Italian jazz
Encyclopedia
Italian jazz refers to jazz music that is played by Italian musicians, or to jazz music that is in some way connected to Italy
.
's military concerts in France
in World War I
in 1919 are claimed to have introduced Europeans to a new, "syncopated" music from America. Yet, Italians had an even earlier taste of a new music from across the Atlantic when a group of "Creole
" singers and dancers, billed as the "creators of the cakewalk" performed at the Eden Theater in Milan
in 1904. The first real Italian jazz orchestras, however, were formed during 1930s by musicians such as Arturo Agazzi with his Syncopated Orchestra and enjoyed immediate success. In spite of the anti-American cultural policies of the Fascist regime during the 1930s, American jazz remained popular. (Even Romano Mussolini
, Benito
's son, was a great jazz fan and then prominent jazz pianist.) Also, in 1935, American jazz great Louis Armstrong
toured Italy with great success.
In the immediate post-war years jazz took off in Italy
. All American post-war jazz styles, from be-bop to Free Jazz
and Fusion
have their equivalents in Italy
. The most gifted exponents of jazz
music in this period (from 1940s to 1960s) are musicians like Gorni Kramer
, Giorgio Gaslini
, Lelio Luttazzi and Franco Cerri
, the composer Bruno Martino
and great singers like Natalino Otto
and Jula de Palma
. The universality of Italian culture ensured that jazz clubs would spring up throughout the peninsula, that all radio and then television
studios would have jazz-based "house-bands," that Italian musicians would then start nurturing a "home grown" kind of jazz, based on European song forms, classical composition techniques and folk music (for example, in Sicily, where Enzo Rao
and his group Shamal have added native Sicilian and Arab influences to American jazz).
, and there are prominent publications
such as the journal, Musica Jazz. In Italy, today, it is virtually impossible to find a medium-sized city without a jazz club.
Notable contemporary Italian jazz Musicians include Enrico Rava
, Antonello Salis, Massimo Urbani, Paolo Fresu
, Stefano Bollani
, Antonio Farao
, Dado Moroni
, Aldo Romano
, Stefano di Battista
, Luigi Grasso, bassist Giorgio Rosciglione and Riccardo Del Fra, bassist Pippo Matino, Giovanni Falzone, Giovanni Mirabassi
, Enrico Pieranunzi
, Gianluigi Trovesi
and others members and collaborators of the Italian Instabile Orchestra
.
Gianluca Petrella
is internationally considered one of the best young jazz trombonists. Italy has many young and promising jazz musicians including Rosario Giuliani, Claudio Quartarone, Marcello Giuliani, Mauro Gargano, Francesco Bearzatti, Michel Rosciglione, Massimo Biolcati
and Flavio Boltro.
"Piano,Solo" (2007) is a biographical movie by Riccardo Milani based upon the life of Luca Flores , an Italian jazz piano player .
Michel Petrucciani
, André Ceccarelli or Alfio Origlio are notable french musicians whose families come from Italy.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Origins
James Reese EuropeJames Reese Europe
James Reese Europe was an American ragtime and early jazz bandleader, arranger, and composer. He was the leading figure on the African American music scene of New York City in the 1910s.-Biography:...
's military concerts in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1919 are claimed to have introduced Europeans to a new, "syncopated" music from America. Yet, Italians had an even earlier taste of a new music from across the Atlantic when a group of "Creole
Creole peoples
The term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...
" singers and dancers, billed as the "creators of the cakewalk" performed at the Eden Theater in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
in 1904. The first real Italian jazz orchestras, however, were formed during 1930s by musicians such as Arturo Agazzi with his Syncopated Orchestra and enjoyed immediate success. In spite of the anti-American cultural policies of the Fascist regime during the 1930s, American jazz remained popular. (Even Romano Mussolini
Romano Mussolini
Romano Mussolini was the fourth and youngest son of Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943...
, Benito
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's son, was a great jazz fan and then prominent jazz pianist.) Also, in 1935, American jazz great Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
toured Italy with great success.
In the immediate post-war years jazz took off in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. All American post-war jazz styles, from be-bop to Free Jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
and Fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
have their equivalents in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. The most gifted exponents of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
music in this period (from 1940s to 1960s) are musicians like Gorni Kramer
Gorni Kramer
Gorni Kramer was an Italian songwriter, musician and band leader.- Biography :He was born Kramer Gorni at Rivarolo Mantovano . Despite the exotic sound of Gorni Kramer in Italian language, which lead part of his audience to believe he was a foreigner or had adopted a fancy pseudonym, it was his...
, Giorgio Gaslini
Giorgio Gaslini
Giorgio Gaslini is an Italian jazz pianist and composer.He began performing at 13 and recorded with his jazz trio at 16. In the 1950s and 1960s Gaslini performed with his own quartet...
, Lelio Luttazzi and Franco Cerri
Franco Cerri
Franco Cerri is an Italian guitarist, born in Milan.Franco Cerri was considered as “the best Italian guitarist” and “the best guitarist that European jazz has produced” and became popular in Italy thanks to his participation to the television show Buone Vacanze...
, the composer Bruno Martino
Bruno Martino
Bruno Martino was an Italian jazz composer, singer and pianist. Internationally he was mostly known for Estate, composed in 1960, a standard that has been played many jazz performers since the early sixties, including João Gilberto, Joe Diorio, Chet Baker, Toots Thielemans, Shirley Horn, Michel...
and great singers like Natalino Otto
Natalino Otto
Natalino Otto, stage name of Natale Codognotto was an Italian singer. He started the swing genre in Italy.-Early years:Natalino Otto was born at Cogoleto, province of Genoa, in northern Italy....
and Jula de Palma
Jula de Palma
Jula de Palma is an Italian singer.-Biography:She started to work in the early 1950s as a singer in radio with pianist, composer, and showman Lelio Luttazzi...
. The universality of Italian culture ensured that jazz clubs would spring up throughout the peninsula, that all radio and then television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
studios would have jazz-based "house-bands," that Italian musicians would then start nurturing a "home grown" kind of jazz, based on European song forms, classical composition techniques and folk music (for example, in Sicily, where Enzo Rao
Enzo Rao
Enzo Rao is an Italian musician who plays a number of instruments, including bass guitar, oud, saz, jaw harp and violin, in a variety of folk and popular styles. He has performed with artists like Rakali, Glen Velez and Claudio Lo Cascio. In 1988 he founded the project SHAMAL which combines...
and his group Shamal have added native Sicilian and Arab influences to American jazz).
Contemporary Italian jazz
Currently, all Italian music conservatories have jazz departments, there are dozens of jazz festivals each year in Italy, the best-known of which is the Umbria Jazz FestivalUmbria Jazz Festival
The Umbria Jazz Festival is one of the most important jazz festivals in the world and has been held annually since 1973, usually in the month of July, in Perugia, Italy...
, and there are prominent publications
Music media in Italy
There are an abundance of paper, on-line and broadcast media in Italia that smother all flavors of noise.-Print media and/or on-line magazines:Many Italian magazines about music now maintain a presence on the internet with on-line versions of their Italian music is just playing the flute.-broadcast...
such as the journal, Musica Jazz. In Italy, today, it is virtually impossible to find a medium-sized city without a jazz club.
Notable contemporary Italian jazz Musicians include Enrico Rava
Enrico Rava
Enrico Rava , is a prolific jazz trumpeter and arguably one of the best known Italian jazz musicians. He originally played trombone, changing to the trumpet after hearing Miles Davis. His first commercial work was as a member of Gato Barbieri's Italian quintet in the mid-1960s; in the late 1960s...
, Antonello Salis, Massimo Urbani, Paolo Fresu
Paolo Fresu
Paolo Fresu is a trumpet and flugelhorn jazz player, as well as an arranger of music, and music composer.-Career:Fresu was born in Berchidda, Sardinia. He picked up the trumpet at the age of 11, and played in the band Bernardo de Muro in his home town Berchidda...
, Stefano Bollani
Stefano Bollani
Stefano Bollani is an Italian jazz pianist from Milan.He made his professional debut at fifteen and received his diploma in piano from the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence. He performs classical music, smooth jazz, avant-garde jazz, Brazilian jazz, and pop rock...
, Antonio Farao
Antonio Faraò
Antonio Faraò is an Italian post-bop jazz pianist.He attended the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan where he earned an intermediate degree in 1983. He won the X1 Music Review's New Talent Prize in 1987. He won several other international competitions before his debut album in 1999. He followed...
, Dado Moroni
Dado Moroni
Edgardo “Dado” Moroni is an Italian jazz pianist and composer.A self-taught musician, Dado, who was born in Genoa, Italy, started playing piano at age four...
, Aldo Romano
Aldo Romano
Aldo Romano is a jazz drummer. He also started a rock group in 1971.-Biography:He moved to France as a child and by the 1950s he was playing guitar and drums professionally in Paris, but his career gained notice when he started working with Don Cherry in 1963. He recorded with Steve Lacy and...
, Stefano di Battista
Stefano di Battista
Stefano di Battista is an Italian jazz saxophonist who plays soprano and alto.He was born in Rome. He began playing at thirteen with friends and became interested in jazz on hearing Art Pepper. In Italy he received guidance from Massimo Urbani and by his twenties di Battista was performing in Paris...
, Luigi Grasso, bassist Giorgio Rosciglione and Riccardo Del Fra, bassist Pippo Matino, Giovanni Falzone, Giovanni Mirabassi
Giovanni Mirabassi
Giovanni Mirabassi is a Paris-based Italian jazz pianist, born in Perugia, Italy.Self-taught, he learned by listening to Bud Powell, Art Tatum, and Oscar Peterson. He is strongly influenced by Enrico Pieranunzi...
, Enrico Pieranunzi
Enrico Pieranunzi
Enrico Pieranunzi is an Italian jazz pianist. He fuses classical technique with jazz.He has performed with, among others, Frank Rosolino, Sal Nistico, Kenny Clarke, Johnny Griffin, Chet Baker, Joey Baron, Art Farmer, Jim Hall, Marc Johnson, Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Bill Smith, Charlie Haden, Mads...
, Gianluigi Trovesi
Gianluigi Trovesi
thumb|200px|Gianluigi Trovesi in 2006.Gianluigi Trovesi is an Italian jazz saxophonist, clarinetist and composer.A native of Nembro near Bergamo in Lombardy, he studied harmony and counterpoint under Vittorio Fellegara. Since then he has been a major player in the Italian and European jazz scene....
and others members and collaborators of the Italian Instabile Orchestra
Italian Instabile Orchestra
The Italian Instabile Orchestra is an eighteen piece experimental big band that performs orchestral jazz and avant-garde jazz. Its members include Gianluigi Trovesi, Paolo Damiani, Mario Schiano, Pino Minafra, Eugenio Colombo, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Bruno Tommaso, Sebi Tramontana, Umberto Petrin,...
.
Gianluca Petrella
Gianluca Petrella
Gianluca Petrella is an Italian jazz trombonist. He is internationally considered one of the best young jazz trombonists. In 2001 he won Italy’s Django d’Or Award as well as Musica Jazz’s annual critics poll as Best Young Talent. In 2006 and 2007 he won in Down Beat's Best Emerging Artist category...
is internationally considered one of the best young jazz trombonists. Italy has many young and promising jazz musicians including Rosario Giuliani, Claudio Quartarone, Marcello Giuliani, Mauro Gargano, Francesco Bearzatti, Michel Rosciglione, Massimo Biolcati
Massimo Biolcati
-Biography:Massimo Biolcati was born in Stockholm, Sweden and grew up in Sweden and Italy. Biolcati has performed and recorded with the likes of artists such as Michael Bublé, George Garzone, Jeff Ballard, Terence Blanchard, Ravi Coltrane, Paquito D'Rivera, Herbie Hancock, John Scofield, Wayne...
and Flavio Boltro.
"Piano,Solo" (2007) is a biographical movie by Riccardo Milani based upon the life of Luca Flores , an Italian jazz piano player .
Michel Petrucciani
Michel Petrucciani
Michel Petrucciani was a French jazz pianist.-Biography:...
, André Ceccarelli or Alfio Origlio are notable french musicians whose families come from Italy.
External links
- Umbria Jazz Festival In Perugia, generally in July (the largest such event in Italy)
- Siena Jazz The first and still most prestigious Italian jazz school, hosting the most rich specialized library and sound archive of the country, and organizing a Summer festival (July 24/Aug 8th)
- Running updates on jazz events in Italy
- Jazz museum in Genoa
- "Italian Jazz: Twelve Essential Recordings" by Thierry Quénum (Jazz.com)