A good festival balances high quality and interesting programming with location and atmosphere. And it’s certainly so often that the location of the festival is not in the usual city but in “borderlands” with an openness to different cultures coming together. There also seems to be less pressure on the festivals to meet the ‘safer’ criteria in many cities, or indeed in the UK.
.Suedtirol Jazz Festival/Alto Adige, taking place between 28 June and 7 July, is in the refreshingly Alpine South Tyrol, the northernmost region in Italy, where the mix of Austrian and Italian influence in Bolzano, where the festival is centred, is especially clear, when one looks at the buildings, tastes the food or experiences the total bilingual nature of the city.
Suedtirol Festival plans many of the 50+ gigs in appropriate locations to enhance the music. The team of Roberto Tubaro, Max von Pretz and Stefan Festini Cucco use great imagination to gel these together. There is even a three-day hike in the mountains, from mountain hut to mountain hut with trombonist Matteo Piaggi’s trio formed in Amsterdam, who will be playing each day a set appropriate to the weather and landscape, as the audience kick off their boots and can rest their – hopefully blister-free – feet.
When I spoke with Stefan over the phone, he explained that, unlike some previous years, which were regionally biased (such as UK in 2015) this year’s festival is about exciting projects and new collaborations. Estonian saxophonist Maria Faust and 20 singers open the festival with her ‘Mass of Mary’, dedicated to all victims of domestic violence. It’ll be a powerful show blending her jazz experience with Estonian folk and contemporary pioneers such as Arvo Pärt. And to show the diversity of what can be called “jazz”, it’ll be followed by a techno night till daybreak.
A strength of the festival is how it gives musicians a home, usually the Stanglerhof, a scenic hotel-restaurant, a location to develop residencies over several days. We await the results of this partnership, with ‘Cockney South Tyrolean’, Ruth Goller, local vibraphonist Mirko Pedrotti and Daniel Klein from Leipzig (developed in partnership with Leipzig Jazz Days),
Ruth is also performing with her enthralling vocal(ish) group Skylla, and in a collaboration with the band Training from Berlin.
There is always a strong relationship with some of the great jazz hubs, including Paris from where, for example, we shall have several groups involving saxophonist Daniel Erdmann, such as in his tremendous trio Velvet Revolution (with violinist Theo Ceccaldi and Jim Hart on vibes). There is also the group INUI, whose stand-out performance in December at the Jazz Migration showcase in Paris was described by Sebastian Scotney in his review as “highly extrovert”. From Berlin, as well as Training, we also have Oli Steidle’s Killing Popes and Y-Otis, led by Otis Sandsjö.
Stefan is excited by the 5-hour performance of Kabarila Jazz Ritual, the second year of a long-term evolution where the same group of eight musicians and dancers are working together each year. Inspired by the philosophy of Korean Byung-Chul Han, it’s about the need to be aware of rituals and the past as a foundation for the new projects and musicians on which the festival mainly focuses.
So there’s so much to experience. There are also great opportunities to exchange views with other members of the audience and musicians over the several days at the wondrous locations themselves or on the journeys to and fro.
LINK: Festival website
(*) LJN/ UKJN coverage of Suedtirol, including several reports by Alison Bentley (1957-2023)
