Umbria Jazz (abbreviated UJ) is the most important jazz music festival in Italy. It was born in 1973 and it takes place every year in Perugia during the month of July.
Umbria Jazz was born in a café in the city center of Perugia from an idea of Carlo Pagnotta, a merchant who loved jazz music, frequenter of some of the major European festivals, who dreamed of a similar festival in his hometown. He spoke about it with two leading figures of the newborn Region Umbria who showed appreciation towards this idea, involving their colleague at the tourism. Alberto Alberti, the main jazz music manager in Italy at the time, helped writing an arts program which was approved.
The very first concert took place on 23rd August 1973 at the natural theater of Villalago di Piediluco, near Terni. The first edition included three more days: two in Perugia in Piazza IV Novembre, and the other one in Gubbio. It was immediately clear that Umbria Jazz was a great idea, showed also by the great success of the audience, despite an approximative promotion. The gestation of the project, though, was very quick: a few months passed from the vision to the concrete realization of it.
The cities and the streets of Umbria during Umbria Jazz get so crowded that sometimes it is hard even for the musicians to reach the place of the concerts.
After the 1978 edition, the festival came back in 1982 with a lot of changes: for the very first time people had to buy tickets for entering to the main concerts. In 1985 was born the non-profit Association Umbria Jazz, which manages the brand “Umbria Jazz”, property of the Region, and organises the festival under every aspect. Some years later, by the will of the Region, the Umbria Jazz Foundation was born, aimed to guarantee the public economic resources.
The artistic choices are divided in two sections: on one side there is the orthodox jazz, on the other side there is the black music (blues, gospel, soul, zydeco, marching band, rhythm 'n' blues), with many trepassings on the pop-rock, for a more generalist audience. Remarkable are the performances of musicians such as Elton John, Carlos Santana, James Brown, Donna Summer, Eric Clapton, Earth, Wind & Fire, Simply Red and B.B. King. In the twenty years from the 1982 edition there have been digressions on rock, blues and Brazilian music, with always more attention to the Italian jazz.
The festival takes place in Perugia, with concerts also in Terni, Narni, Orvieto, Foligno, Gubbio, Città di Castello.
From 2003 the main concerts take place at the Santa Giuliana Stadium, with artists such as Ornette Coleman, Van Morrison, Bobby McFerrin, Earth, Wind & Fire, James Brown and the Manhattan Transfer. Other concerts take place at the eighteenth-century Teatro Pavone (Sarah Vaughan, 1984), at the Teatro Morlacchi (Caetano Veloso), at the thirteenth-century church of San Francesco al Prato (The Evans, Carmen McRae, the Liberation Music Orchestra), at the Oratorio Filippino of Santa Cecilia, at the Sala Podiani at the National Gallery of Umbria, at the Dome of Perugia (gospel choirs), at the Basilica of San Pietro (Jan Garbarek and Hilliard Ensemble for the project Officium) and at the Stadium Renato Curi (Miles Davis, Manahattan Transfer, Sting and The Evans in 1987). Free concerts take place in Piazza IV Novembre and the Giardini Carducci.
This year comes the 45th anniversary and the festival will be from 13 to 22 July 2018.