Another appointment with the protagonists of the Conad Jazz Contest: today we interview Francesco Bettini, historic member of the Technical Jury, called to select 9 of the 10 finalists who will perform live on the Umbria Jazz stage and artistic director of the Jazz Club Ferrara and the Bologna Jazz Festival .

Here’s what he told us:

A brilliant career in jazz, which “happened” to her while she was doing something else. How did you approach jazz music and what was the moment when you realized that this was your path?

In fact, I was just over twenty years old, I was studying Conservation of Cultural Heritage and I worked in a restoration workshop, but it is also true that I was already listening to a lot of music, a lot of jazz, and that I played the saxophone amateurly. The conditions were simply created. The Jazz Club Ferrara was particularly active in the 90s, so I proposed myself as a volunteer and from there, carrying out practically all the work in the production chain, thanks to the experience acquired, I found myself managing the new headquarters of the association. At the beginning there were concerts by mainly local musicians, using most of the funding that supported us for the concerts at the Teatro Comunale, then the club activity grew within a couple of years, we were able to use the largest room on the first floor, finally made usable, and being able to accommodate up to 200 people, we concentrated the entire programming there, internationalizing it. Having participated in the genesis of the jazz club and been directly involved from the first steps, sensing its developments, that was the moment in which I understood that the path was marked.

What relationship does it have with jazz today? What do you like and why? What do you see in your jazz future?

It is my job, it almost completely embraces and characterizes my every day. Some of my most important friendships revolve around my activity, now also extended to the Bologna Jazz Festival. A real community of people who together project their ideas and who above all have fun doing what they do has been generated. Every single concert has its own story, which generally ends with the performance and the final hanging.

This being always different and stimulating is the most relevant aspect of this profession, the one that doesn’t make you feel tired and that gives you pleasure. After 25 years of Torrione and almost 20 of Bologna Jazz Festival, I have crossed the halfway point of my professional journey and looking to the future, I would only like the conditions to be created so that one day, not too far away, I can pass the baton of this beautiful experience artistic, human and working to those who will be able to carry it forward with the same passion and vision.

You are among the most historic members of the Technical Jury of the Conad Jazz Contest. It is the jury that selects 9 of the 10 finalists who will then be called to perform on the Umbria Jazz stage. What do you like most about your role in the Conad Jazz Contest?

Keeping up to date with the younger generations’ approach to music. I believe it is very important to understand what the aesthetic references of today’s twenty-year-olds are and how they draw on the materials of their contemporaneity and shape them through the transformative power of jazz.

We were saying that the Tecnica jury has the task of selecting 9 of the 10 finalists of the competition. What are your personal judging criteria? What must a jazz musician have to deserve his vote?

He must be prepared, know the tradition, but not just be derivative, demonstrate that he has personality, humility and ideas. Having understood that jazz is not just a musical language, but also the way in which one approaches life, a certain sense of humor, the ability to discover the relationship between things, the speed of intuition, instant interaction with space, time, the surrounding world.

Do you have any advice for the participants of this year’s contest? Anything you would like to hear more from the contestants?

I would just like to perceive through their music that they are sincerely themselves.

Thank you Francesco, we are certain that with your experience and professionalism the quality of the selections of the participants in the Contest is assured and we know that having the opportunity to be evaluated by you will also be of great value for the participants!