This was the year that Pat Metheny and Umbria Jazz finally made peace. Highly popular in Italy, Metheny had never appeared at Umbria Jazz due to his management’s rock-oriented demands. This time, however, he did come, but not with his usual band, but with a quartet which he fronted together with John Scofield, plus Steve Swallow and Bill Stewart making up the rhythm section.
It was also the year of a couple of significant reappearances: that of George Russell’s wonderful Living Time Orchestra, playing once again at St. Francis’ church, and the second, consecutive appearance of Caetano Veloso, marking the new Brazilian flavour that the Festival was to acquire for a number of years, furthered by the presence of other important musicians from that country, namely Gilberto Gil, Djavan and Gal Costa. Another act to make its return to Umbria Jazz was Charles Hayden’s Liberati Orchestra, this time performing an intense concert in St. Francis’ church where, upon the leader’s request, the amplification was kept as low as possible, and the public was forced to hold its breath to hear the music played.
