01.09.2021, by Giacomo Luperini

After the pandemic brought live music to a grinding halt, this autumn we once again begin to perform, to organize festivals and to export our music all around the world.

At long last, a musical October for Ponderosa Music & Art. Seventeen dates for ten artists all around Italy (and some in the United Arab Emirates), as well as two long-awaited festivals.

We begin right here in Italy, where our friends Cristina Donà, Davide Boosta Dileo, Redi Hasa, Giovanni Truppi and Mauro Durante & Justin Adams, after providing the soundtrack to our summer, bring their respective live tours to a close. Two “newcomers” have been added to the list: Les Négresses Vertes and the collaboration between Guano Padano and Sam Amidon.

The first date on our calendar, October 1st, will bring to the stage a spectacular collaboration between folk poly-instrumentalist Sam Amidon and Italian-American trio Guano Padano (whose geographical roots are in Italy, but whose vision and sound are much closer to American psychedelic folk) as part of Modena’s Dig Festival.

October will also offer two more dates to catch a performance by rock singer-songwriter Cristina: on October 2nd in the Sala Pretassi of Rome’s Auditorium Parco della Musica di Roma, and on the 9th in Parma, at the Teatro Farnese. For his part, Davide Boosta Dileo, co-founder of Subsonica, will play one last solo date, on October 2nd at the Festival Tensioni in Rovigo.

Giovanni Truppi will bring his 2021 Ponderosa tour to a close on October 16th at Turin’s Salone del Libro book expo, where he will present his first book (of which we have already talked extensively in our articles). Mauro Durante and Justin Adams are also ending the tour which precedes the release of their next album. October 6th will be your last chance to see them perform live, as part of the Ahymè Festival in Parma, at the city’s Museo d’Arte Cinese ed Etnografico.

A single Italian date is scheduled for folk-rock French band Les Negrésses Vertes, whose musical style is close to patchanka, a chaotic mixture of elements from different Latin musical cultures, but with a decidedly punk soul. You will be able to see them perform live on October 28th at Turin’s Hiroshima Mon Amour.

Three substantial dates are instead scheduled for Redi Hasa. The musical explorer will bring his new project “The Stolen Cello Deluxe” onstage in Florence on October 9th, as part of Music Concentus at Sala Vanni. On October 30th he will play at Santeria Toscana 31 as part of JAZZMI, finishing up on October 31st with a performance at Rome’s Auditorium Parco della Musica.

Alongside tours and performances by individual musicians, Ponderosa carries on with its prestigious festivals as well:
Finnish musical icon Kimmo Pohjonen will perform on October 7th at Volvo Studio di Milano, the only October date of our Autunno Boreale festival (read more about it here).

A much more complex apparatus of performances is in the cards for JAZZMI 2021, scheduled to take place entirely in the month of October, from the 21st to the 31st, with the whole city of Milan as its stage. To learn more about each of the festival’s dates, you can find our other articles on the topic at the bottom of this page.

Team Ponderosa is also about to migrate to an exotic location, namely the United Arab Emirates, for Expo Dubai 2020, taking place this year after being cancelled last year due to the pandemic. The exposition, running from October 1st 2021 to March 31st 2022, will host several concerts and events by Ponderosa in its Italian Pavilion.

Two manouche ensembles will perform in Dubai in the month of October, inaugurating this Ponderosa mini-festival in the UAE: on October 14th, 15th and 16th the stage will go the Woody Gipsy Band, the gipsy-jazz ensemble with a rock&roll heart formed by Stefano Ivan Scarascia on keyboards, Michele Ionis Rusconi on guitar, Tommaso Fiorini on double bass and Andrea Spampinato on drums.

Expo Dubai 2020 will also host a performance by Four on Six, another long-standing ensemble who was able to merge jazz with classical music and traditional Italian melodies. The band will perform three not-to-be-missed shows on October 21st, 22nd and 23rd.

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