June 2026 / News
JazzAscona: From Traditional Jazz to Funk
On Friday, June 26, the 42nd edition of JazzAscona gets under way with about twenty events spanning the festival’s entire musical spectrum: from early Jazz to funk, including the most contemporary styles associated with the New Orleans music scene.
We’d like to focus on some of the weekend’s most anticipated events. With The Big Five feat. Nicolle Rochelle (10:30 p.m., New Orleans Stage), one of the audience’s favorite bands returns—a band capable of blending swing, theatricality, and stage energy, thanks in part to the magnetic presence of vocalist Nicolle Rochelle.
Next up, the lineup shifts to more contemporary sounds with Radius (11:00 p.m., Elvezia Stage), one of the most dynamic funk bands on the European scene.
From New Orleans, Sean Ardoin (9:45 p.m., Stage Seven) brings zydeco back into the spotlight with his raw energy, while Angelique (8:00 p.m., Stage New Orleans) showcases her intense and distinctive vocal presence as early as the second night.
Rounding out the lineup and bridging the gap between tradition and the new generation is the Border Quartet’s genre-defying interplay (6:45 PM and 9:30 PM, Nostrana Jazzbar), an international quintet made up of young students from the National Jazz Academy of Siena, Oscar’s Fables (7:00 p.m., Blue LLama Terrace), and the traditional Jazz of Jazz Tube (8:30 p.m., Stage Elvezia).
