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

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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