International Jazz Week 2025

Puglia, Italy. Wednesday / Sunday 30-April / 04-May-2025. 

In 2011 UNESCO declared 30th April to be International Jazz Day to "celebrate the power of jazz as a force for peace, dialogue and mutual understanding". This year in Puglia we got a week of celebration with an International Jazz Week 2025 featuring the Itria Jazz Ensemble. 

By way of a warm up on Friday 25th we went to a jazz evening at a local restaurant, La Capese in Via Roma, with two friends Andrea and Elaine who were visiting for a week. The trio played some classic dinner jazz tunes and the guy on the left at the keyboards did a good Satchmo impression for a couple of the songs. It was clearly popular - the restaurant was fully booked.

Our friends' last night coincided with the opening night of the jazz festival in the beautiful Piazza Maria Immacolata in Martina Franca.

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing, doo-wop, doo-wop! The set list consisted of a collection of jazz standards.

The second night the festival moved to our town, Cisternino. It was supposed to be held in the Pineta Comunale, a small park overlooking the valley but as we stepped out into the street we found them setting up in Corso Umberto I. It seems they had decided that our street was a better location.

Since we had heard them the night before and had plans to see them again on Sunday in Locorotondo  we did not stay out for the concert but we did get a good birds-eye view of the concert from our terrace!

The last day of the festival and the penultimate concert was in Locorotondo. We met up with friends Ceri and David for music and lunch. 

The event was joined was a fife and drum group from Adelfia, a small town south of Bari, parading around the streets. Not an official part of the festival but they added to the festive atmosphere.

The concert itself was in the Villa Comunale, a small park just outside one of the gates into the old town.

A different atmosphere at lunchtime and considerably warmer than at Martina Franca. We got a fair amount of chat from the band leader who was particularly proud of the fact that all the towns where they performed were represented by members of the ensemble.

Afterwards we had a tasty, light pasta lunch just down the street at Pavì. A lovely way to round off the week.

Full timetable and Credits:

SETTIMANA INTERNAZIONALE DEL JAZZ

International Jazz Week 2025

• 30 aprile ore 20.00 Comune di MARTINA FRANCA Piazza Maria Immacolata
• 1 maggio ore 18.00 Comune di CISTERNINO Pineta Comunale
  con la partecipazione dei giovani talenti
• 2 maggio ore 19.00 Comune di CEGLIE MESSAPICA Salone del Castello Ducale (ingresso libero)
• 3 maggio ore 19.00 Comune di OSTUNI Piazza della Libertà
• 4 maggio ore 11.00 Comune di LOCOROTONDO Villa Comunale
• 4 maggio ore 19.00 Comune di FASANO Piazza Mercato Vecchio

ITRIA JAZZ ENSEMBLE

• MINO LACIRIGNOLA tromba / flicorna / dir.artistica 
• FRANCESCO MILONE sax
• GIUSEPPE ZIZZI trombone
• MARIO CARAMIA tromba 
• FRANCO ANGIULO trombone
• GIOVANNI BIANCHI tromba 
• ALDO DI PAOLO pianoforte
• CLAUDIO CHIARELLI sax 
• VITO BELLANOVA contrabbasso
• FRANCESCO GALIZIA sax 
• PASQUALE ANGELINI batteria
• GIUSEPPE SABATELLI sax 
• ANTONIO DILORENZO batteria
• FERDINANDO FILOMENO sax 
• CRISTINA LACIRIGNOLA vocalist