Event promoted by the Circolo Lucca Jazz, which for nineteen years has brought the best musicians of the national and international jazz scene to the Tuscan city.
Born in 2005, the festival aims to select and enhance women in various areas of jazz: from singing to composition and arrangement, up to the use of various musical instruments and styles. Since 2008, the Lucca Jazz Donna Award has been awarded within the festival for the best emerging female jazz band.
Dedicated to female jazz talents, Lucca Jazz Donna is the eagerly awaited event of Lucca’s musical autumn.
Great national and international artists such as Kim Thompson, Lisa Pollard, Ashka Kaneko, Noa, emerging talents and numerous collateral events to the concerts on the bill are the formula of this short but dense festival.
Festival dedicated to the female figure. The frequency is annual and its aim is to identify, select and enhance women in jazz: in singing, in composition and arranging, in the use of various instruments and musical styles.
It was born in March 2005 to fall during the period in which Women’s Day occurs, and over the years it has developed in different seasons of the year.
Since the first edition it has brought some of the biggest stars of the jazz scene to Lucca.
Drummer Kim Thompson, now highly sought after on the New York music scene, was launched on his stage when she was a rising star. In 2006, Ruth Young, Chet Baker’s last partner, who had been absent from the music scene for years, was a guest.
An exceptional artist also made his appearance in that edition, the world-famous clarinetist Tony Scott.
In 2007 guests were Nicky Nicolai, the American saxophonist Lisa Pollard, who was a stable member of Duke Ellington’s orchestra, MaiaClaire and Joy Garrison, daughters of Jimmy Garrison.
In 2008, the great violinist Regina Carter was the guest of honor, and the festival was closed by Roberta Gambarini, considered the heir of Ella Fitzgerald, an Italian singer well known and appreciated especially in the United States.
In 2009, the edition dedicated to Billie Holiday 50 years after her death, artists such as Michele Hendricks, Rita Marcotulli and Tiziana Ghiglioni performed, while in 2010 it was the turn of Susanna Stivali & Stefania Tallini, Virginia Mayhew, Giuliana Soscia, Claudia Tellini, Carla Marciano and the “Gaia Cuatro” with, from Japan, the violinist Ashka Kaneko.
2011 saw guests names such as the American pianist Dena DeRose, the exuberant Japanese talent Chihiro Yamanaka and the engaging Ana Karina Rossi in “Piazzolla al feminine”.
2012, the year in which the festival took place in two sessions (one spring and one autumn), saw guests the American singer Denise King and Antonella Mazza on double bass and vocals, Anna Chulkina on violin and Michela Lombardi on vocals in an evening created in collaboration with Lubec, the national cultural heritage exhibition.
Lucca Jazz Donna 2013 was dedicated in particular to instrumentalists, with a lively and flexible succession of sets in which sax, guitar, piano, double bass and drums provided exclusively female notes. There was also no shortage of important voices such as the very refined Barbara Casini, who elegantly crossed the musical world of Brazil, as well as Titta Nesti who involved the public in her constant search for sound.
When
This event generally takes place every year between July and September
Paid Event
For information, dates and events, visit the site indicated at the end of the article
The reported events may be subject to changes or cancellations.
It is always advisable to inquire in advance to confirm the event and the dates