Beautiful jazz in beautiful places in Orvieto, Italy

The central Italian town of Orvieto (about an hour’s drive north of Rome) is getting ready to launch the 16^th edition of Umbria Jazz Winter, which runs from Dec. 30 to Jan. 4.

Headliners this year include Vaneese Thomas, Stefano Bollani and the Lionel Loueke Trio.

But it’s not just the musicians who make this festival special. It’s the beautiful and historic venues in Orvieto, including the Teatro Mancinelli built in 1886 and the 13^th century Palazzo dei Sette.

There will be a New Year’s Eve jazz bash in the Ristorante San Francesco, part of a medieval monastery, and a gospel mass in the Duomo the next day.

Not to mention the New Orleans-style marching bands that parade around old Orvieto throughout the festival.

Alora … let the good times roll.

– Susan Spano, L.A. Times staff writer

[Photos: Orvieto Jazz Festival]

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 26, 2008 at 12:45 pm by Susan Spano and is filed under Arts & Culture, Europe, Italy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.