28. NOCTURNE MUSIC & ELECTROMANTIC NIGHT

My dear Japanese friends,

Today's chapter is dedicated to Nocturne Music and to the nocturne compilation, by Electromantic Music, featuring mostly artists of the Turin Jazz Rock School: "Electromantic Nights".
8trailer on You Tube - http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=ppA3B83ZUoY.

In classical music we find the word "nocturne" and sometimes its Italian equivalent, "notturno", in pieces of music, mostly in a single movement, sometimes evocative of the night, or simply sometimes pieces that had to be performed at night (and this intentions are the same that are behind the CD that I'm introducing to you)

Probably the most famous classical "nocturne" piece is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

In the fifties we had "nocturne D.J:" like the famous Wolfman's Jack that appeared in "American Graffiti" (it was really interpreting...himself
...getting for its participation a "small percentage" that ... gave him financial "certainty", due to the big success the film has had.

In the eighties we had "The Nightfly"

"The Nightfly" is the title track and it is appropriate - This song is about DJ Lester, Jazz and Conversation. The album is about - a combination of jazz oriented music and conversation themes (love, war and the bomb, what the future will be).

"The Nightfly" in a certain way is a concept album. In the CD's liner notes, Fagen says that the songs on this album "represent certain fantasies that might of been entertained by a young man growing up in the remote suburbs of a northeastern city during the late fifties and early sixties".
... in the night.

This album, one of the best in... music history, in my opinion, has been a big influence on defining "nocturne" Radio Shows all over the world, and also contributed a lot to the birth of a certain kind of "nocturne" music, relaxed, but full of emotion at the same time, mostly Slow, but intense, calm but often sensual, refined, elegant, sometimes melancholic.

I like to play, perform and compose in the night, and it’s the time, before goin' to bed, while I'm listening to the radio.
I like to listen to that "moody" music, with some talks, stories between songs. In Italy we have RAI, Notturno Italiano (RAI INTERNATIONAL), Radio Montecarlo, Radio capital.

So I have found in Electromantic Music's catalog, what could represent "night feelings and this variety of precise moods) and I've liked to find specifically a right succession between songs, like a concept album ... with a precise path for the listener, like moving ... in the night.

On the album we find mostly artists from the "Turin Jazz Rock Catalog" and other artists from Electromantic productions, like Aldo Tagliapietra's "il mio canto libero" or Slep "Take it as it comes" that are perfect in the mood, as well as Morera, that's been produced by Romeo Ferrero, arti & mestieri's producer in the eighties (Acquario and Children's Blues). At the same time we have the pleasure of listening to special guests like Dave Liebman, Alex Acuna, Steve Gadd and Flavio Boltro.

Track List

1 L'albero del Pane (Venegoni & co)
2 Sun (arti & mestieri)
3 It's 4 you! (Beppe Crovella)
4 Il mIo canto libero (Aldo Tagliapietra's Il Nostro Canto libero)
5 La Corazza e Le rose (Furio Chirico & friends)
(composed by original arti & mestieri's Arturo Vitale)
6 Besasme Mucho (Marco Gallesi)
7 For You (Blue Indigo)
8 A Song For The Viados (Freelance)
9 Emozioni (Beppe Crovella)
10 Maya (Esagono)
11Capiozzo (Chirico Camarca projest)
12 Pastorale (Paolo Ricca)
13 Venus (Cresci - Tattara)
14 Quarto Di Luna (arti & mestieri)
15 Solo PAra Ti (Morera)
16 Bibuscka (Venegoni)
17 Orizzonte (Furio Chirico & Friends)
composed by actual arti & mestieri's Marco Roagna
18 Take It As It Comes (Slep & The Red House)
19 Rain On Chet (Beppe Crovella)

I invite you to see the relative video on YouTube - http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=ppA3B83ZUoY, with extracts form each tune:


Stay happy

Beppe

27. PROG FESTIVAL IN SARDINIA

My dear Japanese friends,

Prog Festival in Italy, in the 70's have been a basic "trade-mark" of the fabulous creative state of our country in those years.

We were really a "leading country" in that sense.

I remember an interview with "Gentle Giant" on "Melody Maker" in which they said that ... while in England they played in clubs and small clubs, in Italy they played in what we called "Palazzo Dello Sport" in front of audiences of 5,000 or even 8 or 10 thousands of people.
Every big Prog and Jazz-Rock bands wanted to come to Italy as mush as possible! In fact I still remember a fantastic Sunday afternoon in Novara, at "Palazzetto Dello Sport", totally sold-out, that day, attending (I was in the front line) at a double concert with Jehtro Tull (presenting "Thick as a Brick" and "Gentle Giant"!

And "Gentle Giant" made also an Italian tour with us, "arti & mestieri" that was unbelievable!

Arti & mestieri's debut was at Parco lambro .. in front of 45,000 people, what an emotion!!!!

Yes, 70's have been also the "Season of Great Concerts", in Italy.

And now in Sardinia, at Sestu, near Cagliari we've had the third edition of "in Progress...One", a Prog Festival that's become extremely important in Italy.
As arti & mestieri we've been in Sestu at the first Edition of the Festival (You can see several extracts on "33")

This year the Festival has presented:

NEW TROLLS & ORCHESTRA in CONCERTO GROSSO TRILOGY LIVE

CONCERTO RITMATICA, with seminars and (rare) videos with FURIO CHIRICO (arti & mestieri), PIER LUIGI CALDERONI (BMS), GIGI CAVALLI COCCHI (Mangala Vallis).
On bass ROBY PUGGIONI.
A second seminar with FURIO CHIRICO took place too, in those days.

Il CASTELLO DI ATLANTE

I COLLEGIUM (Genesis' tribute band)

An Exhibition of Records, Photos and instruments for recordings.

Local Folk Group, I "Nuraghi" and typical Sardinian Puppet Shows.

And a very interesting competition for Prog Compositions, called “COMPROGRESS ‘08” for group all over Italy, that has been won by Electromantic music's band, "MALIBRAN", lead by GIUSEPPE SCARAVILLI, whose new album "TRASPARENZE" is goin' out very soon on "Electromantic music", on its "Prog Italiano" catalogue.

Thanks to people like Pierpaolo Meloni, and to an efficient participation of the city of Sestu, with its "Assessorati", of an Association like "Medit Europa" we've had this beautiful festival with Local Sardinian culture coupled with the Italian Progressive.

Ps...If you come to Italy, don’t forget SARDINIA, it's unique!

"Long Live to Sestu's "In Progress...one"!!!

Stay happy,

Beppe

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

日本の皆さんへ、

７０年代におけるイタリアのプログフェルティバルは、その当時は我が国の素晴らしい創造的状態の基本的な「トレードマーク」であった。

その意味で、僕たちは本当に「先進国」でした。

「メロディー・メイカー」での「Gentle Giant」のインタビューを覚えている。
イギリスでは、小さなクラブで演奏しているのに、イタリアでは、「パラッツォ・デロ・スポーツ」と呼ばれる、５千いや、８千、１万もの観客を目の前にして演奏した。どのビッグなプログ・バンドやジャズ・ロック・バンドは、できるだけイタリアに行きたかったんだ。実際に、日曜日の午後、Novaraでの「パラッツォ・デロ・スポーツ」で行われたJehtro Tull（今はTrick as a Brick）とGentle Giantbのダブルコンサートが、完売だったのを覚えているよ。僕は、１番前だったね。

それから、Gentle Giantが、僕たちarti&mestieriとイタリア・ツアーをしたのにはまだ信じられない！

arti&mestieriがデビューしたのは、４万５千人の前、Parco Lamboでだよ。なんて感激なことだろう！

そうそう、７０年代のイタリアでは「素晴らしいコンサートの季節」とも言われていたんだ。

今では、Cagliari近辺のSestuで僕たちも出演した３度目のプログ・フェスティバルが非常に重要になっている。arti&mestieriとして第１回のSestuでのフェスティバルから僕たちは演奏したんだ。その模様のビデオが、僕たちのMySpaceで見られるよ。

今回のフェスティバルは、
CONCERTO GROSSO TRILOGY LIVEでは、 NEW TROLLS & ORCHESTRAが演奏し、セミナーCONCERTO RITMATICAでは、FURIO CHIRICOや、BMSのPIER LUIGI CALDERONI、Mangala VallisのGIGI、そしてベースのROBY PUGGIONIの珍しいビデオが見られたり、他のセミナーでは、FURIO CHIRICOが行っていた。

IL CASTELLO DI ATLANTEやI COLLUGIUMの演奏もあり、レコード、写真、レコーディング機器などの展示会もあったし、ローカルバンド「Nuraghi」のショーや、Sardinia人による人形劇もあった。

そして、「コンプログレス０８」と呼ばれる、大変面白いプログの作曲コンテストがあるんだ。GIUSEPPE　SCARAVELLI率いるElectromantic　Musicのバンド「MALIBRA」が賞を取ったことがあるんだよ。ニューアルバム「TRASPARENZE」がもうすぐElectromantic Musicの Prog Italianoレーベルから発売されるよ。

Pierpaolo Meloniには感謝したいし、Sestu都市の効率的な参加にも感謝したい。

PS.もしイタリアに来ることがあれば、サルディーニャのことも忘れないで欲しい。とてもユニークなところさ。

それではハッピーでね！

Beppe

26. LUCIO BATTISTI

My dear Japanese friends,

10 years ago Lucio Battisti died, exactly it was 10 years ago today,
September 9, 1998.

Lucio Battisti has been extremely important in the Italian music history of last 50 years.

He's been a really great songwriter, writings songs that...everyone in
Italy knows. Almost every single and every LPs he did became huge hits although they weren't typical Italian songs.

His songs were absolutely original in their form, maintaining a deep melodic content, with a lot, lot of passion, drama, intensity of emotion and variety of colours, with unusual arrangements.

Each song had its own personality, they were quite "progressive" several times, for example a song like "Mi Ritorni in Mente" had several different parts, changing tempos, classical music's diminuendos, changin' moods, re-interpreting Italian melodramas as well as American rhythms and blues,

Franz Di Cioccio, PFM's drummer that you certainly know, has written recently a book with the writer Riccardo Bertoncelli, about Lucio, as he played in several Lucio's song, and I've just ordered as it will be surely of great interest, with a lot of "unknown" things about Battisti's art.
(Sulle Corde di Lucio di Franz Di Cioccio e Riccardo Bertoncelli).

I dedicated a CD to Lucio, called "Hammond Homage: Lucio Battisti", with my great love, the Hammond Organ, as main actor, I re-arranged lucio's Songs as they were my tune, givin great importance to the way that Lucio sang the lyrics.

In fact, in front of me, while I was recording it, in my studio I hadn't the original score, but I had the lyrics, written by Mogol (who wrote an incredible quantity of lyrics of Italian songs, including PFM's hit, "impressioni Di Settembre".

In Battisti's music the lyrics are extremely important; Mogol words become "one thing", often "one sound" with Battisti's music creating something unique and beautiful.

As in the title of the song "Mi Ritorni iN mente" (You came back in my mind), Mogol-Battisti's music will come back in many minds for years and years.

I'll be back soon,
in the meantime,

Stay Happy,

Beppe

----------------------------

日本の友達へ、

今日は、ルーチォ・バッティスティが亡くなってからちょうど１０年が経つ。
１９９８年９月９日だった。

ルーチォ・バッティスティは、この５０年間、イタリアの音楽において大変重要な存在だった。

彼は、イタリアの誰もが知っている素晴らしい曲を書いてきた。彼の歌は、典型的なイタリアの歌ではなかったけれども、リリースされた殆どのシングルやLPが大ヒットになった。

彼の歌は、深いメロディで、情熱的で、ドラマ的、感情の強度とバラエティに及ぶ色、そして珍しいアレンジで、全くオリジナルのものだった。

各歌には、個性があった。いくつかは「プログレ」であった。例えば、「Mi Ritorni in Mente」のような曲では、いくらか違った部分があり、テンポも変えて、クラシック音楽のディミヌエンドがあり、ムードを変えて、アメリカのリズム＆ブルースと同様イタリアのメロドラマを再び解釈した感じ。

PEMのドラマー、フランツ・ディ・チォッチオは、最近、作家リカルド・ベルトンセリと共にルーチォについて本を書いた。フランツは、いくらかのルーチォの曲を弾いたんだ。僕は、この本を注文したばかりだけど、ルーチォの芸術において、「知らされていない」事実が沢山あるかと思うと、とても興味があるね。

僕は、「Hammond Homage」というルーチォに捧げるアルバムを作った。
僕の愛するハモンド・オルガンで、彼の曲をまるで僕の曲のようにアレンジして。

実際、レコーディングをしている時、僕の手元にオリジナルの楽譜がなかったんだ。でも、モゴールによって書かれた歌詞があった。モゴールは、PFMのヒット曲「Impressioni Di Settembre」と含め、多くのイタリアの歌を作詞してきたんだ。

ルーチォの音楽において、歌詞は非常に大切なんだ。モゴールの言葉は「１つ」主に「１つの音」になる。それが、ルーチォの音楽をユニークで美しいものにするんだ。

「Mi Ritorni In Mente」（あなたは私の心に戻る）という歌のタイトルのように、モゴール／バッティスティの音楽は、何年も何年も心に戻ることでしょう。

それでは、また戻るね。それまで、ハッピーで！

Beppe