Sandro Zerafa, a Maltese jazz musician based in Paris, is artistic director of the Malta Jazz Festival and has a penchant for flowered shirts.

The Malta Jazz Festival has gone from strength to strength. In the 23 years since its inception by one of Malta’s greatest jazz artists, Charles City Gatt, it has become a favourite stop for touring artists.

The festival is actually a mixed bag of genres. Even if you are not a jazz fan per se, there is still a lot to entice. Audiences are what make a festival. So how does Zerafa hope to attract a broader audience?

‘’Festivals and radio stations tend to underestimate their audiences. They want to babysit and spoon-feed their audiences. A recurrent argument is that we have to give people what they like. I think that people will enjoy what’s on the play list, as long as it’s great music.’’

More jazz festivals are draining their budgets in non-jazz acts and there is little money left for the real thing

That is the responsibility of any artistic director. True to that point, in past editions of the Jazz Festival there have been bands and musicians, relatively unknown to the Maltese, who have completely seduced their audience – Tigran Hamasyan, Miguel Zenon, The Bad Plus, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ambrose Akinmusire and Jeremy Pelt, among others.

Festivals which want to reach huge audience figures inevitably end up booking non-jazz acts, because few jazz acts can attract a very large crowd and a substantial amount of jazz doesn’t sound right in very big venues.

‘’You need a certain level of intimacy and contact with the audience. Jazz will remain a niche art form. I think that, at the Malta Jazz Festival, we have the perfect formula. It’s held in a medium-sized venue, there is an eclectic programme which respects the jazz idiom and a local dimension which is constantly evolving. It’s always a question of finding the right balance.’’

To this end, Zerafa has been working hard in finding the right balance between the big names and the lesser known, bands who are still exciting and wowing audiences. Another challenge is that summer in Malta nowadays buzzes with cultural activities, hence competition is rife for audiences. This year, in fact, the Joseph Calleja annual concert clashes with the festival.

Zerafa wears two hats – one as jazz musician and one as artistic director. His average days must be somewhat crazy juggling differing, but exciting, roles embedded in the soul of jazz.

“It can get complicated with the obvious workload and the crazy sleep patterns, but being an artistic director gives great insight into the music business. And being a musician is a great asset to being an artistic director.’’

Immersed in a world of jazz, Zerafa is realistic as to where the jazz scene is globally.

“More and more talented musicians are emerging, but there are not enough venues. On top of that, the general trend nowadays is to favour a certain kind of jazz which bears little relation to the roots of this essentially American art form.

“Many jazz festivals are draining their budgets in non-jazz acts and there is little money left for the real thing. The market is saturated and festivals do not want to take any risks. Instead, they try to seduce the public with commercial easy-listening jazz or the kind of rock-infused, pseudo-jazz dominating the scene nowadays.’’

Zerafa’s personal jazz accomplishments have been well documented. Shuttling between Paris, London and Malta, he has just released a third album entitled The Bigger Picture on the Paris Jazz Underground label.

“I am very happy with this record and it has been well received by the press in France. It features some of my favourite musicians in Europe, from Yoni Zelnik to Laurent Coq, Fred Pasqua and Olivier Zanot.

“I am also particularly proud of another record, which was released this year on the 88Trees label – April Child – by the talented vocalist Jiji. I did the arrangements and the record features a special guest, the Brazilian icon Chico Buarque. Other than that, I work on a variety of side projects. With the Paris Jazz Underground collective (of which I am a founder member), we will be recording a new album soon. These last few months have been good, with various performances in Italy, London, Brazil, France, Poland and Germany.’’

I asked where he hopes to take the festival in the coming years and Zerafa says he would like to keep expanding the local dimension. In this way it will have an accountable impact on music education.

‘’I would love Malta to have a real jazz scene and a real jazz education programme in an environment which nurtures and seeks out networks with the international jazz scene. We are encouraging collaborations and creating partnerships between local and foreign artists. All this is bearing fruit. I think we are in the right direction.’’

This year’s festival line-up will showcase a variety of styles which constitute the contemporary jazz world, with the “mainstream rubbing shoulders with cutting-edge styles”.

The list includes Laurent Coq’s Dialogue Trio, Mehliana, Kneebody, Tom Harrell’s Colors of a Dream, the Brecker Brothers Band Reunion and Warren Wolf. The Maltese artists include Francesca Galea, winner of last year’s Malta Jazz Contest, the Dominic Galea Trio, Joe Camilleri’s trio and Paul Abela’s quintet.

Is a favourite moment before, during or after the festival, the moment which makes it all worthwhile for the director?

“Seeing younger crowds flock towards Ta’ Liesse is a great reward – a far cry from the prevalence of today’s jazz clubs and other festivals around the world. Mostly budding musicians, this young crowd is what will keep the Malta Jazz Festival’s flavour aptly stirred up to keep growing from strength to strength.”

The Malta Jazz Festival takes place between July 17 and 19 at Ta’ Liesse, Valletta, and is presented by the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts. A full programme is available online.

www.maltajazzfestival.org