The night of Saturday, July 15, saw the finale of the Malta Jazz Festival, the country’s longest-running annual music event and a treasured staple in its cultural calendar.

The weekend’s triple-bill concert welcomed Ukraine-based Maltese saxophonist Carlo Muscat, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and vocalist Kurt Elling for an event that closed an almost week-long celebration of jazz and world-class performances.

Taking place at Valletta’s Ta’ Liesse waterfront against the stunning backdrop of the Grand Harbour, the large stage dominated the quayside, with chairs and food and drink outlets arranged in front crea­ting an inviting and casual atmosphere.

The audience on the quayside was joined by an enthusiastic crowd watching from the top of the fortifications to the side of the stage, those above craning their necks to get a better view of the festivities below and joining in with applause.

Carlo Muscat

Muscat opened the performance, joined onstage by piano, bass and drums. The performance proved a thoughtful and well-chosen opening to the evening, replete with driving swing numbers and reflective ballads.

All four players onstage exhibited strongly melodic playing, a quality that was especially noticeable in William Smith’s use of floor toms while soloing, and Muscat’s deftly woven improvised lines throughout the swing numbers.

Maltese saxophonist Carlo Muscat. Photo: Joe Smith

Particularly enjoyable was bassist Konstantin Ionenko’s accenting of certain notes through inventive use of rhythm and touch, and pianist Yuriy Seredin’s lush chord voicings, artfully creating dissonance while always sounding full.

Smith’s excellent use of lower register complemented Muscat’s treacle-like tone throughout the performance, supported by Smith and Ionenko to create a focused and determined sound throughout.

Kurt Rosenwinkel

Rosenwinkel was next up as the evening progressed and the stage’s striking blue lights were switched on, illuminating the stage and nearby fortification walls and offset by glimmering lights from the Three Cities across the harbour.

The American guitarist demonstrated an easy fluidity in his playing – his fast improvised lines articulated lightly and flavoured in places by authentic rock and blues-influenced notes.

His band revealed an easy simpatico throughout, the musicians’ shared sense of rhythm, space and timbre creating a unified aesthetic that was particularly noticeable in the well-matched sounds of bassist Doug Weiss and drummer Gregory Hutchinson.

In a departure from Muscat’s earlier performance, Rosenwinkel’s repertoire included some funk numbers. These were all thoroughly enjoyable and made all the more stimulating by Nicola Andrioli’s stunning use of keyboards and Weiss’ surprisingly idiomatic sound on upright bass.

Guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. Photo: Joe Smith

The choice of combining keyboards and piano simultaneously was a successful one, Andrioli’s left-hand use of piano providing a percussive accompaniment to the organ sounds in the right.

The piano introduction to one piece towards the middle of the set was particularly sublime, featuring stimulating descending clusters of notes that were joined gradually – and at first almost imperceptibly – by Hutchinson.

Rosenwinkel’s malleable yet distinctive tone matched perfectly with the keyboard, the pair’s unison moments an engaging highlight. Meanwhile, Hutchinson’s artful sense of space never detracted from his driving sense of rhythm, providing a sense of purpose across the set.

Kurt Elling

The Grammy Award-winning American vocalist closed the evening and the festival, joined onstage by guitarist Charlie Hunter, drummer Corey Fonville and DJ Harrison on keys.

Elling’s effortlessly cool performance was punctuated by the now traditional fireworks displays across the harbour, though these never threatened to throw the world-class musicians on stage.

A celebration of jazz and world-class performances

An engaging and confident frontman, Elling soon had the audience on its feet, an area in front and to the side of the stage turned into a makeshift dance floor full of people swaying and bobbing to the performance’s infectious grooves.

Fonville’s determined drumming supported the band excellently, driving the tempo forward and maintaining an energetic atmosphere for those dancing.

Meanwhile, Harrison’s synth and keyboard playing was enjoyable throughout, his contributions in the set’s opening number satisfyingly setting the scene for the piece.

His sensitive Fender Rhodes work under the vocals in some of the performance’s quieter moments added colour and character, too, and contrasted well with some of his more expeditionary playing elsewhere in the set.

An engaging and unusual aspect to the performance was Hunter’s use of hybrid guitar, allowing the stellar player to play both bass lines and harmonies simultaneously.

This was used to great effect, transcending any danger of novelty to create a stunningly unified and colourful aesthetic and providing a unique contribution to the ensemble’s sound.

Elling’s set was well programmed, featuring more swing-based numbers at the start before moving to those with a distinctly funk and groove-based feel.

His impressive stage presence was matched by his prodigious vocal abilities, flexibly employed to suit his eclectic repertoire. Elling’s sparing use of vibrato worked well, allowing his lightly gravelled vocal timbre to shine through and accenting choice notes effectively and tastefully. 

He demonstrated a light-hearted and joyful attitude throughout the performance, in one instance cheekily offering to change the lyrics of one well-known song: “He’s got the whole world in his hands – or, if you prefer – she’s got the whole world, in her hands.”

Nonetheless, this playful treatment of the music never served to undermine his considerable technique, his artful improvisation exhibiting expertly executed turns and other ornamentation reminiscent of the great horn players.

All in all, the evening proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable affair, joyfully closing six days of performances, jam sessions and workshops.

In presenting yet another creatively programmed and excellently managed festival, artistic director Sandro Zerafa and his team have shown that the appetite and appreciation for jazz in Malta is as strong as ever, and perhaps more than ever before.

I look forward to next year.