Four intense days marked by the thousand sounds of jazz spread throughout the city: from Thursday, March 20 to Sunday, March 23, the 46th edition of Bergamo Jazz takes place, a festival organized by Fondazione Teatro Donizetti with the support of the Municipality of Bergamo, the MIC-Ministry of Culture, and private sponsors. ‘Sounds of Joy’ is the title chosen by Joe Lovano, Artistic Director of Bergamo Jazz since last year, to showcase the great variety and vitality of sounds, rhythms, and colors that characterize a music that represents one of the cornerstones of contemporary artistic expression.

Staying true to its nature, Bergamo Jazz 2025 will also be an international festival, a widespread festival: in addition to concerts at the Donizetti and the Sociale in Città Alta, significant events are planned in small theaters, museums, and venues transformed for the occasion into welcoming jazz clubs. There will be a strong representation of Italian musicians, including numerous new talents gathered in the ‘Scintille di Jazz’ section, and considerable space for jazz with a feminine touch, featuring established female singers and instrumentalists.

Here is the day-by-day program.

 

Thursday, March 20

The first day of Bergamo Jazz 2025 will take place entirely in Città Alta, starting with a solo piano performance at Teatro Sant’Andrea in Via Porta Dipinta (5:00 PM) by Cuban Aruán Ortiz, whose fingers pour out a musicality where Afro-Caribbean tradition meets the most advanced jazz. Following this, a double appointment for ‘Scintille di Jazz’ at Circolino (6:00 PM and 7:15 PM) with the chamber-like Kairos Trio of saxophonist Gianluca Zanello. At 8:30 PM, we’ll move to Teatro Sociale for an evening opened by pianist Antonio Faraò’s trio, an experienced musician who, for his first participation in Bergamo Jazz, will be assisted by double bassist Ameen Saleem and drummer Jeff Ballard, former partners of Chick Corea and Brad Mehldau. The second set at Sociale will feature, in an Italian exclusive, Lizz Wright, one of today’s most intense black voices who, thanks to a remarkable interpretive strength, best reflects the African American cultural humus, moving naturally between jazz, blues, gospel, and songwriting.

 

Friday, March 21

The second day of Bergamo Jazz 2025 will begin at 5:00 PM at the Auditorium in Piazza della Libertà with La Via del Ferro, a quartet highly appreciated by famous DJ and producer Gilles Peterson, including London saxophonist Alex Htchcock, 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. A lively group poised to be one of the revelations of the Festival.

At 6:30 PM, for ‘Scintille di Jazz’, a concert is scheduled at the Legami Sushi restaurant, located in the heart of Sentierone, featuring the duo of saxophonist Lorenzo Simoni and trumpeter Iacopo Teolis, one of the groups selected for the Nuova Generazione Jazz 2025 project of the I-Jazz Association, to which Bergamo Jazz is a member.

The main event of the day is certainly represented by the first of three evenings at Teatro Donizetti, starting at 8:30 PM. First to take the city’s most prestigious stage will be the Lux Quartet, a ‘mixed’ formation that aligns pianist Myra Melford, a central figure in contemporary jazz, saxophonist Dayna Stephens, double bassist Nick Dunston, and drummer Allison Miller. A high-caliber group that will serve as the ‘opener’ for a superquartet that under the name ‘The Legacy of Wayne Shorter’ will bring together pianist Danilo Pérez, double bassist John Patitucci, drummer Brian Blade, and, as special guest, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, musicians who certainly need no introduction.

Finally, an ‘after festival’ at NXT Bergamo in Piazzale degli Alpini (11:00 PM) with the Yugen Maki group of Bergamo saxophonist Nicholas Lecchi, one of the new names in Bergamo jazz.

 

Saturday, March 22

The accordion player Sara Calvanelli and violinist Virginia Sutera duo will kick off Saturday’s program on the 22nd at the Accademia Carrara (11:00 AM) with a performance that promises a continuous improvisational flow, immersed in a dimension that is at times meditative and suspended, at times playful and dance-like. At 5:00 PM, at the Auditorium in Piazza della Libertà, it will be the turn of Dialect Quintet by Alexander Hawkins: the English pianist, 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. And at 6:30 PM, Daste will host the special event of “Scintille di Jazz,” featuring the trio of Brescia-born multi-instrumentalist Emanuele Maniscalco, in this case as a pianist, reinforced by an exceptional soloist, saxophonist Pietro Tonolo.

In the evening, from 8:30 PM, the Donizetti stage will first see Enrico Rava in action: the most international of Italian jazz musicians, former Artistic Director of Bergamo Jazz from 2012 to 2015, will lead his “Fearless Five,” the formation that won “Top Jazz 2024” from Musica Jazz magazine as the best Italian group, featuring trombonist Matteo Paggi, guitarist Francesco Diodati, double bassist Francesco Ponticelli and drummer Evita Polidoro. The evening will continue with an authentic American supergroup, The Cookers, seven veterans of countless all-round jazz battles, with deep roots in the past but well-versed in the language of the present, namely trumpeters Eddie Henderson and David Weiss, saxophonists Azar Lawrence and Donald Harrison, pianist George Cables, double bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Billy Hart.

On Saturday, the “After Festival” at 11:00 PM will also take place at NXT Bergamo in Piazzale Alpini, featuring the quartet of Piedmontese double bassist Roberto Mattei.

 

Sunday, March 23

The final day of Bergamo Jazz 2025 promises to be particularly intense, starting in the precious Teatro Sant’Andrea on Via Porta Dipinta, where at 11:00 AM you can listen to the duo formed by Catalan pianist Jordina Millà and English double bassist Barry Guy, a prominent figure in English improvised music since the 1960s. At 3:00 PM, at Sala Piatti, the Festival’s spotlight will be on the duo of Greek Tania Giannouli and Swiss Nik Bärtsch, among the most interesting pianists in the Old Continent’s music scene: in this case too, improvisation will serve as the common thread in a musical dialogue that will not skimp on sonic surprises.

At 5:00 PM, at Teatro Sociale, Bergamo Jazz will broaden its horizons by presenting the Stick Men, a formidable trio that draws vital energy from the blend of improvisation, experimental rock and more, as well as from the extraordinary instrumental mastery of its members, namely bassist and supreme virtuoso of the Stick Tony Levin, Peter Gabriel’s trusted man and member of King Crimson from 1981 onwards, German guitarist Markus Reuter and drummer Pat Mastelotto, whom most know from having heard him in the latest editions of King Crimson itself.

The final evening at Teatro Donizetti will be marked by the first appearance on the stage of the city’s main theater of guitarist Marc Ribot and the return after ten years of one of the most charismatic female voices, Dianne Reeves. Marc Ribot, one of the most imaginative six-string specialists, will perform as the leader of his brand new quartet “Hurry Red Telephone” – with Ava Mendoza on guitar, Sebastian Steinberg on double bass and Chad Taylor on drums – which promises unconventional sounds. The Detroit-born singer will put the final seal on Bergamo Jazz 2025 together with her well-established band that includes, among others, Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo.