Starring at JazzAscona 2023 are Stefano di Battista with a tribute to Ennio Morricone and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra with China Moses
After a much-appreciated post-pandemic edition that highlighted the official partnership with New Orleans – signed off right during the festival by the mayors of Ascona and New Orleans – JazzAscona looks forward with renewed momentum and optimism to its 39th edition, which from June 22 to July 1, 2023 will offer a rich program with some 200 concerts and 350 invited artists.
New Orleans will again be the keystone of a program that promises to be full of emotions and nuances. The program will reintroduce a more festive formula, with free admission to all concerts, four stages on the lakefront and numerous locations scattered throughout the picturesque old town, and often acoustic or semi-acoustic performances in bars, restaurants, alleys and small squares. A musical interplay of Jazz, blues, soul and other sounds (new this year, for example, some Latin American music groups) that will involve hundreds of artists from all over the world and will surprise visitors with an all-round musical experience with concerts from lunchtime until late at night.
Arriving from New Orleans, the festival again hosts the acclaimed New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, winner of a Grammy in 2010 and conducted by Adonis Rose, which will hold two concerts, both on the second weekend of the festival (June 30 and July 1) and also with special guest and internationally praised singer China Moses (June 29 and June 30), the daughter of Dee Dee Bridgewater.
Among the most anticipated highlights of the 39th edition will be the refined tribute that the great Italian saxophonist Stefano Di Battista will pay to Ennio Morricone on June 27. It will be a unique opportunity to listen again to memorable themes such as Once Upon a Time in America, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, as well as lesser-known songs and a new unpublished composition, Flora, which the maestro handed to the saxophonist.
Once again this year, traditional Jazz styles will have a prominent place in the festival’s programming, counting a dozen bands from various countries. Among this year’s novelties, JazzAscona will offer for the first time the warm sounds of flamenco and Latin American music. On the lakefront it will be “fiesta” with Nolosé in particular (June 26–28), a band of ten musicians with a spectacular show. Flamenco lovers, on the other hand, will find a passionate interpreter in La de Triana, a band led by Swiss singer and composer of Italian-Turkish descent Esrin Sossai (June 23–25).