A super UJW featuring one of the greatest, most passionate exponents of jazz, the double-bass player Charlie Haden, a member of Ornette Coleman’s quartets and enthusiastic leader of the Liberation Orchestra. Haden came in Orvieto to combine the sounds of his double bass with those of three splendid fellow musicians perfectly suited to Haden’s world of music: the first, Brad Mehldau, a pianist on the road to fame; the second, the jazz veteran and highly-original, creative pianist Paul Bley; the third, Richard Galliano with his passionate accordion playing.
Billy Higgins made his return to the Festival: Higgins, another musician who grew up alongside Ornette Coleman, was an incredible drummer who despite his ill-health was very passionate about his music. The larger groups included an orchestra – the Mingus Big Band – with a mission to keep alive the memory and music of one of jazz’s true greats, Charles Mingus. Finally, UJW’s days were filled out with the music of one of the greatest vibraphonists around, Bobby Hutcherson.
