Jazz Journal 28/04/2914: Malta’s 24th annual jazz festival returns this summer to the open-air setting of Ta’Liesse, Valletta, Malta from 17 to 19 July.
Headliners this year include Tom Harrell's Colors of a Dream (featuring Esperanza Spalding), Brad Mehldau's and Mark Guiliana's Mehliana, and Randy Brecker's Brecker Bros Reunion Band, the latter revisiting the seminal fusion album Heavy Metal Bebop. Other acts confirmed to appear include the Laurent Coq Dialogue Trio, Kneebody, and Warren Wolf, as well as a selection of local and fringe artists.
The festival has passed through various manifestations since it was founded by Charles Gatt in 1991. The current artistic director Sandro Zerafa told Jazz Journal: “The festival was outsourced to a private company from 2006 to 2008. The result was a watered-down populist approach with few 'real' jazz acts. The Malta Council for Culture and the Arts took the festival back in 2009 under my artistic direction and it has been...read on.
