Festival year 1977
The festival was held from July 14th to 17th. When rating the festival based on its artistic level, the year 1977 was the best by far. Especially Gravity, Mike Westbrook and The Ted Curson Septet made noteworthy musical statements.
Every now and then the festival had had the privilege of presenting unknown jazz talents who later became famous – best example of this must have been Chick Corea in the beginning of the 70’s. In 1977 Betty Carter performed in Pori and when she gained worldwide attention in the beginning of the 80’s she visited Pori again.
In 1977 it was raining cats and dogs during the festival and only 32 000 brave souls attended the festival. Poverty and great art seem to go well together though because Pori Jazz 77 was a total financial loss and it took several years to balance the account.
