All That Jazz

“Un. Deux,” he says into the mic.

Then, “Superb!” In French.

It is sound check time at the Jazz Fest in Ascona. When the mics are right, it’s “Grazie mille,” many thanks: French and Italian from an English band playing American music in Switzerland.

This two-week music festival features an international mish mash of gospel tributes, big band, blues and New Orleans Dixieland jazz, set along the Lake Maggiore waterfront of Ascona, a village-like town in the part of southern Switzerland so influenced by Italy that the official language is Italian.

We walk through winding, narrow, cobblestoned streets to arrive at the waterfront, and follow our ears to various stages of international musicians. I wonder, as we listen to The Big Band Connection playing Glenn-Miller style numbers like Begin the Beguine and Satin Doll, whether Swiss horn players are less spontaneous in their improvisation, or more, or just different. The players line up for their turn to solo, which strikes me as a little more organized than what I’ve seen in the States – or maybe that’s just big band vs. smaller ensembles?

The band is set up in the main tent, complete with café tables and a bar, plus Lindy Hop dancers. Swiss ones. Good ones.

We find that, at many of the stages, the European audiences are reserved, compared to Americans. Not much hootin’ and hollerin’ after a hot bass solo, for example (except from me, the loud American I guess). Not much dancing, either, except for here in this tent, where a floor is set aside just for this purpose. At the blues stage, no one gets up at all, but the music is so irresistible we start our own dance floor (and later, the Lindy hoppers come and take over).

One of my favorite scenes this night is a side street filled with audience, all standing, looking up a slight incline to the stage where Mrs. Betty Lastie Williams pays tribute to gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson. These deep, heart-based songs –prayer, with an earthy, driving beat—have even this reserved crowd of (almost entirely white) Europeans swaying. Not all of them. But enough so you can tell they are moved.

Magic.

Photo of Big Jay McNeely by fotopedrazzini.ch