The Umbria Jazz fest is to stage two free shows in Norcia's quake-hit Piazza di San Benedetto, outside the destroyed iconic basilica of St Benedict, on the weekend of July 1-2 aimed at giving a score to "the desire for a future", organisers said.
Before its summer fest in Perugia from July 7 to 16, Umbria Jazz will place its stage in the centre of the city wrecked by last year's earthquake for two totally free musical evenings.
On Saturday July there will be Renzo Arbore and his Orchestra Italiana, followed by, on Sunday July 2, the latest edition of Blood Sweat and Tears, the historic American jazz-rock combo celebrating its 50th anniversary.
The two days also envisage the Tuscan street band Funk Off, which has appeared at Umbria Jazz for years in its winter and summer editions and also abroad, and the Gam Scorpions, a band created by the meeting between Giovanni Guidi, one of the top talents in the new generation of Italian jazz musicians, and a group of African singers, all refugees and asylum seekers.
There will also be a jazz lunch in a central restaurant with the gypsy trio Accordi Disaccordi. With this Norcia event, organisers said, "Umbria Jazz returns to its roots, when the scene of the concerts were the piazzas of a region that was showing off its history".
Today the goal is to "give a hand to help these areas and their communities start off again and keep the floodlights of the country and the world trained on the wounded heart of Italy".
The weekend in Norcia is not meant to be an isolated event, organisers said.
There are plans, with the backing of the culture ministry, to repeat the event next year.
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