Ponte a NordEst, a project curated by the Cultural Association Euritmica as part of the GO!2025 calendar and supported by the Department of Culture of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, is a project that for the first time unites the greatest exponents that the Italian jazz scene has expressed - and continues to express - for over fifty years: an artistic residency to be held in Gorizia from 13 to 16 February 2025 that will host the elite of improvisational music in the first cross-border cultural capital of Europe, for a joint and specific work never realised before.
The coordinator and musical focus of the project is Stefano Bollani, an absolute genius of the keyboard, one of the most eclectic and volcanic pianists known to the history of jazz; the band (for the occasion christened, not by chance, Stefano Bollani All Stars) that will accompany him on this adventure is composed of: Enrico Rava - Trieste jazz trumpeter, since the 1960s a celebrated symbol and still a superb interpreter of Italian jazz at an international level; Paolo Fresu - world-renowned not only for his unparalleled research and sound achievements with trumpet and flugelhorn, but also a lecturer, cultural operator and director of various Italian and international institutions and festivals; Roberto Gatto - drumming colossus who has been playing alongside the major Italian, European and American ‘sacred monsters’ since the 1980s; Ares Tavolazzi - double bass player who for decades has been colouring the time of the most significant cultural projects between rock, progressive, jazz, songwriting; Antonello Salis - accordionist, pianist and composer who brings the rough Sardinian spirit and the carnality of his land together with virtuosity and biting personality; Daniele Sepe - talented saxophonist, surprising in his direct and authenticity, whose interpretations are permeated by popular warmth and a passionate Neapolitan ‘madness’; Guests: Frida Magoni Bollani - daughter of art, a very young singer and pianist who has always ‘breathed’ music and restores its essence with her pure talent; Christian Mascetta - class of ‘94, a young, multi-award-winning guitarist, recently alongside Gegè Telesforo, whose spontaneous virtuosity and irony he shares.
A host of musicians with very different characters, backgrounds, generations and styles. Guests in Gorizia will have the opportunity to work together, each bringing his or her own musical baggage for the construction of a variegated itinerary in the sign of internationality - including classics, improvisations, original compositions - that will culminate in the concert in Trieste, at the Politeama Rossetti, on 17 February 2025 at 8:45 p.m., a unicum, certainly surprising, in the history of jazz that has never seen so many top-level names share the stage. Each of the protagonists brings with them into the project a piece from the musical tradition of a people of the world: an encounter between ‘other’ musical cultures, which broadens knowledge and brings new creative life into those who perform and those who listen. It was the uniqueness of the area and its history that prompted Stefano Bollani and the other musicians to accept Euritmica's invitation to return such richness and diversity in music.
The residency from 13 to 17 February will also be an opportunity for the artists to experience the centre, the historical areas and the cross-border territory, so as to breathe in its climate and culture. The Ponte a Nord Est project also includes a series of Incontri jazz (this is the name of the festival that Euritmica organised, for ten editions, back in the 1990s in Gorizia) with regional and Slovenian groups that will play in venues and halls in Gorizia and Nova Gorica, concluding on Sunday 16, at the Auditorium della Cultura Friulana in Gorizia with ‘My name is Nina’, a project dedicated to Nina Simone and Zlatko Kaučič's ensemble ‘Kombo: Pogum pogumnih’ (Kombo Audaci Coraggiosi) composed of protagonists of the new Slovenian jazz scene.
