Unbelievable! | Concert by Silvia Bolognesi (bass) and James Brandon Lewis (saxophone)​

The paths of American tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and Italian bassist Silvia Bolognesi have crossed on several occasions, whether at the Vision Festival in New York or at the University of Siena. However, they have never played together before. At Lewis’s request, this transatlantic duo will make its debut at the unerhört! Festival. Two virtuosos who win over their audience with a warm sound, blues melodies and post-bop runs. Lewis has just been voted best tenor saxophonist of the year by Downbeat Magazine. This summer, he and his quartet were invited to play for a week at the Village Vanguard, the New York jazz club where Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk once performed. The 42-year-old musician also has fans outside the jazz community, as a glowing review in Rolling Stone magazine demonstrated.

The Italian bassist Silvia Bolognesi is a professor at the Siena Jazz Academy. She tours regularly with her own band and is regarded as a key figure in the Italian jazz scene. As a member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and cellist Tomeka Reid’s string trio, she made the leap across the Atlantic into the heart of black jazz. Like Lewis, she is firmly rooted in the jazz tradition, as demonstrated by her tribute to Duke Ellington’s early creative period, for which he gave her the title ‘Jungle Duke’.