With tickets already on sale, the feeling in the air in Italy is that people are looking for live music.

After a two-year period made complicated by the covid-19 emergency, music will be back in full swing this Perugian summer. 

In fact, the Umbria Jazz 2022 festival has a vast lineup and complete program. Hundreds of live events (jazz-themed but not only), nightlife and unmissable food and wine will rock the Umbrian capital in Italy for ten days - from Friday, July 8 to Sunday, July 17, 2022 - becoming once again the Italian and European musical- cultural central cross section.

Umbria Jazz Festival Events

Across the ten days of the festival, including free and ticketed events, there will be 260 musical events hosted in 11 locations, plus the entire historic center will be traversed daily by the marching band. 

Umbria Jazz will welcome 90 bands for a total of about 500 musicians: a cast of established stars accompanied by young talent on the launching pad for a wide range of genres. 

At the forefront, as always, is great jazz, the event's signature music. However, there will be no shortage of swings to different rhythms, such as pop/rock, blues and funk. 

After all, the festival has always been by vocation open to a wide audience: in Perugia, in short, anyone can find the "sound" most akin to their musical tastes.

 Locations and Outdoor Concerts

Umbria Jazz ‘22 will leave behind two hard years to regain the joy, pomp and bustle of events that have always characterized the festival. 

The Santa Giuliana Arena is placed at the center of the program as the main stage of the big evening events, often oriented toward the pop/rock genre. 

Also among the main locations will be the Teatro Morlacchi, which will host afternoon concerts of Italian and American jazz, and the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, which will put on two daily sets -- at 12 and 3:30 p.m. -- under the banner of acoustic jazz. 

For night owls, however, the club on Via della Viola will offer a resident band and jam sessions until late at night.

 There will of course be no shortage of great free outdoor concerts, always a hallmark of the Perugia festival in Italy. Confirmed are the now historic stages in Piazza IV Novembre and at the Carducci Gardens. 

From this year, a third open stage will be added: the one in Piazza Matteotti, dedicated exclusively to swing.

The 2022 edition will also mark the return after two years of the "Clinics" from Boston's Berklee College of Music.

From July 5 to 17, the famous American music school, for the 35th time, will move its courses to Perugia, under the supervision of director Giovanni Tommaso, to offer students from all over the world the opportunity to study with a teaching method famous for yielding excellent results.

The Program: Jazz stars but not only

There will be a lot of jazz on the 2022 event schedule, including several unmissable dates at the Santa Giuliana Arena with true sacred giants such as the great Herbie Hancock (July 14) and vocal star Diana Krall (July 15). Jeff Beck performs at Umbria Jazz Festival. Photo credit: Umbria Jazz

However, different genres will alternate at Santa Giuliana: among others, there will be soul music legend Tom Jones (July 16) and rock guitar legend Jeff Beck (July 17), as well as a Cuban evening with grammy- winning Rubalcaba and Aymée Nuviola (July 10) and a Brazilian evening with Marisa Monte and Gilberto Gil (July 9). 

On the program at the other venues, there is the highly anticipated "Morlacchi" with the Inside Straight quintet of Christian McBride, grammy- winner and one of the most influential jazzmen of the modern era (July 11), while at the National Gallery of Umbria the two evening solo piano sets by Fred Hersch, one of the most esteemed musicians of recent generations (July 16 and 17) will be a red circle.

Three Festivals in One

All this, to ensure 10 days of full musical immersion of quality and quantity for the spectators of Umbria Jazz 2022, who can already buy tickets for the various events on the bill. 

Festival artistic director Carlo Pagnotta has stressed a fundamental concept and that "Umbria Jazz amounts to three festivals in one: that of the main stage, that of the free concerts and that of the clubs and theaters. A winning formula that we will repeat in this edition as well, which will finally mark a restart after a difficult period for everyone, including the live music sector."

 To learn more, visit www.umbriajazz.it

Photo credit: Davide Zanin Photography / Shutterstock.com