21. MY PIANO SOLO CONCERTS IN TOKYO

My dear Japanese friends

Tomorrow morning I'll meet Esagono at Turin's airport, Caselle and we'll go to Rome and from Rome to Tokyo.

I'm re-experiencing the pleasure and excitement of comin' in Japan.

First of all I want to give you a picture of the scene you'll find.

I will play tunes from "Pianovagando" my solo piano album that's comin’ out very soon, next month, as well as pieces from arti & mestieri's repertoire, a couple of Beatles & Stones' classics and some totally improvised pieces.

Basically As "Pianovagando" with 57 pieces focus on me as a Composer and interpreter with just some improvisations, the live concert is quite different, starting from the tunes and improvising a lot.

My live concept of improvisations is so free as well as with the character of becoming structured as the tunes goes on, "linked by surprise".

I mean I like to improvise real themes, chord sequences, rhythm, riffs, melodies & more melodies, creating moods, dynamics and so on so much "on the spot", on that moment with obviously an high degree that unpredictability is the only certainty!

With these premises, obviously, the audience, the place, the piano, the unique atmosphere of those nights, of those moments will switch on passion, emotion, colours, adventure games and ... more!

I will seat in front of a wonderful Yamaha Grand Piano

On Tuesday and I'll start with "Alba mediterranea" a piece I wrote for arti & mestieri and that I composed, inspired by a dawn in Sardinia, years ago.

After I'll play "Gianfranco" dedicated to arti & mestieri's singer that died on '86 a very romantic melancholic tune.

Next tune. "Over the Ocean" is a modal Hard boppish tunes I wrote the first time I flight over the ocean.

After there will be a special rendition of "Eleanor Rigby", followed by a total improvisation piece called "STB 1".

Next there will be "Ode", inspired by the great poem by A, Shaughnessy.

After it there will be another full improvisation called "STB 3".

The end of the show will be "Birth"

The second night I will open with "Montmartre" dedicated to that fabulous moment in time in early '20's in Paris.

It will be followed by "Sin Fronteras".. that's passion extracted from my Spanish heart... no frontiers in art.

"Back Home" that come after, was composed after being on military services for the first 40 days, touching guns and ... no pianos for 40 days and getting this tune as soon as I reached my home and my great friend, my first vertical piano.

After that a Stones' Classic, "Paint It black", using black and white keys to re-paint it with my colours.

Then we have a full improvisation called "STB 2", followed by a piece dedicated to my little village, where I live, "S. Sebastiano" with echoes of old Italian popular music, so rich in melody and emotion as everyone knows everywhere, ...it's Italian DNA.

After that another full improvisation "STB 4" and at the end,.. "birth" as ... the world end is meaningless in the music world, so "birth" seemed the right way ... to end!

... Id' like to say more, but at this time I want the music speaks by itself letting the Piano translate my moods in emotional sounds for you.

my friends,

see you there,

till then,

stay happy,

BEPPE
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日本の友達へ、

明日の朝、トリノ空港でESAGONOのみんなに会って、その後、ローマに行き東京へ向かうよ。

日本にもうすぐ行けると思うと、また、喜びと興奮してくるよ！

それでは、まず、ライブで観られるシーンを教えよう。

初めに僕が弾く曲は、来月発売されるソロ・アルバム「Pianovagando」からだよ。そしてart&mestieriの曲、 Beatles & Stonesの曲、全く即興した曲もプレイするよ。

基本的に、５７ピースある「Pianovagando」は、作曲として演出として、いくつか即興も加えながら焦点を置いている。ライブでは、即興が多いところが全く違うところだね。

僕のライブ即興の概念は、とても自由であり、曲が進むにつれて、構造化されて行く特徴を持っている。

つまり、僕は、真のリズム、和音系列、リズム、リフ、メロディー、ムード作り、ダイナミックさなどを即興するのが好きなんだよ。その瞬間、その場での予測できないのが、唯一の確実性なんだ。

これらを前提に、明らかに、観衆や、場所、ピアノ、ユニークな雰囲気の夜、その瞬間は、情熱に、感情、色、アドベンチャーゲームなどにスイッチを付けるでしょう！

僕は、素晴らしいヤマハのグランドピアノの前に座るんだ。

木曜日、ari&mestieriのために書いた曲「Alba Mediterranea」から始めるつもりだよ。

その後、「Glanfranco」を弾く。１９８６年に亡くなったartiのシンガーに捧げるとてもロマンチックで憂鬱的な曲さ。

次は、「Over the Ocean」。海の上を飛行機で飛んだ時、初めて書いた曲。

その後、「Eleanor Rigby」の特別な演奏をして、それから「STB1」と呼ぶ全くの即興曲を演奏する。

次に、素晴らしい詩人 A. Shaughnessy に感銘させられた「Ode」を演奏するよ。

次に、「STB3」と呼ぶ完全即興を演奏する予定。

最後の曲は、「Birth」。

２日目の最初は、２０年代初期のパリの素晴らしい時に献呈する「Montmartre」で始めるよ。

その後、「Sin Fronteras」。これは、僕のスペインの心の情熱だ。芸術には、国境はない。

そして、「Back Home」。これは、兵役初めの４０日間に書いたもの。４０日間もピアノから離れて、鉄砲に触れていた。家に、友達に、そして、僕のピアノに戻ったらすぐ、この曲が出来たんだ。

その後に、ストーンズのクラシック、「Paint It Black」を演奏する予定。黒と白の鍵盤を、僕の色でペイントするんだ。

次に、「STB2」即興曲。そして、僕の住むサン・セバスティアーノの村に贈る曲なんだけど、古いイタリアのポピュラーミュージックで、メロディー豊かでどこの誰もが知っている曲だよ。

その後、完全な即興曲「STB4」を演奏して、「Birth」で演奏をくくる。
いかにも、世界の終わりは、音楽界の終わりとは無意味であるように。
だから、「Birth」は、終わりにはちょうどいい曲なんだ。

もっと言いたいことありけど、僕の感情的なサウンドのムードを自分のピアノで語ることにしよう。

それでは、日本で会おう。
それまで、ハッピーでね。

Beppe

20. ESAGONO INTRODUCE THEIR SHOWS IN TOKYO

Dear Japanese fans,

Now, “I give the word” to my friend Marco Cimino that will introduce Esagono’s shows in Japan.


Dear fans,
we are very glad for this terrific opportunity to come and play in your country. We are longing to perform our new CD to a well disposed audience, that knows well the entire tradition of Italian progressive and jazz rock, made in Turin. And for these Japanese concerts only we are planning to extend our track list including some old stuff from the original A&M and Esagono repertoire.

Here is our cue list of the concert:
Esagono Apocalypso Tour 2008

Apocalypso: an intro in overture form based on a recorded tape with many voices (from J.McCain to some scientists) speaking about pollution, Kyoto protocol, greenhouse effect, USA position on it, ending with Apocalpse Now extract "I like the smell of napalm in the morning..." We will play over it anticipating the atmosphere for:
Napalm, the starting track of our last CD, featuring Diego on soprano sax.

Seven steps among the clouds: Marco Gallesi's composition, which unfortunately couldn't come with us, but Massimo is such a great bass player. . The tune is a 7/4 tempo most of the time.

Metti una sera a cena ( maybe one night at dinner time): it is an Ennio Morricone composition, well known in Italy, but not so much abroad because it was one of the early Italian film score. Anyway Eumir Deodato has recently recorded it.
Diego plays clarinet.
Then comes Maia, one track taken from our debut album dated 1976 that we revisited for our last CD.
Guajira do amor: a 6/4 tune played for the first half part along with a sequecencer background as in the recording version.

Our bass player for this visit to Japan, Massimo Camarca, introduces himself performing one of his compositions, “For You” (written with Beppe Crovella).
Then it is the turn of Diego's composition "Spazi aperti" (open spaces), a ballad full of chords I always fear to forget.
For these two concerts we decided to recall some of our previous stuff. It is the case of "Vicolo" (it means Row), our first album title track, which with a 9/4 6/4 4/4 modular structure is always fascinating for us to play.

For the same occasion we prepared a Suite containing some Arti&Mestieri music: "Zoetrope" and "Terra incognita" from Murales and "Dimensione terra" from "Giro di valzer".
On "Musica nera" (black music), that I will shortly perform on alto flute, an instrument I always loved, Diego will play his clarinet.
Here is time for a new tune I wrote after the suggestion of this trip to Japan, nothing exotic, just my mood to come and visit this far away world. Temporary title "From Tokyo to Kyoto". On the second concert we will probably play "Giù la testa" another terrific Morricone's composition.

"Arena" an extract from our first album, composed by our drummer Giorgio Diaferia, tune that I mostly rearranged for this occasion, playing flute on the first part as in the recorded version.
"Leggenda metropolitana" (urban legend) ends our concert program, followed as encore by "Rainstick" with a drums solo and Arti&Mestieri's famous anthem
"Gravità 9.81" featuring our good friend Beppe Crovella on keyboards.

Marco Cimino

************************
日本のファンへ、

今度は、僕の友達、マルコ・チミノが、エサゴノのライブについて紹介するよ。

ファンのみんなへ、

僕たちは、君たちの国で演奏するというこの素晴らしい機会があって、とても嬉しいよ。トリノで作られたプログレやジャズ・ロックの全体の伝統を良く知っている、気だての良い観衆に、僕たちの新しいCDを演奏するのが待ちきれないよ。そして、このコンサートのためだけに、いくつかオリジナルのA&Mとエサゴノの古い曲も含みながら、演奏する曲を広げていくつもり。

これが、コンサートのリストだよ。

● エサゴノ「アポカリプソ」ツアー２００８ ●
アポカリプソ：イントロは、J.マッケインから何人かの科学者の声のテープで始まる。汚染や京都議定書、温室効果について話していて、米国がそれをどう思うのか、黙示録で終わる。「朝のナパーム弾のにおいが好きだ・・・」というところから、演奏を始めるのさ。ナパームは、再新のCDのはじめの曲で、ディエゴのサックスがフィーチャーされているんだ。

雲のなかの７つのステップ：マルコ・ガレッシの作曲なんだけど、残念な事に、今回のライブには来れなかった。でも、マッシモ・カマルカも素晴らしいベース演奏者だよ。この曲は、４分の７拍子なんだ。

Metti Una Sera A Cena （多分ある夜の夕食時）：これは、イタリアで良く知られているエンニオ・モリコーネの作曲。海外では、あまり知られてないようだね。彼は、初期の映画音楽家だったんだ。とにかく、エウミール・デオダードが最近録音したんだ。
ディエゴはクラリネットを演奏するよ。
それから、１９７６年のデビューアルバムからの曲、マヤ。これは、今回の新譜にもリバイスで入っているよ。

Guajira do amor: レコーディング・バージョンのように、シーケンサーをバックに前半は４分の６拍子で演奏される曲。

そして、このツアーでベースを担当するマッシモ・カマルカが、ベッペと作曲をした曲「あなたのために」を演奏。そのあと、ディエゴの作曲の「空間」。和音でいっぱいのバラード。
今回２回のコンサートにおいて、僕たちは、以前の曲も演奏することに決めたんだ。それが、「通り」という意味の「Vicolo」。僕たちのファースト・アルバムタイトルトラックさ。これが、４分の９拍子、４分の６拍子、４分の４拍子の構造で、いつも演奏するには魅力的なんだ。

それから、arti & mestieriの曲もいくつか用意している。
「Murales」からの「Zoetrope」と「Terra Incognita」、そして「Giro de Valzer」からの「Dimensione Terra」。

そして、間もなく僕が、僕の好きな楽器アルト・フルートで「Musica Nera」を演奏。そしてディエゴは、彼のクラリネットで演奏。

そして、ついに、日本公演を提案した後に書いた僕の新しい曲を披露。大してエキゾチックでもないけど、はるか日本へ訪れるという、僕のムードの曲さ。タイトルは、「東京から京都へ」ってところかな。２日目は、多分、また素晴らしいモリコーネの作品「Giu la Testa」を演奏するよ。

それから、ドラマーのジョルジオの作曲でファースト・アルバムの中の「Arena」を演奏。レコーディング・バージョンのように、最初の部分はフルートを吹いて、このライブでは、殆どアレンジをするよ。

「Leggenda Metropolitana」（都市伝説）で僕らのコンサートは終わる。
アンコールは、ドラム・ソロ有りの「Rainstick」。そして、僕たちの友人ベッペがキーボードに入って、arti & mestieriの有名なアンセム「Gravita 9.81」も演奏するよ。

マルコ・チミノ

19. ESAGONO

Dear Japanese friends,

I'm proud to introduce to you "Esagono"

Esagono is a 70's Italian band that can easily define a "Brother-Group" with arti & mestieri.

In fact founding member Marco Gallesi and Marco Cimino have had their part in arti & mestieri's life, the other founding member Giorgio Diaferia, as well as Claudio Montafia that was in the original line-up as well as Carlo Rindone, were around, were originally part of the arti & mestieri's entourage in some ways. We had some arti's guests as well and so this "brother group" developed their original style, living musically close to arti & mestieri, in the 70's spirit in the same city, Turin.

In the 70's they made an original album called "Vicolo", published by Electromantic music who's published also "Due" a live/studio album from the 70's and now their new album "Apocalypso".

Now I introduce in short the band that will play at STB 139

MARCO CIMINO

Marco has been in arti & mestieri in "Quinto Stato" and in the 1998 Reunion. He played and composed on "Murales" and he's present also in LIVE 2000, in "Articollezione" and obviously in 33 where you can find a lot Marco Gallesi, a founding member of both bands. He's a founding member in Esagono and he's the leader of "Freelance", another band of talented musicians in Turin Jazz Rock School Catalogue. He made a lot of TV music and music for documentaries. In 2002 Marco Cimino founded the new jazz band Doctor Jazz's Universal Remedy, whose first cd was released in Germany, in USA and Russia. Tracks were included on more than 70 compilations, one of these sold more than 250,000 copies all over the world (Hotel Costes 6).
www.doctorjazz.dj

GIORGIO DIAFERIA

He's founding member of Esagono and of another 70's Band now reprinted on Electromantic Music, "Combo Jazz". He's played extensively with top Italian and world jazz musicians: Gianni Negro, Tiziana Ghiglioni, Flavio Boltro, Alfredo Ponissi, Franco Cerri, Gulio Camarca, Claudio Fasoli, Diego Borotti, Paolo Birro, Marcello
Tonolo, Piero Leveratto, Riccardo Zegna, Aldo Zunino e tra gli stranieri con cui si è esibito : Bob Porcelli, Mark Levine, Johnny Griffin, Hal Stein, Carol Bach y Rita, Jenny Stein, Peter Guidi, Jim Snidero, Harvey Weinapel, Art Farmer, Slide Hampton, George Garzone.

DIEGO MASCHERPA

He has a long list of experiences in the jazz and rock world and even in the classical world. He's now a stable member of "Esagono" as well as with Paolo Ricca's Group with which he recently recorded "Volcano" out now on TJRS.

MASSIMO CAMARCA

Massimo, from years can be seen every week on national TV in Italy. He's played with top jazz names and top Italian pop names – Renato Sellani, Franco Cerri, Mario Rusca, Flavio Boltro, Roy Haines, Bob Porcelli, George Garzone, Jamie Glaser, Bill Cobham, Al Stein, Dick Pierce, Tommy Campbell, John Donaldson, Gary Chaffe, T.M.Stevens, Greg Bissonette, Cristiano De Andrè (tour ’90 ’91 ’92), Ornella Vanoni, Ranzie Mensah, Solomone Bourke (on his CD in 2003), Syria Tour ’05.
On live on national TV he’s played with Celinie Dion, Parcy Sledge, BB King and many many many other international names.

He's leader of "Blue Indigo" a group that's in TJRS as well as being in Chirico Camarca Project, with Furio Chirico and his gather, Giulio Camarca.

He will be main player in Beppe Crovella' new album "soulful traffic" out later this year.

Stay happy

Beppe

18. TURIN JAZZ ROCK SCHOOL part 3

Dear Japanese friends,

In this century, the Jazz Rock tradition found in Electromantic Music a label that, with "uncontrollable" passion would have emphasized and expand at the same time, the inner nature of a group of musicians, coming originally form the 2 galaxies of jazz and rock, that with the label, become grouped officially under a precise name: "TURIN JAZZ ROCK SCHOOL".

As we have seen, with Venegoni & co. and Esagono we have the first example of the "after arti & mestieri" adventures in jazz-rock. We also see the first adventures in a sort of community as TJRS in a certain sense is.

With Esagono we have Marco Gallesi from "arti & mestieri", with guests Arturo Vitale and Giovanni Vigliar, and Gigi Venegoni who recorded the album. Marco Gallesi, bass player with Esagono and arti & mestieri and a stable presence in Furio's album has also an activity as soloist for TJRS. Marco Cimino later will become a member of arti & mestieri in "Quinto Stato" and will be a member of the band too in the reunion of 1998, till 2002. Giorgio Diaferia at the beginning was a student in Furio Chirico's school, on Electromantic music he appears with his band freelance as well, with a list of top musicians from jazz and rock.

With TJRS we see the official 3rd album of Venegoni & co. that hadn't been published before, as well a live recording on "Rumore Rosso live" and the new "Planetarium" (Furio is guest on a track).

Furio Chirico appears with 2 instructional videos, with a lot of musicians playing live in the studio, musicians that in some ways are part of TJRS:

Furio Chirico made 2 solo albums: "Furiosamente" with Paolo Ricca, Marco Gallesi, in more pieces and Gigi Venegoni and Beppe Crovella as guests.

Later Furio dedicated his album "Father To Son" to his child who died 2 years ago, and in this occasion we see all Furio's musician friend contribute with their composition and playing: Beppe Crovella, Gigi Venegoni, Arturo Vitale, Marco Gallesi (form original arti) , Marco Roagna, Lautaro Acosta, Roberto Cassetta, Iano Nicolo', Alfredo Ponissi, Beppe Crovella) form the actual line-up of the band.

Enrico Cresci who played with Esagono, with Beppe Crovella, on his solo Hannobd oriented album, and it's a member of Ebano (with Beppe Crovella) appears in a guitar duo album, "Holiday for Strings".

Massimo Camarca who will play with Esagono in Tokyo is a member of "Chirico Camarca project" and leader of "Blue Indigo" another band in TJRS that made the album "For You" (from a composition written with Beppe Crovella).

Paolo Ricca who played in "Furiosamente2 and in that period, live with Durio and Marco Gallesi appears on the label with 2 albums: "Batikk" which was recognized by journalist Matteo Ceschi as best album of the year, and the brand new "Volcano" that's just out on these days.

"C3" performed "zeta" by Paolo Ricca, on their concerts at STB 139.

On Ricca's albums we find musicians of jazz and rock area including drummer Maurizio Planker (drummer with Blue indigo too) and Diego Mascherpa.

Diego Mascherpa, is also a stable member of the new Esagono, and he will be in Tokyo, in the past he played also on a concert with arti & mestieri and string quartet, after having played with Furio, several times.

Giorgio Diaferia is Esagono's drummer in the seventies and now and he's the leader of "combo jazz" another TJRS band as well.

On "il Sogno di Archimede" we find 4 original members of "arti & mestieri" (Gigi, Arturo, Giovanni and Marco) with Massimo Artiglia, that in the 90's will become a member of Esagono.

At STB 139 we found the debut of "C3" with Beppe Crovella, Furio Chirico and Roberto Cassetta (CD and DVD are coming soon).

So you can see the interplay, the interaction between Turin's musician of the Turin Jazz Rock School, a unique sound form a peculiar community of musicians coming form jazz and rock.

On the CD Electromantic Night (Electromantic Music ECMT20071 TJRS) we find almost every musicians of the TJRS catalogue in a CD that's dedicated to sophisticated night music.

Stay happy,

Beppe

17. TURIN JAZZ ROCK SCHOOL pt. 2

Dear Japanese friends,

TURIN has had an artistic and also a jazzy Tradition.

In the early 70's several bands were born in Turin, attracted by this space "between" rock and jazz.

arti & mestieri have been the most important band in this sense and from them, from them we saw the appearance of new bands, following this path.

Turin has always had the character of a city full of contrasts, sometimes big contrasts, as the simple fact of being at the same time a city with a long artistic tradition, and, in last century by being the first in Italy to open his heart to cinema, radio, TV at the same time being FIAT's home.

I'm telling this preface as TURIN JAZZ ROCK SCHOOL captured these contrasts, emphasizing its dynamic value and extracting his artistic colours, quite deep, indeed.

Turin is not a relaxed City and the tensions on the city have found an artistic counterpart, an artistic mirror in Turin' jazz rock.

So in the Seventies we had Venegoni & co, who recorded from Cramps, as you know, two albums like "Rumore Rosso" and "Sarabanda" and Esagono, who was the first Italian band to have its own label, MU, with its LP, "Vicolo".

In the eighties, in Turin, as all over the world, we saw the directions of the Sixties and seventies, how could we say? ...in "pause" for a while.

The 80's have surely been interesting for the music these years produced, but at the same time the 60 & 70's movement these 2 decades, in a certain sense found a kind of "limbo", os suspension in time.

arti & mestieri changed their style or, it's better to say, Furio put together a really qualified ensemble of musicians, from the jazz and rock area, They played a lot, in Italy and in France too, doing two albums like "Acquario" and "Children's Blues" that, closer to 80's fusion style, are a very effective representation of the quality of artistic meeting between jazz and rock.

In the 90's we saw the appearance of "Chirico Camarca Project", with Furio Chirico, Giulio Camarca (who played iwth Giants of jazz Lice Chet baker, as you can see in the Chapter on Turin on arti & mestieri "33", and in the seventies he was in band called "Gialma 3" which had definitely many components in the middle areas of jazz and rock).

On "Chirico Camarca project" we see also Massimo Camarca, that's with Esagono in Tokyo, next week (a further example of the INTERCHANGE OF MUSICIANS BETWEEN BANDS" one of the main character of TJRS.

Massimo Camarca is a well-known bassist in Italy, that almost every week plays on national TV, on RAI 1, the main channel.

In the 90’s I made a very important album, in my career, "Kings Of Clubs", that gave me a lot of satisfactions; it's an instrumental album focusing on the Hammond organ.

In it I had the pleasure of having, as guests, some excellent musician, in the Turin area, coming from jazz, rock, blues world. Now it's out of print but it will be reprinted very soon when my new Hammond base album, "Soulful Traffic" will be out.

16 TURIN JAZZ ROCK SCHOOL Pt.1

Dear Japanese friends,

TURIN JAZZ ROCK SCHOOL is a catalogue, within the label ELECTROMANTIC MUSIC and it's a name that's been given to the unique combinations of jazz and rock musician, doing a personal identifiable jazz-rock music, from the city of Turin, in northern Italy.

In previous chapters of this blog we've seen that Turin had a well-defined jazzy tradition that in the 70's started to feel the attraction towards revolutionary rock music of that time.

We had bands like "Dedalus", "Il Sogno di Archimerde", "Living Life and obviously "arti & mestieri" that were attracted to this new fantastic area of musical expression "in the space between" jazz and rock.

Talking of "arti & mestieri" in our 33 years of activity we have been put sometimes with jazz-rock bands, sometime we have been put with progressive bands. In fact, if you listen to the band's repertoire you'll find sometimes, in tunes like "Valzer Per Domani" a precise jazzy mood, while in other like "Mirafiori" you'll find a kind of prototype of jazz-rock, and in songs like "Strips" you'll find a 100% progressive song with a classical interlude, lead by the violin in the middle of a vaguely "Crimsonian Song".

Songs like "Strips" would have never appeared in the repertoire of typical jazz-rock bands, while "Mirafiori" and "Valzer Per Domani" couldn't have appeared in the standard repertoire of a progressive band.

So "arti & mestieri" stay really "in between" the 2 styles, sometimes closer to jazz-rock, sometimes closer to prog, And I'll tell you, one of things than more then qny other gives us, "arti & mestieri", more satisfaction is when our music, more than "prog" or “Jazz rock" is defined "a la arti & emstieri".

As a new artistic adventure arti & metieri will record, later, this year 2 albums, in the meantime, this time "not being in between" but focusing each album on one of the 2 main style in which we're involved.

The progressive album will be called "Piramidi - Quadri di un'esplorazione", and it will be a long suite on the life of the "Italian Indiana Jones" based on Italian writer Marco Zatterins' book, called "Il Gigante Del Nilo". Marco Zatterin will also write the lyrics of the tune.

The other one called "Americanarti" will be a "full jazz-rock immersion"

I've done this intro with a short arti & mestieri's stylistic presentation as TURIN JAZZ ROCK SCHOOL has a lot to do with arti & mestieri, especially for what happened after arti & mestier and for what the band inspired his musicians and other musicians in the Turin area.

Beppe

15. ONE WEEK BEFORE THE SHOWS IN JAPAN

Dear Japanese friends

It's one week before the shows in Tokyo.

The excitement is growing, and We hope to share the same excitement with you, and naturally we would like to see you there.

Esagono and I will be happy to meet you and talk to you after the show, of course, as playing in your country has something special (believe me it's not something I'm saying to you right now and I could say in next country I go and so on)
I'm often saying to other musicians and friends what it is and that's I like so much the "picture" of the musicians playing to a Japanese audience. And obviously when I'm within those musicians or I am the musician... wow!!!

Basically I like the "space" of that night.

I like the concentration of the audience, I like that "beautiful silence" before the start and between the tunes, I like your presence, your intensity of attention to the music that invites to abound in expression, in details, as well as to amount in emotion,

In the best night a performer really fell, in a certain sense the weight of the audience's feelings in every note and the intensity of the vibrations in the air, not just sound vibrations, increase and increase.

I like to thank Naoju Nakamura who made it possible, He introduced arti & mestieri's first concert in Japan, at Club Citta', he made us beautiful photos on those 2 nights, he invited, at STB 139 my trio,
C3, with Furio Chirico and Roberto Cassetta, he visited us in Italy to know each band of Turin Jazz Rock School, he wanted to know more and more about our "family" that's Turin Jazz rock School, he wanted to know personally each member of each band, to stay and talk with them, to make photos (tons of photos) to interview them, in a sentence he really wanted to penetrate deeply our world to better understanding it. Definitely he's a man with tons of passion.

Now I want to tell you something:
We all know music is business too, and business can help musicians to make his dreams become real, and that happens...sometimes!

Sometimes in the music business we find authentic merchants, not thinking too much about expanding creative chances for the artists.,,, but thinking how to expand the dimension of their pocket to have the right amount of space to get all the potential money from the artists, sometimes in not so "clean" ways, often with promises that will be forgotten soon and forgetting honesty towards artists and honest producers very, very, very easily.

Arti & mestieri and relative producer(s) to make an example have been suffering because of these circumstances in the past and ... in the recent past. I mean our great work, our clear intentions, our 1000 % honesty has found ...."different" behaviors on the other side!!

I could tell you more about this,,, but now I want to get out of this sad side of the music world, so let's give our attention to more clean aspects of the scene, and I want to say how much instead, I appreciate people who really share with musician the same kind of passion, who 're living in the same wavelength of emotion, puttin' music and art before money, sometimes risking because of this behavior.

What can a musician say when he meets a being like this one? He can just say thanks, and so thank you Naoju, for working for music with "the music and musicians" in mind before everything else.

I'd like to thanks also Yayoi for the work on this web site.

I want to thank all people who are promoting our concerts givin' more value to our journey to your country.

I can assure one thing or, better, two things:

1. I'll give you my best

2. Esagono will give you its best

In my opinion it couldn't be different knowing the whole "film" before the show, knowing the persons.

All the artistic work behind these concerts, all the organization behind it, all the investments of money to make it happen, in one sentence all the EFFORTS (and I write it in capital letters) really ask for that, and we, happy, grateful, excited, we will give you our best, sharing our emotions with you, making 2 unforgettable nights WITH YOU!!! These are our goals!!!

So till next week (during next week and after )

stay happy,

from my heart,

Beppe

PS but I'll be back tomorrow with next chapter of my Blog, dedicated to TURIN JAZZ ROCK SCHOOL

14. TURIN

My dear Japanese friends,

Today I will introduce to you the city of TURIN.

Turin is obviously where TURIN JAZZ ROCK SCHOOL is born and it's the city where musicians of the catalogue Called shortly TJRS, are living.

Turin (in Italian "Torino") has always had an artistic personality, coupled with an high intuition towards new ways of artistic expression, so there's surely a jazz tradition in Turin, starting from the 50's or even before, and in the 70's we had a very famous club, called "Swing Club" in which generations of jazz musicians played, including a long list of giants, in different jazz styles...from Chet Baker to Jean Luc Ponty.

For Turin the seventies were, in every sense, the roaring seventies and, in that authentic golden age, the Swing Club became an irresistible venues for Turin's jazz lovers. The "Swing Club", with its tiny red lantern above, at number 18, Via Botero. (Gian Carlo Roncaglia one of the most important all time Italian jazz writer - it's an extract from "33" by arti & mestieri
(www.aem33.com/www.myspace.com/artimestieri33)

There's a live recording of a band "before" arti & mestieri that's "Il Sogno di Archimede" with 4 members of arti & mestieri, that will be published later, this year.

Turin was the capital of Italy, before Rome.

The Italian Television began its broadcasts in an old building in centre of Turin. The cinema started in Turin, long before Rome's Cinecitta'
On 7h November 1896, the first movie show by the Lumiere brothers, took place at number 33, Via Po, in Turin. The first Italian film companies, the movie stars, the historic colossals, all started here. Now we're content with only the Mole Antonelliana's Cinema Museum, albeit one of the finest museums in the world.

(Sergio Ariotti - RAI and writer and producer for TV and Theathre)
It's an extract from "33" by arti & mestieri.

P.S. You can see Mole Antonelliana on the photo.

Turin's mood is similar to Paris, for certain aspects it's closer to Paris more than to other Italian city, even in Northern Italy, like Milan.

A fascinating aspect of Italy (one of the many fascinating faces Italy has) is that in Italy you can find really big differences as far as art, culture or food, not to speak of dialects, and so on, between different parts of Italy and not just between south and north or Centre Italy and Island. And sometimes even between close cities.

This high degree of differentiation is really a wonderful palette of colours of many different intensities...it's Italy!

So Turin had and has a clear artistic identity.

At the same he's of the greatest industry in the world of Cars, as FIAT, that's also owner of legendary names like Ferrari, Lancia, Alfa Romeo that are quite famous all over the world.

So here we see one the many contrasts on the many faces of a city, artistic on one side and master in car industry on the other and in the 70's when arti & mestieri were born we had a lot of tensions and contrasts as well, between students and university and secondary schools, between workers and Fiat.

In the seventies we had the appearance of a new generations of young musicians in Turin that, following Sixties revolution started to blend rock with the jazz tradition of Turin.

There's a lot mot more to say about Turin, as you've seen also in part during the last Winter Olympic Games, so we'll talk about the city, in the future and Turin will be on fo the recurring item on this blog, in some ways.

Next chapter of this blog will be TURIN JAZZ ROCK SCHOOL
(very soon)

till then ( and after)

stay happy

Beppe

13. JAZZ-ROCK part 7 - THE JAZZ-ROCK EXPLOSION

Joe Zawinul, pioneer, genius and master of Jazz-rock

Dear Japanese friends,

,,, in a week we'll be in Tokyo for the 2 concerts at STB 139 on June 26th and 27th.

----Reservation
call STB 139 at 03-5474-0139
Service hour: Monday through Saturday 11:00 AM - 8:00 PM
E mail: herb@stb139.co.jp

In the meantime we go on with our quick but intense story of jazz-rock, and sharing these "roots" with you seems... the best intro for our 2 concerts in your country.

After the beginnings, jazz-rock spread its wings.

Since 1968 "rock-jazz/jazz-rock" started to "explode and expand" all over the world. This extraordinary meeting and blend of these 2 revolutionary styles of music both born in last century was spreading all over the world, creating many different exciting "musical scenes" with an extremely high degree of creativity.

Several groups (Soft Machine, Colosseum, Caravan, Nucleus, Chicago, Frank Zappa's band, Lifetime, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, to name just a few, and so on) had the same kind of idea at the same time (Perry Como would say ..it was a magic moment!)

Rockers became jazz-rockers focusing more on the impact of their dynamics, their energy, while jazzmen were becoming jazz-rockers focusing on sound, being smooth and elegant as well. At the beginning you could feel if the jazz-rockers came from jazz or rock but later the 2 intentions blended together more and more, and the new thing was so fresh and unpredictable that jazz-rock started to define the content of the style itself...by its own!

We can find obvious differences between what we define "progressive rock" and "jazz-rock" but one precise thing they had in common, and that's that they both had a "progressive attitude", I mean, simply, the intention to risk, the need of musical adventures in unexplored lands. creating what the...muse whispered, with a freedom from rules, styles, forms that had never been experienced before on this planet!

Once jazz music had been touched by rock music, it was merely natural that jazz musicians also adopted the instruments of rock music.

These things marked the first major revolution in jazz instrumentation since the early days of New Orleans jazz. In a few years jazz adopted the electric guitar, the bass guitar (replacing the double bass), the Hammond organ and all its successors (electric piano and synthesizers). Jazz-rock also adopted the rock way of using them. For example, the guitar and the keyboards now were treated as leading instruments, not part of the rhythm section. The rhythm section was pared down to bass and drums, and their work was almost unique in every band.

In the 1960s, basically, jazz musicians took two opposite views of where to go next: free musicians decided to turn the rhythm section mainly or essentially into a decorative element (percussion is a colouring device, not a time-keeping device), which almost inevitably led to the demise of melody, whereas Miles Davis and the other jazz-rock pioneers decided to anchor bebop/cool jazz to the most solid of all rhythms, the loud and steady rhythm of rock music a decision that almost inevitably led to the rise of melody.

In 1970, the trumpet player Miles Davis published a sumptuous double album called "Bitches Brew" which represents a turning point in the history of jazz music: It is the perfect synthesis between jazz and rock for long improvised pieces. The term "jazz rock" was born. The genre is characterized by an extreme decomposition of the tempo, providing more and more sophisticated, complex rhythms sections, a great tendency for virtuoso instrumentals, an approach for new technologies (with the launch of electronic instruments as the electric piano, synth), percussion materials and modulated, amplified sounds thanks to electronic effects. Among other artists who belong to this modern jazz tendency we can quote:

Among the main actors of jazz-rock were, the Miles Davis alumni, starting with Tony Williams, who was the first musician from a Miles' band, to have its own jazz-rock band, Tony Williams's Lifetime. Mile's alumni amplified, each one with his own path, Miles' Lesson: Hancock, Weather Reports, MAhavoshnu orchestra, Return To Forever...
What heaven! This revolution paralleled the revolution that we call free (or pseudo-free) jazz, goin' over numberless musical horizons.

The revolution had to do with rhythm, space, colours, freedom of … doing almost everything.

Under Rock-jazz idiom we found incredible rock band with brass like "Blood, Sweat & Tears" and "Chicago" (a similar line-up had "IF" in England), and in England we had English Jazz-Rock with Nucleus, Keith Tippet, Mike Westbrook Band, Mike Gibbs band, the Canterbury Scene with Soft machine, Caravan, Hatfield and The North, Egg, NAtional Health, and also Brand X, Isotope, and more. In Italy we had Area, arti & mestieri (although sometimes went into more progressive-rock lands) Perigeo, Napoli Centrale, Esagono, Agora', Baricentro, Libra, New trolls Atomic system with Tempi Dispari and more, and in Europe, Magma, Jasper van't hof, Wolfgang Dauner, Terje Ripdal, Ralph
Towner and many many more... we'll talk about ita kater (as IAn Carr would say..):: sorry for the ones I didn't mention in this first approach to this excellent list of jazz-rock heroes.

Jazz-rock music is typically instrumental, often with complex time signatures, metres, rhythmic patterns, and extended track lengths, featuring lengthy improvisations. Many prominent jazz-rock musicians are recognized as having a high level of virtuosity, combined with complex compositions and musical improvisation in metres rarely seen in other Western musical forms, perhaps best recognized in the work of jazz composers Dave Brubeck and Don Ellis.

The term “fusion”, later will refer, years later to a new dimension for blending together jazz, rock, world music, classical, or other influences into a concrete whole.

And next time we'll talk about TURIN JAZZ ROCK SCHOOL

Stay happy

Beppe

12. JAZZ-ROCK part 6 - EIGHT MILES HIGH with MILES

My dear Japanese friends

When I'm listening to some "magic moments" from Miles' Bitches Brew or other recordings live or in studio from Miles' Jazz-rock golden era, I get the idea that's a special gift comin' from...ten years after, ...miles away...comin' from eight miles high and ,,, sending me eight miles high!!!

I had this impression when it came out, years later, ten years ago and...now!

It was like an ideal blending, meeting, marriage of composition and imagination, of space and rhythm, of colours and transparency, of black and white, of harmony and silence, of exploration of "3D" in "instant" music.

Even before introducing Electricity and rock suggestions in Miles' music, Miles Davis's quintet featuring drummer Tony Williams, bassist Ron Carter, pianist Herbie Hancock and tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter had pioneered a sound that was primarily just that: "sound"!

I like to focus on this "sound" element that was quite new for jazz and that in next Miles' works, especially "Bitches' Brew". "adding space" found in "sound and space" a brand new territory for jazz, making jazz-rock one of most important and probably the most unpredictable if not the most adventurous and risky moment in the history of jazz.

1968's album "Miles in the Sky" is the first of Davis' albums to
incorporate electric instruments, with Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter playing electric piano and bass guitar respectively on the track "Stuff," and George Benson added on electric guitar to the quintet for "Paraphernalia."

1968 saw the appearance of other Davis' explorations into the use of electric instruments with pianist Chick Corea and bassist Dave Holland with "Filles de Kilimandiaro" and while Tony Williams was creating another incredible band "lifetime", Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter departed the quintet. this last one by not being interested at the time in Davis' new direction.

Compositionally, these albums are on the same wavelength, including sharing a trademark of the purest high quality.

In 1969, Davis introduced the full-blown electric instrument approach to jazz with "In a Silent Way", which can really be considered as Davis's first jazz-rock album.

"in a silent way" is composed of two side-long suites, these are the results of heavy editing by producer Teo Macero (as later on Bitches' Brew): The serene mood, quiet atmosphere of this album will be also quite influential upon the development of ambient music.

The line-up was absolute marvellously as It featured musicians who would all go on to spread jazz-rock with their own groups in the 1970s: Shorter, Hancock, Corea, pianist Josef Zawinul, guitarist John McLaughlin, Holland, and Tony Williams.

Tony Williams quit Davis to form his own fusion band soon after, and over the course of three memorable days in August Davis recorded the sessions that would be released as the album Bitches Brew in 1970.

In addition to the previous musicians, the sessions included Bennie Maupin on bass clarinet, Larry Young on electric piano, Harvey Brooks on bass guitar, percussionists Lenny White, Jack DeJohnette on drums, Don Alias, and Juma Santos on percussions.

With "Bitches Brew" Miles Davis abandoned absolutely traditional jazz in favor of a style of improvisation more typical of rock, for its natural freedom, in some ways inspired by post-psychedelic-jam acts in San Francisco in those days, with emphasis on the backbeat.

A note on "back beat": in music the back beat is a term applied to the beats 2 and 4 in a 4/4 bar or a 12/8 bar as opposed to the odd downbeat, (quarter beat number 1, when you count it). In a simple 4/4 rhythm, 1 2 3 4, the 1st beat is the downbeat. Generally (but not absolutely), in rock, R & B, in certain Pop oriented song, backbeat are often accented.

"Bitches Brew" gave Davis a gold record, being the most selling jazz album till today, and created different feelings, including consternation within the 2traditional" jazz community and, that, in my opinion, is unbelievable and this "state" remains to this day!!!

Many critics and musicians didn't agree with Davis after his forays into the "electricity" in many sense, but... a genius that chooses to risk is even more genius than ever.

Davis would continue to work in the genre until his temporary retirement in 1975, releasing important albums like A Tribute to Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, Live at Fillmore, In Concert, On the Corner, Dark Magus, Agharta, and Pangaea.

And also sessions from this period were fashioned by producer Macero and Davis into the compilation albums Big Fun and Get Up With It.
Since the earliest experiments with replacing the tuba with the double bass and with removing the piano from the rhythm section, the changes in the rhythm section had reverberated so wildly and were quite important in creating entire new "jazz-rock lands".

One of the biggest regret in the recent decades has been the loss of the opportunity of the birth of a great new band (and world or I could say a brand new...galaxy) that would have seen the musical meeting in a band of Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis as many voices were around this subject. ...and one of my favorite Hammond player, Larry Young, the Coltrane of the Hammond, had to be the 3rd star in the "unit". Can you imagine it?

"Bitches Brew" was a rich double album which really represents a turning point in the history of jazz music, of rock music, of jazz-rock, of MUSIC!

It is the perfect synthesis between jazz and rock for long improvised pieces. The term "jazz rock" was consolidated. The genre, characterized by an extreme decomposition of the tempo, providing more and more sophisticated, complex rhythms sections, a great tendency for virtuoso instrumentals, an approach for new technologies (with the launch of electronic instruments as the electric piano, synth), percussion materials and modulated, amplified sounds thanks to electronic effects. Among other artists who belong to this modern jazz tendency we can quote:

When Davis fused jazz with rock rhythm and soul melody (and even dissonance) in his visions of "space and colours" on Bitches Brew (1969), Davis definitely legitimized ulteriorly the new style, "jazz-rock", making it "History".

Stay happy, my friends
Beppe

11. JAZZ-ROCK part 5 - THE BIRTH OF JAZZ ROCK IN THE STATES with GARY BURTON

Dear Japanese friends,

Today I'll talk about the birth of Jazz-Rock in the States.
I told you in my previous writing on this Blog, that I'm thinking that there was definitely... "Something in the air" in those years all over the world, as people "with an ocean or more" between them, with no direct contacts and with not a big attention from media at the time, in the sense of seeing emphasized their attempts, had the same feelings, the same thinking and similar attitudes towards exploring new musical directions.

The first steps into the adventurous world of jazz-rock, in the States have been done by vibraphonist Gary Burton. He started with Stan Getz's quartet (1964-66), and he started his first experiment with rock rhythms on the album "The Time Machine" that featured bassist Steve Swallow.
On the same year, following this intention of goin' out of existing boundaries, he attempted also a fusion of jazz and country music on "Tennessee Firebird".

But, at the end.. ladies and gentlemen...the first jazz-rock album in the states is "Duster" by Gary Burton and his quartet with guitarist Larry Coryell, with Steve Swallow on bass and drummer Roy Haynes. Mike Gibbs and Roy Gibb complete the line-up. The album received a surprising; saw a prize for his "courage with a 5-star review from Down Beat when it was released.
Differently from "Open" who was really "open" to a modern new approach in blending several rock, jazz and new elements into new directions, although "Duster" is still more jazz than rock, Burton and his quartet definitely started "to look around"

The main factor that gives the album the "jazz-rock" factor, or it would be better to say, that gives to this originally oriented jazz album a more defined rock accent is Larry's Coryell guitar. Even before Larry Coryell had approached in some ways pop and rock with Free Spirits' album, "Out of Sight and Sound".
Burton's multi-mallet vibes attack is more intense and sharp than ever. The rhythm section with bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Roy Hayes creates an interplay that fits perfectly with the new direction. There are undeniable "signs of future" on this album that will come to full completion in the late-'60s and throughout the '70s with the exciting evolution of "Jazz-rock", specifically the more sophisticated one.

Later Gary Burton embraced electronic keyboards for "Good Vibes", which was basically a rhythm'n'blues album in which he was pioneering a four-mallet technique. Burton built step by step his unique sound owing little to the jazz pioneers of the instrument like Lionel Hampton and Milt Jackson. Down Beat magazine awarded him its Jazzman of the Year award in 1968. Although Burton's basic sound hadn't really changed from the previous year, his openness toward other styles made his Quartet one of the most interesting, "open" and significant jazz groups of the period. This was the also the first of the four Burton-Coryell recordings.

Such albums as "Duster" and the following "Lofty Fake Anagram" established Burton and his band as progenitors of the jazz-rock phenomenon.

DUSTER - track list

1. Ballet 4:57
2. Sweet Rain 4:26
3. Portsmouth Figurations 3:06
4. General Mojo's Well Laid Plan 5:00
5. One, Two, 1-2-3-4 5:59
6. Sing Me Softly of the Blues 4:08
7. Liturgy 3:29
8. Response 2:16
----------
Gary Burton Vibraphone
Larry Coryell Guitar
Mike Gibbs Trombone
Roy Gibbs Drums
Roy Haynes Drums
Steve Swallow Bass
----------

my dear friends, ...see you tomorrow with "miles"

till then,

stay happy

Beppe

10. "arti & mesteri" AT AN ITALIAN FESTIVAL - 1° PREMIO LEO CHIOSSO

Dear Japanese friends

I'm back from an Italian festival that happened yesterday night, in Cambiano, near Turin.

It was dedicated to LEO CHIOSSO, a very well known lyricist, in Italy, who wrote songs mainly for Fred Buscaglione (an important artist in the Italian musical scene, in the musical history of Turin, of which I talk in "33" for arti & mestieri, introducing him like an alternative artist, out of the boundaries of his time... on a similar wave length to arti & mestieris' approach in the sense of searching his "unique" artistic path, out of what was happening around him in that time).
Leo Chiosso also wrote songs for other Italian well known artists like Mina, Lelio Luttazzi, Johnny Dorelli, Giorgio Gaber, Rita Pavone.

The first Buscaglione-Chiosso hit was "Che bambola" of 1956; the song that brought Buscaglione to nation-wide celebrity and that without advertising and no promotion sold 980,000 copies!

In yesterday's festival, dedicated to Leo Chiosso, we had several well known artists from the Italian 60's & 70's.: Claudio Rocchi Giorgio Conte Goran Kuzminac Gian Pieretti, Donatello Maurizio Arcieri, Enzo Maolucci, in cluding with "arti & mestieri" another known band from Turin, now on "Electromantic Music", "Procession".

A curious thing: the very first song that I played live, on stage, in my life was "il Vento dell'Est" by Gian Pieretti as i told him yesterday night
(How can you forget the first time you played Live in front of an audience).

"Non dirne piu'", performed by Maurizio Arcieri, originally lead singer with New Dada, a 60's Italian band; it was a tune I played a lot in the sities wit my band, th "X5". "Non dirne piu'", originally called "Sick and Tired", was a Fats Domino's hot.

Yesterday I was happy to meet my friend Claudio Rocchi, a very well known and appreciated Italian artist in the 70', that I'm sure many Japanese friend know; Claudio Rocchi as well as arti & mestieri, has been with Cramps too (with his albums " A fuoco" and "non ce ne' per nessuono").

Originally he was with Stormy Six, later he started his solo career with "il Viaggio" (With Mauro Pagani as very special guest) an album that was very well accepted by critics and by Italian 70's audiences.
He conducted also "per Voi Giovani" the most important musical Radio Show, on national Radio in the end of 60's/70's who helped a lot in creating what has been called (especially in foreign countries) the fabulous Italian 70's. Yesterday He gave me his latest film, on DVD "Pedra Mendalza", a digital tale with music: I'm very interested on watching it sooon! Obviously we talked a lot about 60's, 70's, Cramps, Gianni Sassi, Per Voi Giovani and he told me an interesting, for all of you also, and that's Area's Paolo Tofani is coming back with a new project, soon.

I invite you to his very creative web site:
"www.claudiorocchi.com".

In the festival every "known" artist introduced one new talent, performing a tune in the artist's repertoire. The new artists were: Angeli di strada (performing Claudio's tune, "L'umana nostalgia), Sogni nel cassetto, Beatrice, Federico Rossi, Valerio Manni, Burning Highway, AnTarbh Rua and Processions' cover band was Joey Tassello and the Excellent Adventure that performed "Esplorare" (Electromantic Music - "Esplorare") while the band that performed an arti & mestieri's tune was " The Steamrollers" that performed "Arc En Ciel" form our repertoire (and from "Murales" on Electromantic Music.. I liked their fresh rendition of our tune, in a more heavy interpretation.

At the end the brilliant conductor Ernesto Saggese gave the prize to the winner (chosen by a qualified jury with Journalists, experts and Leo Chiosso's son) to the winner, AnTarbh Rua who performed Giorgio Conte's tune with 2 violins, acoustic guitar and cello, with a long intro by a bagpipe. But obviously, on a night like this, everyone is a winner.

An interesting happy Italian night!

At the end of the night it was nice to see together artists of about 5 different decades on the scene, and all together singin' the tune "Eri Piccola" by (leo Chiosso and Fred Buscaglione).

You can have a look at the interesting original Buscaglione's version on you tube
Search:

Fred Buscaglione - Eri Piccola

or go directly to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ycCoez382w

So you've seen that I like to alternate some main musical themes, with "everyday musical moments" that can be considerable by themselves or by their connection to my personal or general musical tales.

Yesterday it was a particular nice night for arti & mestieri and me and I liked to celebrate Leo Chiosso, an artist of my land, as Fred Buscaglione.

Regarding "musical lands", obviously especially after Second World War (but even before) and progressively from then on, with the advent of more media and a strong increase of "world communication", the artist's land ca be viewed as "a mix" of his native country and
"International influences" that in most part came form USA and England, but also India (as Claudio Rocchi would say), South America, Africa, your country Japan, itself and so as it is just simply a manifestation of artist's freedom to choose its expressive language whatever the language comes from, to choose "its country" and to build its own "DNA" blending its origins with new "homes" that the heart suggests. And sometimes it has a special taste, for me to remember, that I come from Piemonte, Turin, like yesterday night ...and going back at my little village, S. Sebastiano.
Earth, countries, Native Lands, traditions, origins an "imaginary lands and lascapes" are wonderful whisperer for the ones who creates.

I'm back later with my next step in the History of jazz-Rock.

Till then,

Stay happy, my friends

Beppe

9. THE BIRTH OF JAZZ-ROCK

My Dear Japanese friends,

As we've seen in the previous chapter of my Blog, the creative explosion of 1967 gave birth to many beautiful musical gifts and we can say that one of them, and surely one of the most "brilliant" was surely a new musical style, a new world, called Jazz-Rock.

The previous chapter, in some ways wanted to demonstrate that the spirit of musical revolution/evolution that painted the world in the Sixties, born in the "rock world", was the 'basic item' that touched, a bit later, the "jazz world", generating a unique blend of new experiences with its own palette of inspired and inspiring colours that we call "Jazz-Rock".

We've seen that in 1967 United States and England had been, till then, the leading creative countries in the music re-evolution of that time, as it had been before, with Elvis and R & R in The States, with Beatles, Stones and the British Invasion from England, with R & B in the States, followed by "White R & B" in England, and a legacy of Blues players came out in both country and also ....adventures in modern sound, treating recording like a new instrument with Phil Spector on one side and with Joe Meek and George Martin on the other, "Sgt Pepper's" in Abbey Road, "Pet Sounds" in USA, Psichedelia in San Francisco, Psichedelia and Pre Prog in Long Island and the first classical influences in progressive rock in England and so on.

In Jazz-Rock we had also this "intuition" towards new areas, coming from different sources in both countries although personally I think that the record that before every other records was more aligned with the purest spirit of innovation of the new idiom called jazz-rock, "opening" towards new creative fields was surely "Open" by Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll & The Trinity (drummer Clive Thacker, and bassist Dave Ambrose).

Brian Auger & Julie Driscoll, Berliner Jazztage 1968 ©bayerisches-jazzinstitut.de

"Open" has been seen as the first Rock-Jazz album (jazz rock was called Rock-jazz at the beginning). Basically the album combines "moods" inspired by Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff, jazzy harmonies, jazzy solos and the rock oriented rhythms, rock sensibilities, energy. Adventure and psychedelic colours.
It's a Pre rock-jazz adventure that's ...already jazz-rock by itself, definitely!

In the truest "spirit" of jazz-rock, it went much beyond coupling idioms of one style with the other, in it we find this view, this perspective of the widest horizons, with no limits, adding the right musical elements that inspiration suggested on the "flying moment", and we find also funky grooves by Brian and Trinity and bluesy lines by the phenomenal Julie Driscoll (from Auger's previous 60's super group The Steampacket, that had Rod Stewart in it as well) , proving that she was undoubtedly the only British, white singer who had the skill and ability to bring the necessary ingredients to interpret soul, like Aretha's ''Save Me''.

We find a couple of incredible rendition of Folk numbers like Donovan'
Season of the Witch (Donovan was the English counterpart of Dylan, that wrote such classics as "Sunshine Superman", "Mellow Yellow"; Lalena" and that should be much more knew by today's audiences) and Bob Dylan's "These Wheels on Fire", that's not in the original Lp but was out a bit later, in 1968, as a single, and it has to be be linked to this article as It's a beautiful example in those days. of the meeting of folk, psychedelic rock and jazzy elements...I like to call it: "a masterpiece in blending Space and earth, aesthetically, with soul!"

"This Wheel's on Fire" became a number one in France and reached number five hit in the United Kingdom. With its use of flanged sounds, the imagery of the title itself, and the group's flamboyant dress and performance (Brain told me one day of the big surprise the audience had when at the Berlin Jazz Festival they appeared on scene, in front of a jazz audience in pure "flower power" dresses), this "emotional package", this version came to represent the psychedelic era in British music.. with drama, mellotron, bluesy, jazzy, and... magic!

Bob Dylan wrote the lyrics in 1967, but didn't get around to releasing a
version of this track with his own vocals for another eight years ( there's also the Bands' version and the Byrds' version).
"Season of the Witch" established Julie's reputation as a vocalist of great interpretative ability and emotional dexterity. Donovan's ''Season Of The Witch'' gets Auger's bluesy Hammond organ licks all over it whilst Julie Driscoll sings with a very personal timbre and charm to great effect. This quite long tune, for the time it is the perfect interplay for the quartet.

Not enough words to describe Brain Auger's talent, he's been and he's a real genius and a wonderful being.

I'll tell you a little story; sometime ago I made my first Hammond oriented Album, called "Kings OF Clubs" ( now out of print but soon it will be available again) and I've got Brian's personal address from a common friend in Italy. I sent the CD to him and ...you can't imagine, really you can't imagine,,, I repeat that really you can't imagine the emotion I experienced when I got unexpected fax one day, telling: "Beppe, you've done a wonderful record! It reminds me those beautiful nights at the Flamingo, Thanks, Brian (and more).Wow, mi idol was telling that! ...I will talk a lot about Brian on this Blog, I'm sure! Thank you, Brian!!!

The opening tune I played with C3 (with Furio Chirico and Roberto Cassetta) at STB 139 was "Dragon Song" in the arrangement of Brian Auger when he was with Oblivion express and ... at the same time it was a tribute to another pioneer and hero in jazz rock, coming from UK as well, John Mc Laughlin, who played with Brian in the beginning and wrote that tune that in Brian's arrangements become even more dramatic retaining its angular melody and intense licks.

I like to give you a quote by Herbie Hancock about Brian:

"Brian Auger is one of the best Hammond B-3 artists I have ever heard in my life. His technique is awesome and the amount of energy he generates is unparallel and relentless. He is a tremendous talent with a wonderfully warm and compassionate personality, a combination that is hard to beat. He deserves all the accolades".
-Herbie Hancock

Brian's stated intention was to overlay soul and funk rhythms with jazz harmonies and solos and Brian's group, The Trinity, encapsulated wonderfully that period of time in the late 60's when mod was getting a little flowery and jazz, blues (Jonh Mayall's & Alexis Korner's alumni), and rock musicians found a common ground in the happening London scene at subterranean clubs like Flamingo where rockers and jazzers blended licks and moods.

"Open" contains mixture of jazz and rock but also rhythm & blues, Mod R&B, gospel, Psychedelic, folk and pop cover versions affirming the "open" attitude to creativity at 360° that's a basic factor in the greatest jazz-rock episodesnad that was just the beginning.
Following albums "Definitely What!", "Streetnoise" and "Befour" contains a long list of exciting, I would say legendary "rock-jazz/jazz-rock moments".

This new direction may have confused the less open-minded of the time, and that was and this is the price of adventure that's well known to pioneers in art, but definitely, at the end, Open" opened ... minds and "Opened" new doors towards mew roads... "miles away" for the new born Rock-Jazz/jazz-Rock,

See you soon with the beginning of Jazz-rock in the States,

in the meantime

Stay happy, my friends,

Beppe

8. JAZZ/ROCK Part 3: 1967, what a year!

Dear Japanese friends,

Today I'm back at my "jazz/Rock story".
I think I could write a book about it one day...

This story will lead us, step by step to TURIN JAZZ ROCK SCHOOL and consequently to the performances that Me on Piano solo and Italian jazz Rock band "Esagono" (from the 70's and from Turin Jazz Rock School), will have in Tokyo, on June 26th and 27Th.

After looking at the photo, in the heading of this Blog, someone will say:
"what does it mean "Sgt. pepper's lonely heart Club Band" cover, here, in jazz-rock story?

I'll tell you that as well as Beatles' masterpiece "Sgt. Peppers" is a "Day in The liFe" of "Progressive Rock, it has definitely "Something" to do with Jazz-Rock, if we see it for what it is, that's the icon of 1967, the year of so many creative explosions!

In fact, to understand fully the jazz-rock revolution we have to focus on one of most beautiful "positively revolutionary" year in the history of our planet: the year 1967!

1967: what a year! What a year for music! what a year for the whole planet!

In that year, the world witnessed the first blossoming of the '60s counterculture that had a significant impact on the entire world, and, we can say, that, even if something didn't last, fortunately, echoes of that year are still in the air today.

Some of the counterculture's dreams in 1967 came true. Art and music were painted with colours of freedom, peace, love and with an extraordinary amount of creativity. San Francisco and London were the leading cities of "Summer Of Love" (London’s scene was every bit as varied and definitely flower-powered as the one on the US West Coast, as did also other cities across the world).

The need for a change was felt all over the world and new styles of music, art, and literature were able to change and influence the whole planet and...music was really the driving force.

The Summer of Love painted many areas with his incredible colours: for example, the UK also saw a blossoming of the Œalternative press_ and, in London, IT (International Times) was particularly important, and the word "ecology" started to become part of every day life. And indeed, ll over the world, there were gentle people, dipped in new ideas, fresh attitudes, boundless energy!!!

1967's Summer of Love changed music and music changed culture.

That year produced a number of outstanding albums from some of the most important artists of all time. It was a true cornucopia that established the decade of the 1960s as one of the most significant era in the history of popular music.

While it’s nearly impossible to select the top 10 from such a wealth of choices, London saw The Beatles release 'Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band', argued by some to be the greatest album of all time.


On the "live music side", the Monterey International Pop Festival was a seminal event because, although there had been similar gatherings, this was considered the first real rock festival and laid the groundwork for Woodstock just over two years later.

The music in and around 1967 provides the most indelible reminders of that era and portrait also the protest directed at the "evil side" of the "old world", like the Vietnam War.

The Summer of Love produced some of the most important works of popular music in history, and by knowing and understanding the year 1967 we can see how in this magic moment of last century, the evolution of the music on this planet reached a new plateaux, expanding the horizon in more directions, putting there all the prerequisites for the advent and THE
BIRTH OF JAZZ ROCK!

Tomorrow I'll talk about the birth and the first steps of Jazz Rock, in
1967!

7. arti & mestieri at VERONA PROG FEST 2008

The very interesting photo of arti & mestieri at Verona's prog Fest 2008 is by Elena Vecchi

Dear Japanese friends,


I'm back at my blog, after arti & mestieri's concert at VERONA PROG FEST 2008.

This international concert has seen these bands:

June 4 - DFA / CANADIANS

June 5 - CASTELLO DI ATLANTE / MANGALA VALLIS

June 6 - ECLAT / arti & mestieri

June 7 - CAST / LE ORME

These days are rainy days in Italy, it's raining almost every day.
The day of the concert was ...a rainy day too.
The Prog Festival took place in Lugagnano, a little city near Verona.

Verona is the city in which there is the famous antique ARENA, a great place for festival of every kind music.. there I've seen Verdi's "Aida" as well as "Emerson, lake and Palmer".

Verona Prog Fest has become a very important Progressive Festival in Europe.

Before our performance on stage there's been "Eclat", from Marseille, France, arti & mestieri like their music and their performance.

We went on stage at 10:30 P.M. and we really enjoyed the atmosphere of the place and the interest of people and arti & mestieri have done a really good performance.

We played:
- Gravita' 9.81
- Strips
- Corrosione
- In Cammino
- Articolazioni

after this "Tilt" section I played my piano piece, treating it like a suite of several piano pieces I wrote.

Then we played
- Valzer Per Domani
- Mirafiori
- Aria Pesante
- Mescal
- Mescalero
- Dimensione Terra

An extract from Marylin worked like an intro to "Black Forest", a drum piece written by Furio for his son Stravos (that's on his CD "Father To Son"), and performed "solo" by Furio.

Then we had "Danza di Luna" from "Estrazioni" followed by Iano's solo vocal performance in which he gives his tribute to Demetrio Stratos.

At a certain point we had an improvised "scene" as Iano approached Marco's guitar and he sung at the guitar, followed by Marco itself that came there later and they performed as a duo for a while.

After that the whole band came on stage and the final piece was "2000", our piece form "Murales" and "First Live in Japan", full of energy and drama.

Another good night, really!

I'm back soon,
in the meantime,
stay happy,

Beppe

********************************
日本のみなさんへ、

ariti & mestieri として、ヴェローナ・プログ・フェスト2008に参加してきたよ。もう終わったから、ブログに戻れるよ。

この国際的コンサートの参加バンドは、以下のとおり。

６月４日　DFA / CANADIANS
６月５日　CASTELLO DI ATLANTE / MANGALA VALLIS
６月６日　ECLAT / arti & mestieri
６月７日　CAST / LE ORME

最近イタリアは、雨の日ばかり。殆ど毎日雨が降っているよ。コンサートの日も雨だった。プログ・フェストは、ヴェローナの近くの小さな街、ルガグナノで行われたんだ。

ヴェローナには、有名な古風のアリーナがあるよ。あらゆる音楽のフェスティバルをするのには素晴らしい場所さ。僕はそこで、ベルディのアイーダやエマーソン・レイク＆パーマーを観たことがあるんだ。

ヴェローナ・プログ・フェストは、ヨーロッパでは、とても重要なプログレッシブ・フェスティバルなんだ。

僕たちの前にパフォーマンスしたのは、フランスのマルセイユから来たEclatで、arti & mestieriのみんなも彼らの音楽やライブが好きなんだ。

僕たちは、午後１０時半にステージに出てね、会場の雰囲気も良かったし、観客も良かった！arti & mestieriのみんなもとても良くパフォーマンスが出来たよ。

プレイリスト:
- Gravita' 9.81
- Strips
- Corrosione
- In Cammino
- Articolazioni

この「Tilt」セクションの後、僕は、自分の書いたいくつかのピアノ曲を組曲みたいに弾いたんだ。

その後のプレイリスト
- Valzer Per Domani
- Mirafiori
- Aria Pesante
- Mescal
- Mescalero
- Dimensione Terra

マリリンからの抽出が、「Black Forest」へのイントロのようにうまくいって、フリオの息子ストラヴォスのために書かれたドラムの曲（これは、彼のCD「Father To Son」に入っている）、そして、フリオによるドラムソロ。

そして、デメトリオ・ストラトスに捧げるイアノのソロボーカールの後、「Estrazioni」からの「Danza di Luna」を演奏した。

それから、即興シーンがあって、マルコがギターを弾いていて、それにイアノが加わって歌い出し、しばらく２人のパフォーマンスが続いた。

その後、バンドのみんながステージに戻って、ラストの曲「2000」（「Murales」と「First Live in Japan」に入っている曲）を演奏したんだ。エネルギーいっぱいの劇的な演奏になったよ。

またすばらしい夜になった。

またすぐブログに戻るよ。それまでハッピーで！

Beppe

6. REHEARSING WITH arti & mestieri

Dear Japanese friends

In these days there's a short pause in my "jazz-rock" tale as I'm with arti & mestieri, for an important concert in Italy.

We'll be performing in Verona, that's in North/East part of Italy.

Now We're in my studio, Electromantic Synergy, where we're rehearsing arti's repertoire, as this Friday, June 6 we will at this important Progressive event, here in Italy, that's Verona Prog Fest 2008.

I'm goin to leave for the concert so, I'll be back on the Blog on the week-end.

As this blog is also sometimes a mirror of my daily life, my musical life, as you have seen last week, today I'm talkin' about arti & mestier's rehearsals.

We're rehearsing in my studio, Electromantic Synergy that's in my village in S. Sebastiano da Po ( you can see my village in the the background photo, on the flyer of our concert, BEPPE CROVELLA/ESAGONO, at STB 139 in June 26 & 27).

Normally we play in 2 ways: in some session we play all instrumental parts and on others we play all parts with vocal and, in these session Iano, our singer, join us.

My studio' recording room is quite big so we can play live in studio, without needing headphones, if not for Iano.

There's a peculiar thing for drums as Furio has a special set-up that he calls "Speculare" and he has to arrange my drums for his needs. Marco Roagna carries with him his Mesa Boogie amp, while Roberto uses my old vintage Fender Bassman amplifier.

Last night a nice thing happened, before the band arrived, and Marco, Iano and me where there, playing and improvising.

I've had an idea of a sequence of chords.
I asked to Marco to improvise on it.
It worked, it was a very nice mood!
I made a couple of changes and I thought of using it like an intro to "Aria Pesante" a tune from "giro di Valzer Per Domani" that we have included on our live show. This tune works well on the record as it is, but when performing it live, we felt the need of an intro and this last idea seems really the best one for that!

Later, with the whole band, Furio had an idea regarding the finale of the same tune. To add some "drama" in the finale, he proposed a short drum section between the last 2 parts, allowing him to change the speed of it, to create a more aggressive last part. It worked and we've put it in the arrangement of the tune.

One aspect of the character of Progressive Music is that the tune, the arrangement of the tune itself, sometimes, can change, in time, especially if the bands is doing many gigs.

For example after we made or first album "Tilt" we made an Italian tour with PFM and... a few weeks after the album was out we had already changed the arrangement of a tune and that's "Positivo/Negativo".

There's a short extract of this new arrangements on "il RiCORDarti", the CD that's in "33" our big package, of which NTSC version is out in these days: (www.aem33.com) (www.myspace.com/artimestieri33 ).

So at the end rehearsals can be more than just "rehearsing the repertoire" but it can be a creative moment for new ideas, new arrangements to add excitement at the repertoire itself.

While Tonight "Cantina Sociale". another Electromantic Music band, as you know, will be in studio to start the recording of their new album, and obviously Iano will join them after the festival, I'll ba back on the Blog after Verona Prog Festival.

Stay happy,

BEPPE
******************************

日本の友達へ、

イタリアで、arti & mestieriのコンサートがあるから、ここ最近ジャズ・ロックの話が途切れてしまったね。

僕たちは、イタリアの北東にあるヴェロナでコンサートするんだよ。

今は、僕のスタジオ、エレクトロマンティック・シナジーにいて、artiのレパートリーをリハーサル中。６月６日に、ここイタリアで重要なプログレのイベント、ヴェロナ・プログ・フェストがあるのさ。

コンサートがあるから、今週末にまたブログに戻るよ。

先週のブログを読んでくれたらわかると思うけど、このブログでは、ときどき僕の日常生活やミュージック生活を描いてる。今日は、arti & mestieri のリハーサルについて話すよ。

僕たちがリハーサルをしているエレクトロマンティック・シナジーは、僕のスタジオで、サン・セバスティアーノ・ダ・ポーにある。（日本で配られている僕たちのライブの広告の表で使われた写真が、実は僕のスタジオ！）

普段は、僕たち２通りの演奏をするんだ。あるときは、全部のパートをインストだけで。あるときは、ボーカルをつけて。今回のセッションは、シンガーのラノが加わるんだ。

僕のスタジオの部屋は結構大きいから、スタジオ内で、ヘッドホンを使わずライブ演奏できるんだ。

フリオのような特別なドラムのセットアップ（彼は「思索」と呼んでる）は、必要に応じてアレンジしなければならない、という独特なことはあるね。
マルコ・ロアグナは自分の MEGA BOOGIE アンプを持って来て、ロベルトは、僕のフェンダーBassmanアンプを使っているよ。

昨夜、いいことがあったよ。バンドのみんなが来る前に、マルコとラノと僕とで即興演奏したんだ。

僕には、和音の系列にアイデアがあってね、マルコにそれを即興してもらったんだ。いい感じになって良かったよ！

いくつか変更したら、「giro di Valzer Per Domani」の中の「Aria Pesante」へもっていくイントロに使えるんじゃないかなって思ったよ。ライブで演奏する予定なんだ。この曲は、アルバムにはいいけど、ライブで演奏するには、イントロが必要なんじゃないかなって感じてたんだ。そこで、このアイデアが一番いい感じになった！

その後、バンドのみんなが揃い、フリオが同じ曲のフィナーレでアイデアを入れた。フィナーレで「ドラマ」を加えるために、彼は最後の２つの部分の間で、短いドラムパートを提案したんだ。スピードを変えて、最後の方をよりアグレッシブにもっていく。うまくいったよ。この曲のアレンジができたね。

プログレの特徴の１面は、曲が時々その場で変化できるということだね。特に、たくさんのギグをするバンドは、なおさらアレンジをすることがあるだろう。

例えば、最初のアルバム「Tilt」がリリースされた後だったか、PFMとイタリアツアーをしたころだったか、その頃にはすでに、「Positivo/Nagativo」の曲をアレンジしていたんだ。

ここ最近発売された、僕たちの超豪華パッケージCD「３３」の「il RICORDarti」には、短い新しいアレンジメントが引き出されているよ。
詳しくは、ウェブサイトと見てね。
(www.aem33.com) (www.myspace.com/artimestieri33 ).

そんな訳で、リハーサルの最後の方は、リハーサルとかレパートリーと言うより、もっと面白く新しいアイデアやアレンジメントをつくる時間になったね。

今夜は、エレクトロマンティクのバンド「Camtina Sociale」もスタジオでアルバムのレコーディングを始めるから、ラノもフェスティバルの後、きっと彼らに加わるね。それじゃ、ヴェロナのプログフェストの後にブログに戻るよ。

それまでハッピーでいててね。

BEPPE

5. JAZZ-ROCK part 2 (BLENDING ELEMENTS FROM DIFFERENT LAGUAGES ...AND PAINTING THEM IN YOUR MUSIC WITH UNIQUE COLOURS!)

Hello, my dear Japanese friends,

Today we're goin' on with the fascinating subject of jazz/rock still dealing with its roots and origins, focusing on the fact of blending elements from different languages, a main character of jazz-rock, an approach that started some decades before the advent of the style.

we can find the meeting of different musical languages, years before jazz and rock for example when western classical music was influenced by the traditions of popular music, like with Chopin, or Bartok, for example, the first Stravinsky, and sometime not just tradition but even nationalism influenced great composers and sometimes and we found the 'nationalism of another country' attracted composers, like Spanish tradition influenced Ravel.

In this area, a peculiar thing happened, when musicologists criticized composers who were using references of popular music of a country, without respecting fully the characters of the traditions of that reference. We can understand that but don't necessarily agree with this viewpoint, as.. there's freedom in art, I mean, when you create, you can follow the rules, but an artist in my opinion, has "the license" to review what could have been a reference for him and use it following the rules.. or not, and if this "out of scheme" direction take him to a new creative state, to
inspired, interesting compositions, to fresh ideas, welcome to the "updated rule!".

That could have happened also in jazz-rock where someone could have used elements of a language in a way not so appropriate in the style from which it had been taken, it could be a jazz harmony or a rock rhythm, or whatever.

On the other side these elements work so good in the "new idiom"! And the new idiom, like jazz-rock gains a new state, a personality and day after day we have a new language!

Mixing elements of different culture or styles has been defined in different ways and in my opinions some definitions are not so good. Sometimes we have seen the word "contamination" that I don't like too much honestly as the word hasn't a positive sense and in some ways it seems to reduce the "beuty of the fact", as well as I don't like to see the term "globalization", when it is used to delete or to forget cultural tradition, including the artistic aspect.

So jazz-rock is the blend of some elements that simply..were "magnetically" attracted into jazz from rock and into rock form jazz.

We had seen western classical music influencing jazz in the genius of Gershwin, with Dave Brubeck and Berstein, with the progressive jazz of Stan Kenton, on Stravinsly on the other side and so on.

I like to mention Stan Kenton as the word "progressive" was used in jazz before that seeing it applied in rock contest (and we'll see that "the progressive idea itself is definitely "at home" in jazz rock.

Pete Rugolo, one of Kenton's arrangers, in this comment clearly talks about what happened around 1947 in Stan Kenton's band: "I began writing in 5/4 time and changing time signatures in the middle of a piece which I didn't think had been done before in jazz".

This one is a very interesting quote if you think of what happened, 20 years later.

A curiosity: one of the most known Stan Kenton's Tune, "intermission Riff" was recorded as main theme for a TV Program, in the late 60's, by Italian band "Equipe 84" doing a fascinating version, with sitar.

Blending different elements comin' from other styles and painting them with unique colours was not new as approach, in the second half of the sixties, and definitely is the main point of what became "NEW" and definitely one of the most interesting blend in music history: jazz-rock!


I hope today's blog has been interesting for you and tomorrow we'll go on with jazz rock with the first appearance of this style in the musical world.

4. JAZZ/ROCK part 1

In last century we've had 2 extremely important cultural, artistic, musical facts: Jazz and Rock.

IF we think for a while what's behind these 2 words, we find 2 almost endless beautiful worlds, that have influenced significantly art and life on this planet and whose horizons, today, seem really endless, as their own creations, their creativity are goin' on without stops or barriers,
givin' feeling and excitement to our everyday life.

Well, these 2 worlds at a certain points of their evolution, started to walk very close, when a certain magnetism attracted some elements of one language to move into the other one.

To better understand the relationship between jazz and rock in jazz-rock,
we have to start by looking at some musical basics.

We know the 4 basic elements by which we can define the main character
of a musical style and these are, following the classical musical history:

1. Melody
2. Rhythm,
3. Harmony
4. Orchestration (Instrumentation & arrangement of sounds)

In modern music we can define better point 4, as one big difference in last 50 years has been the change in the colours of sound, especially with the advent of electricity, electronics and digital.

So we can define the 4th element, in a better way, by calling it "sound colour" and this definition incorporates instruments, timbres, sound effects and the mixing of sounds).

Having in mind these 4 basics, especially at the beginning at the artistic meeting of jazz and rock, we can see how they interacted, for example putting a rock rhythm under a jazz melody and harmony, or we can see how "electric colours", primarily associated with Rock Music, entered in the originally acoustic jazzy room.

On the other hand at a certain point we saw more jazzy harmony behind melodies in rock tunes, and solos and the solo itself became longer, in a typical jazz way, adding more blue lines, more jazzy lines to its native rock nature.

A curious and interesting thing is that at the beginning the "artistic meeting" of rock and jazz was called "Rock-jazz" and later it became "jazz-rock".

So, this is the first chapter in "jazz-rock", that will go deeper into the style, consequently taking you to the world of "Turin Jazz Rock School" that I'm goin' to introduce and present here in a few days.

Till then,
stay happy,

BEPPE

*******************************

前世紀に、文化的、芸術的、そして音楽的に非常に重要な２つの事実があった。それは、ジャズとロックである。

しばらくこの２つの単語の背後のもつ意味を考えるとすると、この地球で芸術と人生にかなり影響を及ぼしている２つのほとんど無限の美しい世界があるとわかる。今日の地平線は、それ自身の創造、そして創造性は停止せず先に進み続け、僕たちの日常生活にフィーリングと興奮を与えてくれるように本当に無限のように見える。

発展のある程度の地点で２つの世界は、非常に近く歩み始めた。

ジャズ・ロックの中のジャズとロックとの関係をより理解するには、音楽の基礎を見ることから始めないといけない。

音楽のスタイルの主な特長を定義する４つの基本要素は知っているよね。

1. メロディー
2. リズム
3. 調和
4. オーケストラ編成（器楽の編成と音の配列）

近代音楽では、より良い４つ目の要素が定義できます。５０年間の間で、 特に、電気やエレクトロニクス、デジタルの出現のため、音の色が大きく変化がしてきている。

そういうわけで、４番目の要素を「音の色」と定義することが良いだろうね。「音の色」とは、楽器、音色、音響効果、そして音のミックスを合同したもの。

これら４つの要素を頭におきながら考えると、特にジャズとロックの芸術的出会いの始めには、それらがどう相互作用したかがわかる。例えば、ロックのリズムをジャズのメロディとハーモニーに置く。それか、主にロック・ミュージックに関連している「エレクトリック色」がどうアコースティックのジャズ空間に入ったのかがわかる。

一方、ジャズっぽいハーモニーが、ロックの曲調にある程度あったのを見てきたし、ネイティブなロックに、ジャズらしくソロを長くしたり、ブルーズみたいなのを加えたり、もっとジャズっぽいメロディーを入れたり。

面白くて気になることは、ロックとジャズが芸術的に出会った始めは、ロック・ジャズと呼んでいた。それから、ジャズ・ロックになったことだ。

そういうことで、これが、ジャズロックの第１章です。これが、どんどんスタイルにより深く入り込んで行き、その結果、２〜３日で紹介する「Turin Jazz Rock School」の世界へと導いて行きます。

それまで、ハッピーでいてください！

Beppe