790 subscriptions, 22 more than last year: with this extraordinary figure, thanks to which a sold-out audience participation is expected, Bergamo Jazz 2025 now launches the ticket sales for individual evenings at Teatro Donizetti and for the concerts in the “Jazz in the City” section. Tickets are already available for the two events at Teatro Sociale on the evening of Thursday, March 20 (with singer Lizz Wright and pianist Antonio Faraò’s trio) and on Sunday afternoon, March 23 (with the supergroup Stick Men led by the famous bassist Tony Levin).
Jazz at Donizetti
On Friday, March 21, the first of three subscription evenings at Teatro Donizetti, starting at 8:30 PM, will open with a duo formed by a double bass champion like Dave Holland and Lionel Loueke, one of the most innovative guitarists to appear on the jazz scene in recent decades. This high-caliber artistic duo will serve as the “opener” for the Wayne Shorter Legacy, namely pianist Danilo Pérez, double bassist John Patitucci, drummer Brian Blade, and, as a special guest, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, musicians who certainly need no extensive introductions. The Saturday evening, March 22, will also feature an authentic all-star group, The Cookers, seven veterans of countless jazz battles: trumpeters Eddie Henderson and David Weiss, saxophonists Azar Lawrence and Donald Harrison, pianist George Cables, double bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Billy Hart. The Cookers’ concert will be preceded by that of the most international of Italian jazz musicians, Enrico Rava. The trumpeter and flugelhorn player, former Artistic Director of Bergamo Jazz from 2012 to 2015, will lead his “Fearless Five”, a formation that recently won the “Top Jazz 2024” award from the monthly magazine Musica Jazz. On Sunday, March 23, the last evening at the Donizetti will feature the first appearance on the main city theater stage of guitarist Marc Ribot and the return after ten years of one of the most charismatic female voices, Dianne Reeves.
Jazz In The City
Bergamo Jazz once again enters small theaters to offer precious musical performances, among the most artistically stimulating proposals of the Festival. Opening the series of concerts scattered throughout the city will be, on Thursday, March 20 at Teatro Sant’Andrea in Via Porta Dipinta (5:00 PM), Cuban pianist Aruán Ortiz, from whose fingers flows a musicality where Afro-Caribbean tradition meets the most advanced jazz. The same venue will host the concert on Sunday, March 23 (11:00 AM) featuring English double bassist Barry Guy, a historic exponent of the most daring improvised music, and Catalan pianist Jordina Millà: the two musicians have recently released the album Live In Munich on ECM. The Auditorium in Piazza della Libertà will also host two events, both marked by “mixed” groups, both in terms of gender and geographical origin, highlighting some prominent names from the new wave of British Jazz: La Via del Ferro (Friday, March 21, 5:00 PM) and pianist Alexander Hawkins‘ Dialect Quintet (Saturday, March 22, 5:00 PM). The first, highly appreciated by famous DJ and producer Gilles Peterson, is a quartet that includes London saxophonist Alex Hitchcock, New Zealand-born drummer Myele Manzanza, and two Italian musicians based in the British capital, Roman keyboardist Maria Chiara Argirò and Tuscan bassist Michelangelo Scandroglio. Hawkins, already known to the Bergamo Jazz audience, will be joined by Argentine saxophonist Camila Nebbia, guitarist Giacomo Zanus, double bassist Ferdinando Romano, and Bergamo-born drummer Francesca Remigi. As a premiere for Italy, on Sunday, March 23 at Sala Piatti (3:00 PM), there will be the piano duo of Greek Tania Giannouli and Swiss Nik Bärtsch, among the most interesting pianists in the Old Continent’s musical landscape.
