The Umbria Jazz Festival, directed by Carlo Pagnotta, is one of the most important jazz festivals in the world and has been held annually since 1973. Today, the summer festival runs for 10 days in Perugia, capital of Umbria.

From the Hot Club to the rise of an iconic festival

“I would stop friends on the street, ask them for a 1000 lire and say: from now on you are a member of the Hot Club Perugia.”

Carlo Pagnotta, born in 1933, thus recounts the birth of the Hot Club Perugia. This idea took shape in the early 1950s from conversations in a record store in Perugia between him and a small group of jazz enthusiasts. From the experience of the Hot Club – the concerts of Louis Armstrong in 1955 at the Teatro Morlacchi and Chet Baker in 1956 at the Sala dei Notari remain historical – the urgency to create an event to provide a cultural alternative with international jazz names and a chance for tourism and notoriety for the beloved Umbria region.

So Carlo founded Umbria Jazz, of which he immediately became artistic director, a role he still has today. The year is 1973, and a history of great successes, challenging moments and an inexhaustible passion begins, leading Umbria Jazz to change, modify, and evolve, always remaining focused on the main objective of linking a global vision to the promotion of a great small region.

Over time, strengthened by its reception and the memory of its many editions, UJ’s DNA has preserved the spirit of such historic concerts as those of Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, the torrential live performances of Sonny Rollins, Sting meeting Gil Evans, the soft tenor sax of Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Ornette Coleman, elusive João Gilberto, Quincy Jones, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, the encounter with different styles of music, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Eric Clapton, Santana, R.E.M., Prince, Liza Minnelli, Elton John and many other monumental artists.