The Melbourne International Jazz Festival is an annual jazz music festival first held in Melbourne, Australia in 1998. The Festival takes place in concert halls, arts venues, jazz clubs and throughout the streets of Melbourne.
The 2021 Festival is scheduled to be held from 15–24 October, the 2020 Festival's physical events having been cancelled.
History
The Melbourne International Jazz Festival was first held in 1998. Adrian Jackson was the artistic director from 1998 until 2004; this run was interrupted in 2002, when the withdrawal of funding by Arts Victoria and the City of Melbourne in November 2001 meant that the program planned for January 2002 had to be canceled.
However much of the planned festival still went ahead, the City of Melbourne contacted Bennetts Lane Jazz Club founder Michael Tortoni to ask him if he was interested in taking control of the Festival. Tortoni agreed and effectively rescued the festival using his club's staff and infrastructure. Tortoni was appointed chairman in late 2001 and promptly restructured the board. Megan Evans and Jeremy Jankie, managers of Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, managed to present much of the 2002 festival and Evans went on to manage the festival the next year. Tortoni remained on the board serving in various roles.
Albert Dadon assumed the position of Chairman in 2004. He arranged for the long-running director of the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy, Carlo Pagnotta, to be brought in as guest Artistic Director in 2005. The Festival went into recess in 2006, due to venue and scheduling issues arising from the Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne that year.
Dadon then took over as Artistic Director in 2007, and again for the 2008 festival. Dadon is founding chairman of the Australian Jazz Bell Awards.
Michael Tortoni has been the artistic director since 2009.
There was no festival in 2020, the physical event being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. In its place, on the last Saturday of May, June and July, the Festival presented the free 'These Digital Times', its first digital on-line live-streamed festival series.
The 2021 Festival is scheduled for 15–24 October 2021.
Artist lineups
Melbourne International Jazz Festival 2019
Herbie Hancock, The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with Troy Miller, Laura Mvula & Jose James, Billy Childs, Ms Lisa Fischer & Grand Baton, Ambrose Akinmusire with Origami Harvest, Ghost Note, the Vijay Iyer Trio, Petra Haden with Songs From My Father, Lonnie Holley, Vince Jones, Linda May Han Oh with Aventurine, Bill Frisell Trio, Rafiq Bhatia, Miles Okazaki with Work, Alma Zygier, Justine Clarke, Ross James Irwin with 60 Years of Kind of Blue: Reflections on a Miles Davis Masterpiece, Tamil Rogeon with MOMUS, Riffz2000, The Monash Art Ensemble, Josh Kelly with Displacement, Michael Pigneguy, Florian Hoefner, Jef Neve & Teus Nobel, Jamie Oehlers, Angela Davis Trio, The Rookies, Jazz Party, Horns of Leroy featuring Thando, Tanya George, YID!, Emma Donovan and the Putbacks, The Montgomery Brothers, Parvyn, ELio Villafranca, Marginal Consort, Stephen Magnusson Trio, Harriet Allcroft Quintet, Daniel Mougerman Quartet, Alexander Nettleback Quartet, James Sherlock Quartet, Peter Baylor's Ultrafox, Bopstretch, Julie O'Hara Quartet, Tony Gould Quartet, Jackie Bornstein Quartet, Sam Keevers Trio, Emma Gilmartin Quartet, Bob Sedergreen and Friends, Fem Belling, John Scurry's Reverse Swing Quartet, Paul Williamson Hammond Combo, The Concerteenies, Ajak Kwai, WVR BVBY, OJ Kush, The CB3, Tatafu, Lil Sumthin' Quintet, Kalyani & Isha, Claire Cross with Into Light, Phoebe Day, Soli Tesema, Elle Shimada.