The nineteenth edition of the Locus festival ended with the Robert Plant Saving Grace’s grand finale, sold-out on the Bari seafront. A long and exciting journey, dotted with numerical and qualitative successes, with over 35,000 attendees in 12 evenings and 32 events between Trani, Fasano, Locorotondo and Bari.
The prestigious Locus 2023 lineup included (in order of performance): SIMPLY RED, SIGUR ROS, HERBIE HANCOCK, FAT FREDDY’S DROP, LOUIS BAKER, CONGO NATTY, LADY BLACKBIRD, MAKAYA McCRAVEN, PATRIZIO FARISELLI, TONICO 70 & Banda Maje, SEUN KUTI & Egypt 80, LOUIE VEGA, LA NIÑA, FATOUMATA DIAWARA, EZRA COLLECTIVE, CATU DIOSIS, ADA ODA, BAUSTELLE, 2MANYDJS, WU-LU, BUD SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION, VERDENA, NINOS DU BRASIL, SUN RA ARKESTRA, GIANLUCA PETRELLA COSMIC RENAISSANCE , THE COMET IS COMING, JEFF MILLS, ROBERT PLANT SAVING GRACE. The musical program was also accompanied by the photographic exhibition “FRIDA KAHLO – A LIFE FOR IMAGES” set up in Alberobello until 15 October, which exceeded 10,000 visitors.
NUMBERS OF THE LOCUS FESTIVAL 2023 “MUSIC OF MANY COLOURS”
35.000 ATTENDANCE AT THE SHOWS
32 EVENTS
28 LIVE SHOWS
5 SOLD OUT
6 LOCATIONS in 4 cities
4 TALK SHOWS
2 FILMS
1 PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION (over 10,000 visitors)
3 MILLION FACEBOOK USERS organic on the Locus page during the festival
2 MILLION INSTAGRAM USERS organic on the Locus account
Due to health problems, the great Roy Ayers has announced the cancellation of all the next concerts of his 2023 tour, therefore including the scheduled date in Locorotondo.
The evening of 10/8 at the Locus festival will take place regularly, with all the other artists scheduled: Louie Vega, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Tonic 70 & Banda Maje. For those who wish, we still offer the possibility of requesting a refund for the evening ticket, no later than 8 August 2023, on the purchase platform used, DICE or Ticketone.
Thank you for your understanding, we wish Roy Ayers to recover and heal as soon as possible in the best way!
FRIDA KAHLO UNA VITA PER IMMAGINI Casa Pezzolla – Alberobello (BA), Piazza XXVII Maggio June 24th – October 15th 2023
OPENING TIME every day, including public holidays h 10-20
TICKETS Full price € 12,00. Reduced € 10,00 for groups of minimum 10 people persone. Special reduced € 5,00 for youths 6 – 18 years, and for citizens of Alberobello. Free for kids until 6 years old, and disabled persons with companion. Tickets on site and on Ticketone.it
“Frida Kahlo. Una vita per immagini” is the name of the exhibition promoted by Assessorato alla Cultura of Alberobello‘s municipality, organized by Bass Culture srl and Rjma Progetti culturali in partnership with Locus Festival, that will be open from the 24th of June to the 15th of October 2023. With more than 100 shots of some of the most influential masters of photography of the early twentieth century, the exhibition intends to rebuild the events that have characterized Frida Kahlo‘s life-against existence, while investigating the reasons why she became an international female icon.
The exposition is held in Alberobello at Museo del Territorio – Casa Pezzolla, UNESCO heritage and built of 15 communicating Trulli, where the exclusivity of the rural architecture will meet Frida’s and her Casa Azul imagery from Mexico City, that today has become the incredibly visited “Frida Kahlo Museum”.
“Frida Kahlo. Una vita per immagini” ends with a video that captures the few filmed images available of this great Mexican artist.In the reception and exit room will be a photographic documentation of her famous Casa Azul that Diego Rivera gifted to the Mexican state in order for it to become “Frida Kahlo” Museum.
The whole exhibition itinerary is accompanied by an audio guide available for all visitors, included in the ticket. The catalog, curated by Vincenzo Sanfo, is edited by Papiro Art.
The Locus Festival announces the final concert of his 19th edition “Music of many colours”, bringing a chapter of the music history to the Bari seafront (via Paolo Pinto roundabout): on 1st September Robert Plant will present his musical project Saving Grace featuring Suzi Diana.
Tickets on sale starting Monday 27 March at 12 pm (cet) on Ticketone
The rock icon, member of Led Zeppelin, brings to the Locus Festival Saving Grace, the project that sees him on stage together with Suzi Dian (vocals), Oli Jefferson (percussions), Tony Kelsey (mandolin, baritone and acoustic guitars), Matt Worley (banjo, acoustic and baritone guitars, cuatro). The group arrives in Italy after their debut in 2019 with a series of surprise concerts in small venues in England, Wales and Ireland and, subsequently, with three dates in the United Kingdom in support of the Fairport Convention.
The intimate performances of Saving Grace see the band drawing from a repertoire of “music inspired by the dreamscape of Welsh marches”, songs that span Plant’s diverse tastes and influences, particularly his lifelong passion for British and American folk, spirituals and traditional blues.
The name of Robert Plant completes the line up of the Locus Festival, which once again this year confirms itself as one of the symbols par excellence of summer in Puglia and among the cornerstones of the Italian musical season, with a versatile and borderless program that embraces sounds from Italy and the world.
Among the names already announced, Simply Red on June 27 in the iconic square of the Cathedral of Trani, Sigur Ròs in the port area of Bari on July 11; the living legend of world jazz, Herbie Hancock on July 13 in Fasano; in the agreed programming in Locorotondo the New Zealanders Fat Freddy’s Drop on July 29 prelude to a week of great music in the town of Valle d’Itria from August 8 to 14, with Baustelle, Verdena, Jeff Mills, The Comet is Coming, Ezra Collective , Fatoumata Diawara, Makaya McCraven, Roy Ayers, Louie Vega, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Sun Ra Arkestra, Catu Diosis, Wu -Lu, Ninos Du Brasil, Tonico 70 and Banda Maje… and more to be announced
The two concerts of the Locus Festival in the Apulian capital (Sigur Ròs and Robert Plant) are part of the sixth edition of the Festa del Mare organized by the Puglia Region and Pugliapromozione in collaboration with the Municipality of Bari.
Altri artisti e artiste, date e luoghi saranno annunciati a breve. Maggiori info su locusfestival.it
Another extraordinary announcement for the Locus festival, with a new event in his musical journey through Puglia. It will be the central Piazza Ciaia in the city of Fasano, on 13 July 2023, to welcome the concert by Herbie Hancock, a true icon of jazz and all contemporary music.
Throughout his explorations, Herbie Hancock has transcended limitations and genres while maintaining his unmistakable voice. With an illustrious career span-ning five decades and 14 Grammy® Awards, including Album of the Year for River: The Joni Letters, he continues to amaze audiences across the globe.
There are few artists in the music industry who have had more influ-ence on acoustic and electronic jazz and R&B than Herbie Hancock. As the immortal Miles Davis said in his autobiography, “Herbie was the step after Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and I haven’t heard anybody yet who has come after him.”
Now in the sixth decade of his professional life, Herbie Hancock remains where he has always been: at the forefront of world culture, technology, business and music. Herbie Hancock has been an integral part of every popular music movement since the 1960’s. As a member of the Miles Davis Quintet that pio-neered a groundbreaking sound in jazz, he also developed new approaches on his own recordings, followed by his work in the 70s – with record-breaking al-bums such as “Headhunters” – that combined electric jazz with funk and rock in an innovative style that continues to influence contemporary music. “Rockit” and “Future Shock” marked Hancock’s foray into electronic dance sounds; during the same period he also continued to work in an acoustic setting with V.S.O.P.
Hancock received an Academy Award for his Round Midnight film score and 14 Grammy Awards, including Album Of The Year for “River: The Joni Letters” and two 2011 Grammy Awards for the globally collaborative CD, “The Imagine Pro-ject.”
Hancock serves as Creative Chair for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and as Institute Chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. In 2011 Hancock was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, and in Decem-ber of 2013, received a Kennedy Center Honor. His memoirs, Herbie Hancock: Possibilities, were published by Viking in 2014, and in February 2016 he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Hancock is currently in the studio at work on a new album.
Locus 2023 continues to outline an increasingly intriguing program. A journey through the most beautiful Apulian locations, which will host Simply Red in Trani on June 27th (already SOLD-OUT!), Sigur Ròs in Bari on July 11th, Herbie Hancock in Fasano on July 13th, and Fat Freddy’s Drop on July 29 in Locorotondo, which prelude to a whole week of great music in the town of Valle d’Itria from August 8 to 14 with The Comet is Coming, Ezra Collective, Fatoumata Diawara, Makaya McCraven, Roy Ayers, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Sun Ra, Baustelle, Verdena, Jeff Mills, Louie Vega, Cosmic Renaissance among the names announced so far.
Many more artists and locations will be announced in the coming months. More info, links to tickets and current program are available on the locusfestival.it website
The extraordinary program of the Locus festival 2023 continues to take shape. The evenings at Masseria Ferragnano in Locorotondo start from August 10, with a unique and memorable event! On the same stage, the 70s American jazz funk of the great ROY AYERS in the Italian exclusive of his latest “Farewell tour”, joins the Nigerian afro beat of SEUN KUTI & Egypt 80, son and band of the legendary Fela with whom Roy Ayers collaborated in 1980 for the album “Music of many colours”. The perfect chromatic synthesis will be the set of one of the greatest DJs in the world, LOUIE VEGA from New York with his melting pot of house music, salsa and afro-beat, jazz and soul. To do the honors, the Salerno funk of TONICO 70 & Banda Maje, representatives of a lively southern scene that is renewing the tradition of Neapolitan Power.
The protagonists of this musically varied, but extremely coherent and highly spectacular journey, are the perfect expression of the Locus festival 2023 claim: Music of Many Colors, like the title of the album that brought together Africa and the United States of Fela Kuti and Roy Ayers!
It’s going to be an authentic interstelar cosmic trip into contemporary jazz, an afrofuturistic aesthetic summit on the 14th of August at Masseria Ferragnano, Locorotondo for Locus Festival 2023. From Gianluca Petrella’s COSMIC RENAISSANCE to the mythical Marshall Allen’s SUN RA ARKESTRA, till their modern epigones, Shabaka Hutchings’ THE COMET IS COMING. JEFF MILLS and his mastery will be closing the night: the one who brought techno and deejaying into dimension and galaxies never reached before.
Tickets for this worldwide unique event are already available on DICE and Ticketone.it, 30€ + fee. You can also buy a special PASS subscription, only on DICE.FM, for 5 nights from the 10th to the 14th of august, 120€ + fees.
Locus 2023 keeps on outlining a more and more intriguing program. A real journey between the most beautiful apulian locations, that will be hosting Simply Red in Trani on the 27th of June (SOLD OUT), Sigur Ros in Bari on the 11th of July and Fat Freddy’s Drop on the 29th of July in Locorotondo, that will serve as prelude of a whole week of music in the Valle d’Itria town from the 8th to the 14th of July with The Comet is Coming, Ezra Collective, Fatoumata Diawara, Makaya McCraven, Roy Ayers, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Sun Ra, Baustelle, Jeff Mills, Cosmic Renaissance… just to name a few
More artists and more locations will be announced in the next few months
JEFF MILLS
Deeply inhabited by science-fiction, DJ, producer and artist Jeff Mills adopts its ideas, concepts, stories and esthetics from the outset. For him, Space is an obsession and his music almost becomes a musical science-fiction. Conquering space, his music embodies the future while both respecting the past and remaining well into the present. When he founded his own record label Axis in 1992 -a logo consisting of four triangles pointing to an invisible center-, Mills takes the rotating principle of the solar system as aesthetics, concept and model for creativity. From the beginning, his first releases explore futuristic and science fiction topics such as “Mutant theory,” “Tomorrow,” “Art / UFO”, “Time Machine” and “Alpha Centauri”. For Jeff Mills, the future is a powerful creative drive which explains the artist’s ceaseless activity.
THE COMET IS COMING
On their latest offering, Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam, The Comet is Coming take you to new worlds and new sonic vistas. Their most fully realised and deeply produced album yet, it is an expression of unity and magical alchemy that amplifies the combined powers of Danalogue, Betamax and Shabaka to new awesome heights. Together they open a portal to new universes and other dimensions. Who will crack the Code and join them on their Atomic Wave Dance?
THE SUN RA ARKESTRA
Composer, keyboardist, bandleader, philosopher, poet, and self-proclaimed extraterrestrial from Saturn, Sun Ra led his “Intergalactic Arkestra” of thirty-plus musicians in a career that ranged from boogie-woogie and swing to be-bop, free jazz, fusion, and New Age music until his death in 1993. The Sun Ra Arkestra still perform today under the direction of long-time Sun Ra collaborator and alto-saxophonist Marshall Allen. The Big Band play fully dressed in intergalactic garb influenced by the spirit of Ancient Egypt and will perform a selection of Sun Ra classics.
GIANLUCA PETRELLA “COSMIC RENAISSANCE”
Gianluca Petrella (Bari, 1975) is one of the most internationally renowned Italian musicians. Instrumentalist, composer and producer.
Petrella won Down Beat Critics Poll in the “rising stars” category for two years in a row and, in over 20 years working in the field, he had the chance to horizontally cross all the best offered by the contemporary music scene, both in the discographic environment and live show contests by playing in worldly recognized festivals and clubs.
Besides the important and over twenty years long artistic bond with Enrico Rava, in his variegated professional path Gianluca worked side by side with a vary large amount of Italian and international prestigious artists: from the Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen to Carla Blay, from Paolo Fresu to Matmos, from Lester Bowie and Manu Di Bango to Pat Metheny and John De Leo, Dj Ralf, Ricardo Villalobos, Max Loderbauer and Moritz von Oswald. Over-ten-year lasting collaboration is also the one between Petrella and producer, dj and musician Nicola Conte, while his interest for mixing different artistic disciplines lead him to create original works for cinema, dance and theatre productions (Exp and Tricks 2010, Liquido 2016, HOODOO, 2019, Flow- La mente Latente, 2015).
ECM, Emi/Blue Note Records, Schema Records, !K7, Electronique.it are only few of the discographic labels that released records by Gianluca Petrella, who founded his own Spacebone Records in 2009 reconfirming his deep knowledge of musical production gathered by working in some of the best recording studios in the world.
Since 2017 he regularly collaborates with Lorenzo Cherubini aka Jovanotti both on stage and in recording sessions while continuing sharing artistic projects with outstanding artists such as Pasquale Mirra and DJ Gruff. As a leader he’s currently working with quintet Cosmic Renaissance (galactic evolution of his Cosmic Band) and Trio 70’s.
October 2022 will see the release of a new album with Cosmic Renaissance, ‘Universal Language’. A new work by Schema Records, once again shuffling the cards and taking listeners to unexpected places.
Considered internationally as one of the best live bands around, Fat Freddy’s Drop will be in Locorotondo (BA) on July 29 in Masseria Ferragnano, for the nineteenth edition of the Locus festival.
Tickets available on DICE.fm and Ticketone.it starting from monday 16/1 at 10:00 am
It is a great return to the roots for the band and for Locus festival, which hosted Fat Freddy’s in its first edition back in 2005 in Locorotondo when their first album “Based on true story” came out. Since then the big FFD family (seven elements on stage) has come a long way, creating a solid international fan base thanks also to their explosive live energy: anyone who has seen one of their concerts has fallen in love with them instantly!
Their extremely distinctive and captivating sound born from the love of the producer Mu (aka DJ Fitchie) for analogue techno and dub, masterfully balanced with the fascination for soul and reggae of refined singer Joe Duke (aka Dallas Tamaira), and with the collective passion of the whole band for Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, Rock, Disco, House, Post Punk and Balearic music… music of many colours, as the Locus 2013 claim!
Locus festival 2023 continues to outline an increasingly intriguing program. A journey through the most beautiful Apulian locations, which will host Simply Red in Trani on 27 June (already SOLD-OUT!), Sigur Ròs in Bari on 11 July, and FFD on 29 July in Locorotondo, which will be the prelude to a full week of great music in Locorotondo from 8 to 14 August with The Comet is Coming, Ezra Collective, Fatoumata Diawara, Makaya McCraven, Roy Ayers, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Sun Ra Arkestra… among the first names announced. Many more artists and locations will be announced in the coming months. All the links to tickets are available on https://bit.ly/locus2023_ffd
The first name announced for the free events in Piazza del Locus 2023, is considered by the New York Times “one of the best arguments for jazz’s vitality”. His latest album “in these times” is in the best charts of 2022 from Pitchfork to the Guardian, and has received 3 Grammy nominations. From Chicago, avant-garde drummer MAKAYA McCRAVEN is redefining the boundaries of jazz and rhythm to create new forms, and we are delighted to welcome him to the Locus in its open plaza.
Locus festival 2023 “music of many colors” will take place in Locorotondo from 8 to 14 august. The early bird pass to 5 evenings in Masseria Ferragnano is still available. Among the confirmed artists: THE COMET IS COMING, SUN RA ARKESTRA, EZRA COLLECTIVE, ROY AYERS, SEUN KUTI, FATOUMATA DIAWARA… and much more!
With the announcement of Sigur Ròs, the Locus festival adds another great act to the the 2023 edition. The famous Icelandic band, about to release its highly anticipated eighth album, will perform July 11th in Bari, on the pier of the ancient Bourbon lighthouse in the port area. Thus the collaboration between Locus festival and the City of Bari is reconfirmed, with a location that has already proved to be perfect and suggestive in the summer of 2022 by hosting the Alt-J live.
With the Sigur Ròs in Bari on 11 July, the complete program of the 2023 edition of the Locus continues to take shape. A journey through the most beautiful Apulian locations, which will host Simply Red in Trani on June 27th, and a week of great music in Locorotondo from August 8th to 14th with The Comet is Coming, Ezra Collective, Fatoumata Diawara, Makaya McCraven, Roy Ayers, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Sun Ra Arkestra among the first names announced. Many more artists and locations will be announced in the coming months. More info and links to tickets are available on locusfestival.it
