Established in 1990 by Charles ‘City’ Gatt—who passed away in 2022—the Malta Jazz Festival has now been going on for over 30 years, gracing its beautiful backdrop at Ta’ Liesse with lushful and rapturous sounds from some of the greatest names in Jazz.
In this article I want to list some of these artists to take a trip down the jazz memory lane that has been happening in Malta for these past decades.
‘I have never played in a postcard.’
Jazz Guitarist Mike Stern during his performance at Ta’ Liesse in 1997.
Elvin Jones (in 1991)
One of the most renowned drummers of all time, Elvin Jones’ résumé includes albums such as John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things and A Love Supreme, Gil Evans’ The Individualism of Gil Evans, and MIles Davis’ Sketches of Spain. In addition to these major roles in these revolutionary pieces of work, Jones has essentially collaborated with all the great names in the jazz world.
Very aptly, Jones came to Malta for the very first edition of the festival, essentially setting the standard for what was to come later.
Personal Recommendation for Listening: A Love Supreme (1964)
Chick Corea (in 1991 and 2018)
Along Jones, the first edition of the festival also featured two great pianists; Michael Petrucciani and Chick Corea. It is really incredible when you think about these three giants playing at the very first edition of the festival.
It’s very common in Jazz for musicians to play on each other’s albums and collaborate endlessly, and so we will see many of these collaborations mentioned in this article; and Corea is no exception. His career skyrocketed in the late 60’s when he was playing in Miles Davis’ band, and collaborating with Stan Getz and Cal Tjader.
Corea played again in the festival of 2018. In a facebook obituary post for Corea in 2021, Festival artistic director and jazz artist Sandro Zerafa recalls how easy going and understanding the legendary pianist was and mentions how one of his requests was a keyboard so that he could practice; an anecdote that displays the level of discipline, humility and respect the artist had developed in all these decades of making music.
Personal Recommendation for Listening: Return to Forever (1972)
Betty Carter (in 1994)
A highly idiosyncratic and experimental vocalist, Betty Carter stands on her own as one of the most unique singers in jazz. Her improv ability and off-the-cuff reworkings of phrases was and still is—in her recorded music—something to wonder at.
Carter played with some of the Jazz masters who really transformed the genre as we know it today, such as legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, MIles Davis, Charles Mingus and Max Roach.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find much information about Carter’s performance in 1994.
Personal Recommendation for Listening: Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant (1955)
Herbie Hancock (in 1999)
Hancock is one of the most popular pianists in Jazz. He’s collaborated with several pop artists in his career and has also played around the veins of popular music at some points in his life, with artists like Joni Mitchell for example. Just three years after graduating in music, Hancock found himself playing drums for Miles Davis, at a time when the legendary trumpeter was still very much into bebop but undertaking a more experimental approach.
In 1999 Hancock played his album Gershwin’s World at the Malta Jazz Festival, which was essentially a selection of songs from iconic American composer George Gershwin, reinterpreted by Hancock and his band.
Personal Recommendation for Listening: Maiden Voyage (1965)
Wayne Shorter (in 2003)
Shorter started out the first decade of his career by belting out some incredible solo albums, then playing in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, moving on to Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet, and then forming his own band Weather Report in 1970. While he was doing all of this, he was collaborating with people all the time and developing a style of his own on the saxophone. Hancock, who played with Shorter in the Miles Davis Quintet, was recorded as saying that Shorter was “one of the few people who brought music to Miles that didn’t get changed.”
On the day Shorter passed away, Zerafa posted on instagram saying how watching Shorter in 2003 was life changing, and how “words fail to capture the poetry, the beauty and the magic of Wayne’s music.”
Personal Recommendation for Listening: Speak No Evil (1966)
Brad Mehldau (in 2009, 2014)
Highly versatile pianist Brad Mehldau has graced the festival stage on two separate occasions. Mehldau developed his own style of playing with incredible rhythmic inventiveness and is considered one of the greatest pianists of his generation.
His first appearance in 2009 was with his own trio, whilst his second appearance was in a project with drummer Mark Guiliana called Mehliana, where they performed their album Taming the Dragon, which was an incredible experience of sound and quite a bold move even for someone with Melhdau’s reputation.
Personal Recommendation for Listening: Alone Together (2019)
I would like to note that I’ve left out a considerable number of people, but maybe I felt that to me these were some of the most iconic musicians and artists to have set foot on the island thanks to the festival.
In my opinion these artists’ music left an indelible impression on me and so naturally I will end by saying that if you’ve never been—and you find yourself on the islands next July—just do yourself a favor and check out the Malta Jazz Festival.
