Malta Jazz Festival
| Malta Jazz Festival | |
|---|---|
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| Genre | Jazz |
| Dates | mid-July |
| Location(s) | Valletta, Malta |
| Years active | 1990 - present |
| Website | |
| www |
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The Malta Jazz Festival is a three-day musical event staged held every July on the Mediterranean island of Malta, organised by the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts. The festival has been held annually since 1990 at the Our Lady of Liesse Church, on the Valletta waterfront. The event has featured world-renowned jazz musicians such as Wayne Shorter, John Patitucci, Diana Krall, Chick Corea, Al Di Meola, Natalie Cole, Betty Carter, Michel Petrucciani, Richard Bona and Mike Stern.
In 2006, the event was controversially removed from the stewardship of Charles 'City' Gatt, a pioneer in Maltese jazz and the festival's founder and original musical director. For three years the festival was placed in the hands of private promotion company N'n'G, who attempted to style it into a more populist "Rock and Jazz Festival" Festival. Subsequent line-ups almost entirely shorn of contemporary jazz content and mainly featuring a host of passé rock musicians, reformed prog rock acts and tribute bands led the festival into a period of brief decline.
2009 saw the festival return to its roots under the directorship of Maltese musician Sandro Zerafa with a line-up of world-renowned jazz musicians. Among the artists who performed at the 2010 festival were Bill Stewart, Ari Hoenig, Greg Hutchinson, Dave Weckl, Dave King, Mike Stern and Richard Bona. The 2011 festival featured Lionel Loueke, Joao Bosco, Monty Alexander and Avishai Cohen. The 2012 festival took place on July 19, 20 and 21 and included performances by Al Di Meola, Terri Lyne Carrington, Chano Dominguez, Tigran Hamasyan, Dianne Reeves, Jeremy Pelt and Will Vinson.
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