“Life is a lot like jazz… it’s best when you improvise”, composer George Gershwin said once. If there is one genre that holds all the possible –and impossible– forms of reverie, that’s jazz. And in the Middle East, the Amman Jazz Festival displays them all.
The festival opened last month with the #JazzforSyria project, a mind-blowing simultaneous event organized by Syrian Music Lives that gathered 3 concerts from Beirut, Amman and The Hague (Netherlands) all connected via Internet broadcast and one common message of reconciliation.
There was an eclectic flavor on stage, with international talents like Japanese Yuichiro Tokuda, Italians Kekko Fornarelli & Roberto Cherillo, and insanely talented Ricardo García with his “Flamenco Flow”. Jordan’s Levant Quartet and Egyptian Ahmed Nazmi’s performances added Middle Eastern fusions, and the Syrious Mission Musicians & Children brought the crowds all up.
Now in its 3rd edition, the festival brings a local touch to a genre that holds diversity in its core, proving once more how world music festivals can rewrite the history of music.