Montalcino Jazz and Wine

From 15th to 20th July, in the land of Brunello, great music with internationally renowned artists and unique events for Tuscany and Italy. Incognito, Children of the Light and The Bad Plus are some of the "big" that Castello Banfi will bring to Montalcino starting from the "Aspettando Jazz & Wine" preview.

Seventeenth edition of the most long–lived and most imitated festival in Italy, that this year brings to Tuscany big names of international appeal such as Incognito, Children of the Light and The Bad Plus. It is Jazz & Wine in Montalcino (15-20 July) that, with a great completely international billboard of jazz stars, in 2014, is the most famous and followed festival in the Italian music scene. Conceived by the collaboration between Castello Banfi, the Jazz & Image cultural association of Rome and the Municipality of Montalcino, the festival offers a program of the highest level, with Italian and international artists of worldwide magnitude which will be preceded, as usual, by the highly anticipated evening "Aspettando Jazz & Wine", to be held on 10th July, within the historic walls of Castello Banfi, with Fabio Mariani Gipsy Three, an extraordinaire guitarist who faces in a fun and "acrobatic" way the repertoire of Django. Tuesday, 15th July, always within the walls of Castello Banfi, the talented Deidda Brothers Plus come, with Amedeo Ariano and Pierpaolo Bisogno, who on stage exchange roles and instruments, and embody the essence of the "Harlem Globe Trotter" of music. From July 16th, the festival will move to the fourteenth–century Montalcino Fortress with the "Sei in Jazz" project, an original musical tribute to the great Lucio Battisti reinterpreted in jazz: music without lyrics and re–read with the elegance and taste of improvisation. It continues on Thursday, 17th July, with a stellar trio: Danilo Perez on piano, John Patitucci on bass and Brian Blade on drums. The three outstanding musicians, known throughout the world for their ten–year collaboration with the legendary Wayne Shorter, present in Montalcino "Children Of The Light", a magical and wondrous mix of jazz and Latin sounds.

To get on the stage of Jazz & Wine, on Friday, 18th July, the incredible The Bad Plus trio, with the only Italian date of the summer tour, in Salerno, for the music of this group that combines elements of avant–garde jazz with pop and rock influences, escaping, however, each genre classification. In the exploration of the infinite possibilities that only jazz can offer, the three musicians: Reid Anderson on bass, Ethan Iverson on piano and David King on drums, playing in perfect harmony. Saturday 19th July is the day of Herbie Goins & Mauro Zazzarini Blues Inn. Goins is the upscale soul–blues singer of international fame who plays with one of the best saxophonists of jazz–blues in Italy, Zazzarini, to form an unusual duo, for a concert that ranges from blues to funky, to arrive to jazz. To close this extraordinary edition of the festival, on Sunday, 20th July, Incognito. For thirty years on the crest of a wave, the band has always been the home of great musicians who, on and off and at different times, attended and gave birth to the extraordinary adventure of the group that still revolves around its first leader, the Mauritian Jean–Paul "Bluey" Maunick, founder and guiding spirit, who has remained consistently faithful in time to his creature, Incognito, and this year celebrates forty years of career with a new work: "Amplified soul".

For the seventeenth consecutive year, in Montalcino, two such intimate and intense pleasures, jazz music and great quality wine, are celebrating the growing success with their exciting meeting in the city symbol of Italian oenology, the birthplace of Brunello.

Confirmed, although, the twinning of Jazz & Wine festival in Montalcino, Jazz & Wine of Peace Festival of Cormòns and Zola Jazz & Wine, to which this year Vino & Jazz Marche is also added. Tuscany, then, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Emilia Romagna and Marche, united by a passion for quality music and good wine. A not to be missed meeting, with territorial and productive realities different from each other, sharing the same passion and the same "lifestyle": jazz.

(Montalcino Jazz & Wine, press release 9th July 2014)