Jazz is a music built on memory, but it survives through reinvention. On a remarkable summer night in Siena, the Siena Jazz International Summer Workshop ’26 demonstrated precisely that principle, transforming the magnificent setting of Piazza del Campo into a vast acoustic space where the legacies of Miles Davis and John Coltrane were not simply celebrated — they were challenged, reshaped and brought into the present.
The double bill, featuring the original productions “Miles Davis Songbook” and “Tranescape,” represented one of the defining moments of the 56th edition of the International Summer Workshop, reaffirming Siena Jazz’s unique role as one of Europe’s most important institutions for jazz education, research and artistic creation.
The opening set, “Miles Davis Songbook,” avoided the predictable path of tribute projects. Instead of reproducing Davis’s iconic sound, guitarist and arranger Roberto Spadoni approached the trumpeter’s vast repertoire as a living organism. His arrangements revealed unexpected architectural possibilities, expanding the classic jazz quintet vocabulary through the addition of a brass ensemble that enriched the music with new colours and harmonic depth.
The result was a performance that respected Davis’s revolutionary spirit precisely because it refused imitation. The ensemble — featuring Alessandro Presti on trumpet, Maurizio Giammarco on tenor saxophone, Spadoni on guitar, Guglielmo Santimone on piano, Silvia Bolognesi on bass and Paolo Corsi on drums, alongside the expanded brass voices of Matilde Gori, Carlo Ponte, Gianni Calonaci, Jacopo Fagioli and Andrea Angeloni — navigated Davis’s repertoire with intelligence and personality.
There was a strong sense of dialogue between generations throughout the performance. Experienced voices and emerging artists shared the stage in the true Siena Jazz tradition: not as teacher and student, but as musicians engaged in a common search for new possibilities.
The second set, “Tranescape,” moved from Davis’s architectural modernism into the spiritual territory of John Coltrane, offering a powerful contemporary reflection on the saxophonist’s centenary. Led by Dan Kinzelman, the project captured the restless curiosity that defined Coltrane’s artistic journey, moving beyond familiar references to explore the deeper emotional and philosophical dimensions of his music.
With Fabrizio Puglisi on piano, Demian Cabaud on double bass, Greg Hutchinson on drums and special guest vocalist David Linx, “Tranescape” unfolded as an open landscape of improvisation. The musicians embraced Coltrane’s legacy not as a fixed language, but as an invitation to continue searching. Moments of intense rhythmic interaction alternated with passages of extraordinary lyrical sensitivity, creating a performance that felt simultaneously rooted in jazz history and completely contemporary.
The presence of David Linx added another dimension to the music, extending Coltrane’s spiritual vocabulary into the realm of the human voice. His interaction with the ensemble reinforced one of the central ideas of the evening: that great jazz is not defined by style alone, but by the depth of communication between artists.
What distinguished this concert was not merely the quality of the musicianship, but the philosophy behind it. Siena Jazz has always understood that education and creation cannot exist separately. The International Summer Workshop continues to function as a rare environment where young musicians, established performers and internationally recognised educators meet in an atmosphere of experimentation and artistic risk.
In Piazza del Campo, beneath the medieval architecture of Siena, the music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane became something more than historical heritage. It became evidence that jazz remains an evolving art form — one capable of honouring its masters while constantly questioning what comes next.
This was not an evening dedicated to nostalgia. It was a statement of artistic continuity. Siena Jazz reminded its audience that the true legacy of Davis and Coltrane is not the music they left behind, but the freedom they gave future generations to create.
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