Time in Jazz 2026, Paolo Fresu's festival pays tribute to the 'century' of Miles Davis

An island that becomes a diffuse stage, a festival capable of interweaving music and landscape, memory and contemporaneity. "Time in Jazz" is back, the historic festival conceived and directed by Paolo Fresu that in 2026 crosses the finishing line of its thirty-ninth edition with a wide-ranging and multiform programme, dedicated to Miles Davis on the centenary of his birth. The title chosen, Kind of Blue, obviously pays homage to the 1959 masterpiece but also becomes the leitmotif of a project that crosses jazz, the arts, literature and the territory.

A very detailed analysis of Miles' life and works: "We will dissect him not only in music, but also in literature and art, in the environment and cinema, in education and society, inhabiting extraordinary places through a careful and synergic reflection with the territories that, on the summer solstice and mid-August, become jazz clubs and open-air theatres," emphasises Fresu. "With more than seventy events and hundreds of artists from all latitudes of the world, we will try to recount what Miles would have wanted to be and what we are today in reaping his seed".

The festival unfolds in two distinct moments, a first part in June, from 19 to 21, and the usual long summer crossing from 8 to 16 August, passing through Berchidda and numerous other towns in the island's north. A scansion that allows 'Time in Jazz' to breathe with the territory and inhabit it, transforming squares, countryside, pine forests, country churches and beaches into places for listening and sharing.

The June instalment takes shape in Berchidda, in the space of Sa Colte 'e su Oltiju - Sa Casara, a former dairy that for years has housed the festival's organisational heart. Here, on 19 June, the opening is entrusted to 'Il battito del jazz' (The beat of jazz), a meeting-concert that brings together two historical figures of Italian drumming, Gegè Munari and Gianni Cazzola, with Paolo Fresu, between storytelling, memory and the transmission of knowledge, followed by a concert with young musicians. The evening opens with the Peppe Spanu Trio, a project that moves between rock and contemporary jazz. The next day, 20 June, is dedicated to Antonello Salis, the protagonist of an encounter that culminates with the Lifetime Achievement Award, followed by the voice of Casadilego and the borderless sounds of Gaia Cuatro, a quartet that crosses geographies and languages between Argentina and Japan. On 21 June, the day of the summer solstice, music is intertwined with reflection and storytelling with the atmospheres of Mario Ganau, the presentation of the podcast "Qualcosa di Miles" with Paolo Fresu, and the Lùmia project by Ilaria Porceddu and Emanuele Contis, before the concert of the trio of Enrico Pieranunzi, one of the most authoritative pianists on the European scene. Closing the evenings, DJ sets by Dj Chris.

The festival's more traditional formula is repeated in August, when 'Time in Jazz' enters the heart of its programming with over seventy appointments. The central stage in Piazza del Popolo in Berchidda hosts some of the most eagerly awaited evenings, starting on 11 August with Kind of Miles by Paolo Fresu, a theatrical and musical performance dedicated to the universe of Davis. The following day, the young trumpeter Matilde Gori, who will be awarded the Biorepack Prize, and the NorwegianNils Petter Molvær take the stage with a live reprise of the historic Khmer album. On 13 August it is the turn of Bugge Wesseltoft, in a totally solo version of Am Are, followed by German producer Apparat. 14 August features Theon Cross and Nicholas Payton with Butcher Brown, while the Berchiddese Ferragosto on 15 August is enlivened first by the Fabrizio Bosso Quartet and then by the Kokoroko.