Fonterossa Records festival is back, a label directed by Top Jazz composer Silvia Bolognesi. Featured guests include the sax guru Chris Jonas from Santa Fe, New Mexico; bassist pioneer of free music Joëlle Léandre and cornet player Kirk Knuffke, among the most acclaimed performers on the contemporary scene.
Two days of music and seven live to immerse yourself in the avant-garde sound and explore all the new directions of jazz. On Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 April in Pisa will be held the 9th/th edition of Fonterossa Days, a festival signed by Fonterossa Records, a record label directed by double bass player and composer Top Jazz Silvia Bolognesi. Appointment at the Teatro Sant'Andrea (via del Cuore 1) for the event organized by Toscana Produzione Musica in collaboration with Pisa Jazz: a rundown on new records of the label next to the performances of giants of the caliber of Chris Jonas, sax guru straight from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Among the guests of the show are also the bassist pioneer of free music Joëlle Léandre and the cornettist Kirk Knuffke, among the most acclaimed performers of the contemporary scene. Not only: space for new talents with the performance of Fonterossa Open Lab: orchestra-workshop dedicated to improvisation and the execution of unconventional scores that every year, from January to June, brings together a new ensemble of exceptional conductors - for 2025 in addition to Chris Jonas and Silvia Bolognesi also the saxophonist and flutist Mauro Avanzini, the guitarist Domenico Caliri and the violinist Emanuele Parrini - and opens the doors to the most promising musicians on the square.
INFO
www.toscanaproduzionemusica.it
TICKETS
Tickets and pre-sales on Ticketone: https://www.ticketone.it/eventseries/fonterossa-day-9-3865958/
Entering the details of the program we start on Saturday 26 at 21.30 with "G.E.A. plays the music of Mulatu Astatke", production become album (Fonterossa Records 2024) that will see the trio formed by Cosimo Fiaschi sax soprano, Stefano Zambon on double bass and Pierluigi Foschi on drums engaged in a tribute to the musical and cultural roots of Africa, which more than any other has inspired the vast world of jazz, reinterpreting the compositions of the Ethiopian vibraphonist Mulatu Astatke. Following, at 22.30 Fonterossa Day #9 4tet: teachers and composers of Fonterossa Open Lab 2025 together for a set of improvisation: Silvia Bolognesi on double bass, Chris Jonas on soprano sax and tenor, Mauro Avanzini on alto sax and flute - among the collaborations Paolo Silvestri, Pietro Leveratto, Fabrizio Puglisi, Mauro Grossi, Luca Flores, Naco, Paolo Fresu, and Domenico Caliri on guitar - on the jazz scene for over 30 years with more than 50 records.
Next Sunday 27 with Mangalica Trio - alias Maurizio Sammicheli on guitar, Marco Benedetti on electric bass and Andrea Beninati on drums, cello - that at 16.30 will present to the public the project "Electric Setola", released on March 21 for Fonterossa Records and born from the desire to deepen a research on modal music by applying the concept of improvisation not only to instrumental performance, but also to the manipulation in real time of effects, loops and samples, with a repertoire that alternates original compositions and improvisations. It continues at 17.30 with ESK - Knuffke Bolognesi Parrini Trio, a formation that joins Kirk Knuffke, composer and cornet player among the most prolific and acclaimed of the contemporary jazz scene, the versatile violinist Emanuele Parrini and Silvia Bolognesi. Freedom and creativity in a direct and unbounded approach to the musical genre: jazz is just one of the many reference universes in this path; another is that of academic improvisation; yet another is that of "risk", of the risk in seeking the creative moment and in combining it, in a personal dialogic exchange with their partners, until it becomes an expression, a musical and emotional communication, a territory in which the relationships between subjects can act because improvised music is relational and process music and certainly not an abstract project child of an undefined pure spirit. And yet: at 18.30 will be the protagonist of a live only the famous musician, composer and improviser French Joëlle Léandre, already collaborator of John Cage, Morton Feldman and Merce Cunningham, Unanimously recognized among the most prolific and influential figures in the field of contemporary music.
The concerts at the Teatro Sant'Andrea continue in the evening: at 21.00 spotlights on Chris Jonas and his Desert Quartet with "Music from the Deserts", compositions written by Jonas in complete solitude in the deserts of Arizona and recently become a record published by Edgetone Records. The elements of the jazz language alternate with delicate atmospheres and strange grooves; articulated polyphonies draw a synthesis of melody and dissonance. Luca Serrapiglio (contralto sax, soprano and double bass clarinet), Luca Bernard (double bass) and Giacomo Pisani (drums), who accompany him on stage, are three quarters of Materical - quartet with a CD of the same name on Aut Records - for years linked to the improvisation scene, contemporary jazz and the expressive arts. At 22.00 closing in big with Fonterossa Open Lab 2025: more than 30 musicians on stage together with the five conductors of this year for a show of pure creativity and experimentation.
Fonterossa Records is the label founded by Silvia Bolognesi in 2010 to guarantee artists freedom of production with full creative autonomy. It is a cultural space open to new musical proposals and to those who share the passion for improvisation and avant-garde jazz as contemporary research.
Toscana Produzione Musica (TPM) is a music production centre with a focus on the sounds of the world, chaired by Paolo Zampini with the artistic direction of Francesco Mariotti and Maurizio Busìa and the support of the Ministry of Culture, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze e Regione Toscana. TPM is a system of artistic residences, support for the dialogue between music and performing arts as well as for circuitry and distribution, a widespread body, with PARC of Florence as a base camp in axis with different realities on the territory of Pisa to promote an open artistic vision while maintaining as a fundamental element the relationship between excellence of form and depth of ideas and intrinsic values in individual projects.
