2010 JazzAscona Festival Packages
Festival Dates: June 24 - July 04, 2010
JazzAscona New Orleans & Classics: a musical experience that is a must during a summer in Ticino, discover it this year!
Forget the cliché of snow and bobsled runs...Ascona, in the southern Switzerland area called Ticino, is known for its palm trees and tropical flowers warmed by Mediterranean winds and... The 26 Celebration of Jazz Ascona - New Orleans & Classic Jazz Festival. Music: For ten days in early Summer, the pretty town of Ascona and the US city of New Orleans are united by their music. For more than twenty years, the town on Lake Maggiore has played host to amazing performances from many of the finest international jazz artists during the JazzAscona New Orleans & Classic festival. Over more than two decades, the Ascona Festival has featured legends of New Orleans Jazz and the main European and American artists of the hot-jazz scene. Each year, the event's program contains over 200 concerts and more than 400 hours of live music, from New Orleans Traditional Jazz to Chicago, from swing to mainstream, from ragtime to gospel, not forgetting excursions into blues, R&B, soul and latin, and funk rhythms. Artists and bands are set to perform in bars, restaurants and hotels during the day, and on the stages on the lakeside in the evenings, transforming Ascona into a maze of small 'jazz clubs', producing a wonderful atmosphere between musicians and the diverse audience of fans and aficionados.
The 25th anniversary programme features big names of Jazz, with US soul-jazz stars: Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (drums) and Reuben Wilson (organ), performing together with Kevin Mahogany. The great English trombone player Chris Barber, who can boast a brilliant 60-year career in the Classic Jazz field, arrives in Ascona for the first time, to perform with an eleven-piece band. Vocal Jazz will also be strongly represented: from the singer and pianist Freddy Cole (brother of the famous Nat King Cole), acclaimed by the New York Times as "one of today's biggest Jazz artists", to the French group Pink Turtle, whose "Pop in Swing" project is at the top of the charts in France. Meanwhile, from Italy, the extraordinary Gegè Telesforo, the king of scat, singer, versatile musician, producer, journalist and TV and radio presenter.
The 25th Anniversary JazzAscona Festival performers included: Freddy Cole Quartet; The Big Chris Barber Band; Pepe Lienhard Swiss Army Big Band; The Yalloppin’ Hounds; Joey Cavaseno, alto sax/clarinet; Kevin Mahogany’s Kansas City Project; Red Holloway, tenor sax; Grant Green Jr., guitar; Reuben Wilson, Hammond B3; Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, drums; Niki Haris Quintet feat. Herlin Riley (USA); The Quartet - 100 Years of Gene and Benny!; Joe Ascione, drums; Allan Vaché, clarinet; John Cocuzzi, vibraphone; Johnny Varro, piano; Three Ladies of Blues; Peggi Lou, vocals; Joan Faulkner, vocal; Joan Bell; GeGè Telesforo & G-Jazz; Gegè Munari, drums; Giorgio Rosciglione, bass; Norbert Susemihl’s New Orleans All Stars; Maryland Jazzband; Frank Muschalle Trio feat. Matthias Seuffert & Alex Schultz; Dumoustier Stompers; Pink Turtle; Hurricane Brass Band; Uncle Lionel Batiste, grand marshall; Benny Jones, snare drums; Happy Feet Brass Band; Othella Dallas “I Live the Life of Love”; Thomas Möckel, guitar; Jan Jankeje Trio
Festival Style:
Multiple outdoor
lakeside concert stages, restaurant and club stages. JazzAscona features
an average of 20 daily concerts for a total of about 400 hours of music.
The bands invited to perform are 35, for a total of about 250 musicians.
This year's festival will be dedicated to New Orleans, city of Jazz struck
by hurricane Katrina.
The concerts start at 10 am and go on
until 4 am the following morning. About half of them take place on 8
stages in bars, restaurants, and hotels (often on outdoor terraces), while
the other half takes place in the evening on the romantic lakeside, where
thousands of people attend about fifteen outdoor concerts on the five main
stages, from 8 pm to 1 am. Night owls can also attend the jam sessions
that go on until dawn... Ascona is a small town (the historical center is
closed to traffic!) and concerts are easily accessible, only a few minutes
away on foot from stage to stage.
JazzAscona is held each year between late June and early July in Ascona,
one of the most well known
tourist spots in Switzerland. This quaint little town
is beautifully perched on the shores of the famous Lake Maggiore. This
year is the 26th
edition of JazzAscona, from June 24
through July
04,
2010.
A festival well-known for
gathering the finest contemporary jazz musicians together in one place.
JazzAscona has built its reputation on the
ever-current, enormous patrimony of jazz. From New Orleans, swing,
mainstream, and be-bop, while certainly not forgetting related musical
genres like, blues, R&B and gospel, there’s room for them all at
JazzAscona!
“An impressive selection of music for all tastes”
Page updated October 26,, 2009
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