The BargaJazz Festival is well under way, with audiences enjoying an almost daily programme of concerts in Barga and across the surrounding area.
But when the official concert finishes and the audience begins to make its way home, another part of BargaJazz is only just getting started.
It is called Enojazz.
The traditional BargaJazz after-hours jam session has never been exactly a secret, but neither is it something that receives a great deal of publicity. There are no carefully arranged programmes and often no real indication of what is going to happen. Musicians simply arrive, take out their instruments and play.
This year Enojazz has found a home at Pub 46, where musicians involved in the festival have been gathering after the evening concerts for sessions which can continue well into the night.
For the musicians themselves, these late-night encounters have long been one of the most enjoyable — and perhaps most important — parts of BargaJazz.
During the day there are rehearsals, soundchecks, arrangements and concert programmes. Musicians know what they are going to play and, particularly during the days of the BargaJazz arrangement and composition competition, much of their time is spent working within the demanding structure of a large jazz orchestra.
At Enojazz all of that changes.
There is no orchestra to organise, no programme to follow and very little separation between performers and audience. Someone starts playing, another musician joins in, a rhythm section forms and the music develops from there.
Musicians who may never normally have the opportunity to play together suddenly find themselves sharing the same small stage. Generations mix. Instruments change hands. Someone sitting at a table one moment may be playing a few minutes later.
For the audience it offers a completely different way of experiencing the festival.
Instead of sitting in rows in a theatre or in front of a concert stage, people gather around the musicians with a drink, often only a few metres from the music. Players come and go during the evening and nobody can be entirely certain who will be playing — or what they will be playing — half an hour later.
That unpredictability is precisely the point.
Jam sessions have always been an important part of jazz. Away from the formal concert stage they provide a place where musicians can listen to each other, exchange ideas, test themselves and, above all, play for the pleasure of playing.
Enojazz has been doing exactly that in Barga for many years.
The venue has changed several times as the festival itself has evolved. In 2013 and 2014, for example, the sessions took place at Villa Libano, where musicians arrived after their concerts and continued playing into the early hours. In 2016, Enojazz moved to the Shamrock Irish Pub.
At different moments it became almost a small festival within BargaJazz, bringing together musicians and jazz enthusiasts and sometimes including exhibitions and other events alongside the late-night music.
The location may change, the musicians certainly change and nobody really knows what will happen on any particular night, but the basic idea has remained remarkably simple.
Finish the concert. Find somewhere to meet. Take out the instruments. Play.
And perhaps that is why Enojazz remains such an important part of BargaJazz.
The concerts in the theatre, the piazzas and the villages are the public face of the festival. They are rehearsed, programmed and announced in advance.
But late at night there is another BargaJazz taking place.
It is smaller, closer and considerably less predictable — a festival after the festival, where musicians who have already spent most of the day making music meet again and discover that, apparently, they still haven’t had enough.
Previous Enojazz evenings and sessions can be found in the Barganews archives, offering a glimpse back through the many musicians, venues and late nights that have formed this less visible history of BargaJazz.
Go back in time to the past Enojazz events and evenings from the barganews archives here
Il BargaJazz Festival è ormai entrato nel vivo, con il pubblico che sta seguendo un programma quasi quotidiano di concerti a Barga e nei paesi del territorio.
Ma c’è anche un’altra parte del festival — una parte importante — che non è esattamente nascosta, anche se raramente viene molto pubblicizzata.
Comincia quando il concerto ufficiale è finito.
Enojazz, la tradizionale jam session notturna di BargaJazz, è il momento in cui i musicisti che partecipano al festival possono ritrovarsi alla fine della serata, mettere da parte programmi e arrangiamenti e semplicemente sedersi e suonare.
Quest’anno le sessioni si svolgono al Pub 46, dove i musicisti si ritrovano a tarda sera per incontri informali che possono continuare fino a notte inoltrata.
Per i musicisti stessi, Enojazz è sempre stato uno dei momenti più piacevoli — e forse anche uno dei più importanti — di BargaJazz. Durante il giorno provano, preparano e si esibiscono all’interno della struttura del festival. Dopo i concerti, invece, tutto diventa molto meno formale. Musicisti che normalmente non suonano insieme si ritrovano nello stesso piccolo spazio, si ascoltano, si scambiano assoli e vedono dove li porterà la musica.
C’è pochissima distanza tra musicisti e pubblico. La gente siede ai tavoli con qualcosa da bere mentre i musicisti suonano a pochi metri di distanza, entrando e uscendo dalla formazione mentre la jam prende forma.
È una tradizione che attraversa molti anni della storia di BargaJazz.
Nel corso del tempo Enojazz si è spostato in diversi locali e spazi di Barga. Nel 2013 e nel 2014, per esempio, le sessioni si tenevano a Villa Libano, dove i musicisti arrivavano dopo i concerti della sera e continuavano a suonare fino alle prime ore del mattino. Nel 2016 le sessioni notturne si trasferirono allo Shamrock Irish Pub.
Con gli anni Enojazz è diventato quasi un piccolo festival dentro il festival, facendo incontrare musicisti, appassionati di jazz e pubblico intorno alla musica.
Ed è forse ancora questo il modo migliore per descriverlo.
I concerti sono il volto pubblico di BargaJazz, ma a tarda notte c’è un altro festival che continua — più piccolo, informale e spontaneo, con musicisti che suonano semplicemente perché, dopo aver passato tutta la giornata a fare musica, evidentemente non ne hanno ancora avuto abbastanza.
Tornate indietro nel tempo per scoprire le serate Enojazz e le jam session degli anni passati nell’archivio di barganews qui.
