Jazz Ascona honors Leroy Jones
The legendary trumpeter Leroy Jones from New Orleans receives the Ascona Jazz Award, the prize awarded each year by the Ticino Jazz Ascona Festival to personalities from the New Orleans music scene.
The Ascona Jazz Award 2019 will be presented to Leroy Jones on Tuesday, June 25, at his concert on the New Orleans stage. The artist will be honored "for the exceptional quality of his musical achievements". Born in 1955, Leroy Jones is one of the most important trumpet players (and singers) in New Orleans in recent decades, a leading representative of a musical movement that upholds the jazz tradition of New Orleans while at the same time rejuvenating it.
In the case of Leroy Jones, writes Jazz Ascona, this leads to a "recognizable sound from the very first note" due to his strong soloist personality and a clear tendency to integrate expressive elements of bebop (in particular) into his music.
