English
What one day was the capital of an empire, the Austrian-Hungarian, today boasts of that glorious past, showing hundreds of different daces. Impressive palaces (the Hofburg Imperial Palace, the spectacular Schönbrunn Palace, with all of its French-style gardens, the Belvedere palaces…), large gardens (such as the Prater) an so many museums that have opened in a district for themselves await the visitor with their far-away steps and close-by voices. However, Vienna offers even more. The traveller in search of beauty won´t just feed off plastic art. What can we say about Vienna´s lively music scene? Who doesn´t know about the New Year´s Concert or those that take place on certain Advent days? And who wouldn´t want to go to one of these galas? Of course, any music fan who thinks of himself as such. However, the traveller who is in Vienna in the early summer, with its colourful flower beds cut in hedges adorn the city, must not miss this event: the Vienna Jazz Festival.
From the 25th of June until the 9th of July, during two intense weeks, one of the most popular and busy (due to its quality and intensity) music festivals in the world takes place in the city in different venues throughout it. Vienna moves around these rhythms that originated in Mississippi, and the whole city prepares itself for this event. The Vienna State Opera (Staatsoper), the Konzerthaus, the Town Hall and Gallery, Jazzland, Porgy & Bess venues, Miles Smiles or Wuk will be at the disposal of the music fans, offering non-stop concerts as well as documentaries, films based on blues protagonists, conferences, talks and masterclasses… as well as everything that we can ask from music.
Divided in four sections (Emerging talents, Legendary Voices, Guitar Masters and Around the World), you can enjoy this festival with the unmistakeable sounds of Melody Gardot and her band, Eric Burdon, Keith Jarrett and more… As usual in 21st century events, you can buy tickets, look for information, programmes and news on this event on the official webpage: http://www.viennajazz.org/
Jazz has its die-hard fans, there´s no need to even ay that. The swing that comes from the southern parts of North America, where men and women who had no freedom waved away a painful life dedicated to hard labour with almost ritual sounds, has extended around other parts of the world. Jazz sings to solitude and loss, to pain and love, to injustice and heroics, to the native land and to all the citizens of the world, and that´s why it has taken over the hearts of those who find in music food for the soul and drink for the spirit. Just like flamenco, it comes from the inside; it´s universal and personal; it´s studied, but one expects from it a good improvisation that can´t be picked up in an album because if there´s a genre that deserves to be enjoyed live, that´s jazz.
The video is Melody Gardot and ´Baby, I´m a fool´. Music, views from your apartments in Vienna good company, a drink… and the world, if it wants, can spin to the rhythm of jazz.
