This year Jazz:Re:Found festival set an important milestone as it achieved its’ fifteenth consecutive edition (with the obvious exception of 2020), joining a very restricted club of music events that are considered unmissable when it comes to the Italian scene.
Having settled itself in the awe-inspiring hilly village of Cella Monte, located in North-West Italy’s Monferrato region, this was the coming of age year for Jazz:Re:Found, as it featured its’ biggest lineup to date, spread through four days.
Jazz:Re:Found’s stunning location: the village of Cella Monte
We wouldn’t be able to write about this festival without writing about its’ home, as the two are as intertwined as it can get. Building a festival on a UNESCO site on top of a hill far from any major city is an extremely challenging logistical task, but it could also be a massive risk in socials terms. What I’d like to underline is that Jazz:Re:Found managed to become a natural extension of the village, and is warmly welcomed back year after year by the locals; being able to do this is a massive achievement, especially if you look at the average age of the inhabitants, who certainly aren’t used to such gatherings, and it was made possible by the loving and educated audience gathered throughout its’ years in different locations.
Walking through the cobbled paved streets, stopping for a raw meat sandwich at the local butcher shop, grabbing a glass of wine from one of the local winegrowers’ stands, or simply admiring the historical buildings, is the perfect way to get in tune in with Cella Monte and learning to respect it as your own town. With 12000 tickets sold throughout the weekend, there was a small risk of even negligible damage to the town, but none happened. The staff worked busily to accommodate the festival-goers and their needs with precision, and everything turned out very well. There could have been a few more portable toilets placed around town on Saturday night, but all things considered there wasn’t any massive inconvenience; we heard from people who were staying in the camping area that there weren’t enough showers though, a criticality to address next year.
But, what about the music?
To the music now: we had the pleasure to be at Jazz:Re:Found on Friday and Saturday, enjoying the much varied music scattered throughout five stages – Mainstage, Ecomuseo, San Quirico, and La Casaccia.
We started by visiting the suggestive Ecomuseo stage, where brick buildings and a majestic bell tower frame a green lawn from which one is able to admire the bordering town of Rosignano Monferrato, similarly located on top of a hill. Ecomuseo hosted both DJ sets and live performances, and we were greeted at our arrival by the warm, infectious grooves of Jazz:Re:Found’s resident DJ Cristian Bevilacqua, who opened for Belgian duo Lander & Adriaan; the two youngsters delivered a set of syncopated drum-work and catchy synthesized lines, breaking the barriers between jungle drum ‘n’ bass and nu-jazz with a hint of 90’s rave nostalgia.
The San Quirico stage hill
At the same time, on top of the San Quirico stage hill, British jazz-dance masters Gilles Peterson and Patrick Forge were heating up the crowd as they were doing in the ‘90s with their residency at Dingwalls club in London; during their three-hour back-to-back set some familiar faces popped up in the background, one above many being nonother than legendary DJ and producer “Lil” Louie Vega, who would later headline Friday’s night on the Mainstage. It struck me because many “superstar” DJs who are on non-stop world tours would only arrive at the venue in time for their performance then leave; on the contrary Vega, who already performed at Jazz:Re:Found in 2022, arrived the day before just to enjoy himself and listen to some great live music, and was now vibin’ to Peterson & Forge’s masterly selection together with all the attendees, shaking hands and posing for pictures. I wouldn’t dare to call it a unique situation, but certainly a rare sight, facilitated by the easy-going atmosphere of this festival.
Moving onto the main stage
The Mainstage opened at 8pm, hosting German composer Nils Frahm with his modular synthesizers. Slow-building electronic sounds that bridged between ambient music and neo-classical with a cinematic touch, enchanted the audience who were quietly listening in a quasi-religious way, starstruck by the immense composing and performing talent of mr. Frahm. It was hard to top that, but with Gilles Peterson taking control of the decks for the next two hours, the crowd was delighted with a sensibly different, yet equally fun, dose of great music; the British DJ and BBC Radio host delivered a solid, no-nonsense set of everything house music, with some excursions in foreign sonic territories, before leaving the controls to Louie Vega. The NYC legend schooled the crowd with an elegant selection of jazzy and soulful house, before diving into more techy atmospheres.
After his set, the crowd could choose between the “Dancing” stage located on the opposite side of the Mainstage, where Khalab was in charge, or the San Quirico hill, home to many late-night sweaty parties since 2019. We had a taste of both, starting from Khalab’s very interesting live set, a dive into Tribal-influenced electronica, then moving to Zohar’s thumping, bass-loaded set on top of the hill, certainly the heaviest of the day.
From Friday to Saturday
Saturday started early, with many activities taking place in town, such as a star-studded talk at La Casaccia focusing of on culture-shaping Jazz magazine Straight No Chaser. With many great DJs taking turns at La Casaccia, Ecomuseo and San Quirico since midday, we really were in for a treat. San Quirico hosted the infectious energy of London trio Handson Family, Jazz:Re:Found’s resident MaNu!, and bonafide legend Mr. Scruff, with the latter taking the crowd on a dancing journey from sunset to night. At Ecomuseo, Belgian Nu-Jazz trio KAU stole the show with their intricated interplay, before Milan-based selector Luca Barcellona took us on a journey to the Middle East with a well-built set of whimsical rare grooves from that corner of the world.
With Cella Monte packed with music fans, Saturday got to its heart with the Mainstage performances of American multi-instrumentalist Elise Trouw and Italian heavyweight producer Dardust. From a production standpoint, everything was fine, except for the total silence in between sets; we thought even some background music could have solved the issue, as the production team prepared the stage for the following act. Closing the Mainstage was one of the most acclaimed DJs in the biz, Ben UFO, who masterfully mixed everything from deep house to mainstage weapons, with great response from the crowd. The afterparty was curated by Italian house and disco veterans Luca Trevisi and Gino Grasso, while Jazz:Re:Found habituè Lefto was on duty at San Quirico and made the packed hill move as one until 3am.
Jazz:Re:Found, a festival you must visit at least once in a lifetime
We left Cella Monte after two intense days of reporting and shooting, and obviously partying, satisfied with what was a unique experience. Few festivals in the world have the capability to offer such an all-round experience of great music, great places, great food and beverages, and most importantly great people, all of this put together to almost perfection by a knowledgeable staff. With a few measures taken, this festival has all the cards to get to the next level.
With its’ fifteenth edition, we can really state that Jazz:Re:Found has freed itself from the “best kept secret” label that it was occasionally attached to, and should be now part of everybody’s bucket list for the next summer.
