FUNK OFF Rocks Orvieto

For more than 15 years, the Umbria Jazz Winter Festival has been entertaining jazz lovers of all ages. For five days, Orvieto is filled with hundreds of musical events in various venues. Locals and tourists alike fill the city from morning until night to enjoy the best jazz has to offer. In late December, icy lips blow into the mouthpieces of trumpets while chilled fingers grip drumsticks, fly up and down the keys on many a sax and clang cymbals as musicians in jeans, navy blue hooded sweatshirts and red tennis shoes leap and dance down the medieval Orvieto backstreets. The Florentine marching brass band, FUNK OFF, never fails to warm up the crowds that follow them at the annual festival. They spin, leap and bound through the streets and then stop in the piazzas to play, encouraging the audience surrounding them to join in their moves. The FUNK OFF band performs twice daily, just before noon and dinnertime, blasting out jazz and blues on the steps of the 13th-century Orvieto cathedral. FUNK OFF claims to be the first funky marching Italian band. With over 20 years in the business and performing at more than 800 concerts, no one plans to argue with them. The band was founded by Dario Cecchini, a musician with a career spanning more than 20 years in jazz and pop. The band’s unique sound comes from a combination of groovy pop mixed with jazz with an Italian style and melody. This, combined with choreography with a great visual and emotional impact, wins over every crowd. FUNK OFF and other unique jazz ensembles can be enjoyed each year at the famous Umbria Jazz Winter Festival.