The Malta Jazz Festival

The Malta Jazz Festival has been made possible by the generous amount of support made available by the Government, the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts and local sponsors. Its success depends on the efforts of many individuals working at the Culture Division and with other private companies.

Apart from the hard work from weeks prior to the event, they have to stick around for long hours during the festival days as they have to improvise to solve unpredictable problems. They have to deal with flight delays, solve new problems with visas, meet sound-check times and see to the individual needs of some 60 or more artists.

Much ado has been made about the Jazz Festival time limit on Friday, July 16. This has been a one-off situation. It was not repeated on Saturday or Sunday. On Friday each band had to play for 50 minutes. Of course, like all other bands the Yellowjackets could have played for longer and the audience would have loved it. However, due to some of the problems described above, we were delayed and we could not afford to have the Yellowjackets play an encore.

The Jazz Festival has always explored a variety of musical styles in its effort to satisfy the purist, the enthusiast and the newcomer alike. Part of the music has to cater for anyone present. We cannot have the whole festival for a chosen few. This is the trend that makes festivals work. An open-air jazz festival should not have the formality and rigidity of a concert-hall. That is why we invite groups from Latin America to which the audience can dance.

In the same vein we use the 20-minute break for friends to meet. We normally have attentive music enthusiasts hanging around with all kinds of artistic types, professional people, MPs and other well-behaved visitors, young and old. We do not normally have the lager louts referred to by one local musician who never bothered to turn up except for a single night some six or seven years ago.

For economic reasons the festival is held in July to coincide with other festivals in Europe. What makes us really different is our choice of venue. Anyone can hire the same musicians but no one can emulate the atmosphere we have at Ta' Liesse. Al di Meola described it as a "postcard". In Joe Zawinul's words, "Nowhere beats this venue," and Chick Corea said it was the best open-air venue that he had ever played at. Those who bother to attend know that every year the venue gets such favourable comments from our many award-winning artists.

The festival itself has had write-ups in the world's leading jazz magazines by reporters from Europe and the USA. Building on its earlier successes the festival keeps its "lustre and prestige" mainly through the choice of artists.

I would like to believe that Val Valente's criticism (The Sunday Times, July 25) was not preconceived or inspired by ill will. It is remarkable that in his seemingly feverish hunt for negative criticism he deals more with what goes on near the bar and elsewhere and avoids all issues dealing with the music. I can assure him that those who attended this year's festival had the chance to hear some world class live music while sitting on a comfortable chair (surely not a back-breaking wooden one).

On the local and educational side it would be safe to assume that the festival's impact on our young musicians has been steadily growing. The audience at the festival could appreciate the effort made by the Johann Strauss Big Band under the tuition and direction of Paul Abela with special guests Gabriele Comeglio and singer Joe Cutajar. Everyone present remarked that they have achieved a sound quality not normally expected from local big bands.

Here one can mention the very well attended workshops given at the School of Music every year during the festival. Sponsored by the American Embassy, the goal of these workshops is to provide hands-on musical opportunities that are meaningful and have a lasting impact on our young and old musicians.

This happens to be one of the very rare occasions that I write about the festival. If I may I would like to show my appreciation to all those who gave us their support throughout the years. Special mention should go to Minister Francis Zammit Dimech who has supported the festival not only now as Minister of Culture but even at its very early years when he gave us his backing through the Valletta Rehabilitation Project.