The Blues Brothers for jazz event
Festival to run between July 21 and 23
The original Blues Brothers line-up will be among the headliners at this year's Malta Jazz Festival, which has been overhauled to stretch the musical boundaries.
Fronted by Eddie Floyd, one of the legends of rhythm and blues, the band will be adding soul and the odd moment of madness to the festival which runs between July 21 and 23.
The management of the popular festival, this year in its 16th edition, has been entrusted to NnG Promotions, the same organisation which is importing Sting and Roger Waters.
Evidently the organisers have opted for more mainstream music in an attempt to entice bigger audiences, though the move has sounded a discordant tune with some jazz enthusiasts.
The soul/funk outfit Thabani and Maltese band Noir will play on the opening night.
The highlight of the evening will undoubtedly be The Blues Brothers who earned legendary status with the cult film in the 1980s. Floyd recorded for several others artists, including Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding, and wrote the classic Knock On Wood in 1965, which was a resounding success.
The second night will run on a more jazzy vein with Bill Bruford's Earthworks featuring Tim Garland, Tunnels featuring Percy Jones, and Emily Bazar.
The last night of the festival will open with Renzo Spiteri plus guests, followed by Ian Ritchie's Soho Project, incidentally a saxophonist with Roger Waters, and will sign off on a commercial note with progressive master Alan Parsons Project.
The Alan Parsons Project spawned a series of hits in the 1970s and 1980s like Eye in the Sky, Sirius and What Goes Up, winning several awards in the process.
The festival is to be shifted towards Crucifix Wharf, some 300 metres from the usual venue by the fish market.
Asked to reply to claims by jazz purists that the festival had lost its soul, Nigel Camilleri from NnG told a news conference: "The soul of the festival are the people who go there. This is an opportunity to make the festival bigger."
He added that several of the main jazz festivals across Europe are including mainstream names to their line-ups to make it more accessible to the public.
While paying tribute to former festival organiser Charles Gatt, Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said the festival had retained excellent standards throughout the years.
Dr Zammit Dimech noted that Malta has never had such a chain of high profile artistes playing live in such a short span of time. He said that a summer festival to be announced shortly will also feature an evening of pure jazz. Tickets for the jazz festival will go on sale shortly and will be available from all The Matrix and Vodafone outlets.