Great international jazz returns to the Teatro Ristori in Verona. Coming on Tuesday 13 February at 8.30 pm, Bill Laurance and Michael League in Where you Wish you Were. A mere mention of the names of League and Laurance makes one think of Snarky Puppy. It is now nearly twenty years since Southern California-born bassist/multi-instrumentalist Michael League founded the globally acclaimed, four-time GRAMMY award-winning collective. As for keyboardist Bill Laurance, originally from London, he has been a part of the globe-trotting adventure for nearly as long as League has. So the fact that League and Laurance are now releasing “Where you Wish you Were”, their first duo album together, does feel at the same time like a logical development…and also a surprise. Michael League takes a very different role here from the one he does in Snarky Puppy. On “Where you Wish you Were”, he is to be heard mainly playing the oud and other acoustic stringed instruments.
Laurance and League became completely taken by the idea of doing something totally different from Snarky Puppy, which is a project on such a large scale, it recently filled London’s 12,500-capacity Wembley Arena. The pair kept the idea in mind to reduce the music down to a scale where it could be played by their duo. The recording offered a long-awaited opportunity to explore the intimacy, fragility and clarity which exist within the relationship between two musicians; it was something which they were both keen to achieve.
Where You Wish You Were is a universe of personal, musical and sonic influences that sets no limits and does not pretend to categorise. Rather, it tends to create a personal vocabulary, with compositions entirely focused on melody, harmony and space. A warm sound within which League and Laurance have created a dreamy place that invites the listener to return again and again.
INFO AND TICKETS
New subscriptions and single tickets on sale (ticket office open Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.; Wednesday and Friday from 4 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. – Via Teatro Ristori, 7 in Verona), also available online (www.teatroristori.org/biglietteria) and at the BoxOffice point of sale in Via Pallone, 16 in Verona.
