Jazz Takes The Green is an initiative born thanks to the synergy between Green Fest, Fondazione Ecosistemi and I-Jazz, an association that brings together the majority of Italian jazz festivals.
Making and proposing music, and therefore moving people and committing economic resources, cannot today ignore taking on the commitment to spread universal values such as respect for the environment, sustainability, the protection of human rights, tolerance, inclusion . All this with the aim of sharing good practices with the public.
And it is precisely in the spirit of active sharing of good practices that Gezziamoci proposes two for this edition too moments dedicated to Sustainability: the first, Thursday 22 August at 7pm In the garden of the Hotel del Campowith Saverio Massaropresident of ETS Esperimenti Architettonici, who will talk about the project The library of things, a project created with the Link association, manager of the Community Library Agoratheca in Altamura and winner of The Europe Challenge call, financed by the European Cultural Foundation.
The second appointment is scheduled Friday 23 August In the Garden of Silence in vico Sant’Agostino at 6.30pm: Angela Zaffignanienvironmental journalist, passionate about landscape, former manager of the Public Green Area of the Municipality of Parma, will present his book entitled Birdgarden. The natural garden and its guests.
A guide, embellished with illustrations by Gabriele Pozzi, to creating a garden according to nature: how to choose plants and shrubs favorable to the life of wild animals. From the fundamentals of the Birdgarden concept to practical advice and examples of completed gardens.
For more information visit Onyx Jaxx Club website.
