A STUDY IN CONTRAST - TWO FESTIVAL IN SOUTHERN ITALY

Jazz D' Autore, Orsara 29 July - Aug. 2 and Curva Minore, Palermo 7-11 Aug.1998

Orsara and Palermo both belong geographically to the South of the italian peninsula. For the rest they are as different as possible. Orsara is a small town on the hills north of Foggia, in the Apulia region, the heel of the italian boot to try to be universally clear; out of the tourism currents, it is a village based on agriculture, where there are no hotels and visitors stay at private homes. Palermo is one of the world's metropolis, full of life and ripe of history; its Greek, Norman, Arab and Spanish heritage are intermixed with its present of splendor and squallor. Celebrated by poets and travelers, now it's trying hard to recover from decades or even centuries of neglect; everywhere you find restoration works in progress on palaces and churches, and its Summer Festival - Palermo di Scena - includes event from pop and classical music to theatre and ballet. Nearby the remains of the splendid Zisa palace an old iron factory houses now cultural activities and a young, eager audience visits a Cartier-Bresson exhibition, while outside the traffic roars all day. Hardly anything instead happens in Orsara. Its life is rhythmically divided by the noise of work in the fields, and at night in the summer the silence is broken only by the dogs barking against a passing fox. You might expect to find an agricultural exhibition, or a religious feast at the most. But under the surface strong forces are at work: Orsara has a jazz Festival, and not just a few passing musicians paying generic hommage to the music, but a real event for which a small but dedicated group of people work all year round. 1998 marks the 9th edition of the Jazz d'Autore Festival, and in the last two editions the festival moved a step forward. Last year hornist Pasquale Innarella was commissioned a project that reunited a huge wind ensemble created from the bands of the towns and other centers nearby with a cutting edge group of improvisers from Italy and Europe: Renato Geremia, Guido Mazzon, Mauro Orselli, Elio Martusciello, Evan Parker, Michel Godard, and Innarella himself. A huge event in balance between tradition and avantgarde, it was also a huge success, so that the Orsara Musica society with the financial support of the town decided to issue it, and this year's festival saw the presentation of the resulting Cd published by Splasc(h). This year in a bold but well thought move another project was commissioned: this time to Alex von Schlippenbach, celebrating the spanish heritage of the town and the willingness of the promoters to make a festival against all odds with a composition for string ensemble and improvising quartet on the subject of Don Quixote. Another ambitious project was a performance of the soundtrack composed by Bruno Tommaso for the Buster Keaton movie Steamboat Bill Junior; commissioned by a roman festival, this event that features the music performed live to the showing of the film was dormant since the untimely death of the italian master trombonist Danilo Terenzi, member of the original ensemble. The program was rounded off by an evening of blues and by a concert of two guitar based jazz groups formed by young, promising musicians of the South of Italy. This element was stressed throughout the Festival: the band performing under Bruno Tommaso direction, the string ensemble were as well based on local, new forces. Cheryl Porter, originally from Chicago, brought its powerful, cutting voice to Orsara backed by a band that mixed all the styles of black music in a rather indistinct manner, sacrifying purity of style to a bland sonic excitement. The Drummatic Trio and the quartet of Pietro Condorelli showed interesting glimpses when the gloss of a contemporary adult jazz sound gave way to extended improvisation, drummer Pietro Iodice in particular showing sure signs of a growing musical personality that needs more space to expand. For the Don Quixote project, Schlippenbach invited Thomas Heberer, trumpet player well known for his works both in ICP and Berlin Jazz Contemporary Orchestra, whose clear, ringing voice called to attention the audience; Rudi Mahall, bass clarinet player extraordinaire, whose angular figure and playing, reminiscent of Dolphy, was singularly attuned to the Don Quixote theme and won instantly the sympathy of the Orsara people; and last but by no means least Aki Takase. This member of the female japanese contingent dispersed all through the western emisphere is a powerful piano player, a master arranger and conductor, whose work with Maria Joao for which she's most known in Italy fails to higlight the many facets of his musical personality. The young String Ensemble of the Foggia Conservatory under the direction of Benedetto Montebello was called to a difficult job, including improvisation, and was up to the needs of the score, blending with the more experienced improvisors and giving life to the dreaming melodies devised by Schlippenbach; one section of the suite was written by Aki Takase, whose style of direction was a joy to behold for the clarity of the musical thought and the originality of the gestures (the fact that she's a charming lady didn' hurt either). The combination of the ancient architecture, the moon rising, the sedate sounds of the string intermixed with percussive playing from the two pianos and the dramatic dialogue of the winds elicited a strong, enthusiast answer from the audience. The Keaton project was preceded by an improvised set celebrating the Cd reissue, and the arcane sound of Innarella's horn once again lifted off the stage while Schlippenbach and Takase, alternating at the piano, built an intense texture with Rudi Mahall's clarinet and the percussions of young, sensitive drummer Antonio Di Lorenzo, invited to the session at the last moment. Bruno Tommaso score to the movie is great fun, underlining the bittersweet humour of the movie with precise orchestral gestures; the spotlight was on Mara De Mutiis voice, a local talent, and her excellent performance in a very difficult role was greeted by huge applause by his fellow citizens of Orsara. A well deserved encore without movies and the lights on allowed the audience to see the young musicians at work, soloing expertly over a simple riff; it's amazing to consider that such a group was reunited with young players from the north part of the Apulia region, even if of course a large merit must go to the expert and charismatic Bruno Tommaso who rose to the task a little health problem nothwistanding. Poetic texts about Don Quixote by Pietro Mazzone and Vanna D'Amato were read during the concerts, Tommaso and Di Lorenzo providing a sensitive background to author Mazzone's voice, while actor Giuseppe Casolaro misunderstood D'Amato's words giving them an out of place epic interpretation. The Orsara Musica society gave everybody an Arrivederci to the tenth edition, promising real fireworks to celebrate. The week after we were greeted in Palermo by a rare storm, the system of the town collapsing for the unusual rain; traffic queues, bureaucratic and technical problems were slowing the festival beginnings, and only few people braved the weather for the first night of Curva Minore, held in the breathtakingly beautiful Spasimo church, a roofless, half-dilapidated complex close to the ancient Kalsa, the arab quarter. Their courage was rewarded, more the loss for who didn't come: Dagmar Krause and Marie Goyette presented an achingly beautiful, unsettlingly poetic recital. The music was mainly lifted off well known classical pieces, to which the two women "found" words in their own personal lifes and relationship. Dagmar has been writing words and music since the beginning of her career, even before Slapp Happy and Hery Cow began; this recital, premiered in 1996 for the Wie Es Gefehlt in Berlin, is very different from the Weill/Eisler atmospheres she's been recently famous for. Very intimate without losing strength, the recital didn't lack humour or self-irony, especially in Marie Goyette's gestures and looks, but it had very dramatic moments when Dagmar's voice rose to a sudden scream. All along words and music, comedy and tragedy, spoken word and songs were subtly molded together creating a special atmosphere. Giorgio Occhipinti, sicilian pianist, followed with his trio (Giuseppe Guarrella, bass, and Francesco Branciamore, drums). Occhipinti is a personal, authoritative pianist and an original composer; the trio worked very well together developing moments of true improvised interplay, where especially striking were Branciamore's colors and sounds produced on the drumset with bare hands. Periods of repetition, a wealth of material to choose from, and the always supremely difficult problem of leaving off stuff led to a set way too long, which should have closed with the light quotation of the Fenesta Ca Lucive song, a perennial popular favorite in the Italian south song tradition about a window that is not lighted any more because of the sad end of a loved unlucky princess. The second day rain still threatened the proceedings, so the audience and the performers were huddled together under the absidal section. The Clusone Trio was supposed to appear, but apparently the group just split at the crest of the wave of its popularity, after a successful USA tour, for unreconciliable musical differences. A shame for the Palermo audience where the Clusone Trio never played, but as I was familiar with it I was very glad that Ernst Reijseger was coming with his old pal Alan Purves, nicknamed "Gunga", scottish drummer who's been living in Amsterdam since the seventies. This duo had an Lp out that mightily impressed me, so I eagerly awaited the concert which was however very different from the old music, a complete surprise in fact. Ernst Reijseger apparently cannot do anything unmusical - the bang on the wooden floor af a discarded bow was instantly integrated into the flow - and he moves angelically from Bach to scraping in an eye's blinking. Purves is a perfect foil - his deadpan looks while inserting flutes in his nostrils, the utmost seriosity with which he walked on stage creating a symphony of squeaking noises, even his drumset, drawn guffaws, laughs and applause while Ernst surveyed the happening with utmost satisfaction, taking a poetic walk around the empty, wet church at the end. The following day Gunga wasn't playing, but in the early morning a drummers' workshop about the traditional Scottish bones was still under way… the second set was to be a duo between Yves Romain, bass, and Dominique Regef, hurdy-gurdy; Gianni Gebbia, saxophone player from Palermo well known outside Italy among other things for his Terra Arsa Trio (a Cd is out on Victo, but check out his excellent just released solo on Rastascan) joined the frenchmen for an intense set, where the hurdy-gurdy tended to lead the music toward long, sustained tones, slowly changing atmospheres enhanced by Gebbia double saxophones and Romain's voice. The hurdy gurdy impressed me much less in quick exchanges, mainly because of the difficulty to give a variety of shapes and attacks to notes. Finally the bad weather gave up and the glorious sicilian summer was restored; the third night of the festival saw the Spasimo curch full of people, and the concert opened famously with the Diaboliques trio. Irene Schweizer, Joelle Léandre and Maggie Nicols are old accomplices, and their trio works like a charm. Serious, involved Irene takes care of seamlessy connecting all the happenings in a musical tissue mindful of the early jazz piano as well as of the free improvisation; Joelle is all over the bass, switching from bow to percussive sound, fighting and loving it; Maggie is something else, dance and mime and voice all fused in one, real life breaking all barriers and happening right on stage. In the morning she was out in the open market, a tuning knife in her hands, picking up sounds and melodies from the lively conversation around her; her joy at meeting Gunga, a fellow Scotch, was contagious, and the hot weather prompted her to include a fan as a performance prop to funny results. Leandre and Nicols playing while Schweizer is acting a safety net, promptly picking up and resending any musical suggestion, reminded me of circus, but it was only after the concert that Joelle told me about his famous clown ancestors, for years in the Medrano circus. Following the Diaboliques was Francesco Cusa's 66six project - an unholy night for a church! The sicilian drummer's idea was to include different atmospheres in a rather long suite inspired by the devil's presence in urban life under the shape of violence and stress. Very loud for these ears and marred by long repetitions, the music didn't give space to the excellent improvisors included in the group, I was especially disappointed by the absolute underutilisation of saxophonist's Edoardo Marraffa abilities. Talent and courage are there, but the aims of the music has to be more focused and spontaneity must not be sacrificed to a planned concept. The last night, unusually a Monday, featured the double duo Lelio Giannetto/Leandre, basses, and Miriam Palma/Nicols, voices. Intense moments - the bass duo, a singsong by Miriam interspersed by Maggie's interjections - were accompanied by self-indulgent moments and a general coziness on stage that didn't justice to the possibilities of the group; of course these are the joys and sorrows of improvised meetings, especially where verbal communication with a foreign audience is included. Another sicilian talent, Fabrizio Puglisi, was to close the festival; his trio included Achille Succi on bass clarinet and Alberto Capelli on guitar. Succi confirmed his impressive and supple instrumental voice, but did not seem completely at ease in the improvised parts, while Capelli contributed memorable compositions. The best part of the set was for me Puglisi's piano solo: his master degree's dissertation was about Taylor, and a few quotation of the Brooklyn piano master creeped up, but Fabrizio has an original personality and a nice, balanced mix of clean sound, percussive touch and little melodic fragments. The south of our country confirms with festivals such as these to be housing right now a lively, inventive music scene, well connected with what is on the edge worldwide, based on musicians endowed with an incredible wealth of talent and at the same time willing to dirty their hands with all the duties of promoting their own music with festivals, concerts and records following examples like AACM, Incus, ICP, and Mario Schiano's Controindicazioni in Italy. Only Clusone and an handful of festival in the North can compete in interest with what's happening in Apulia and Sicily right now.
Francesco Martinelli back