Marco Marconi

Handful of Jazz - Arezzo Jazz Festival 2009

2009-07-13T15:50:00.004+01:00

Marco got involved in a new quintet this year, put together to open this year's summer season at the Arezzo Jazz Festival 2009.

The quintet, "Handful of Jazz", comprises the sultry voice of Marzia Neri, Marco Marconi on piano, Mauro Giorgeschi on drums, Mauro Maurizi on double bass and Fabio Roveri on guitar.

Artistic director Maurizio Bozzi was full of praise for the quintet after their stunning performance on Thursday 9th July and it was actually Mr Bozzi who recommended Marco's trio, Trio Lumière to the reknowned jazz club in Montepulciano, E Lucevan Le Stelle, where the trio also recently performed.

Handful of Jazz will be coming together again on the 3rd August in the beautiful hilltop town of Montone in Umbria, so don't miss this opportunity!

Trio Lumière Concerts during the summer!

2009-07-13T15:38:00.003+01:00

Trio Lumière kicked off their mini-series of summer concerts in great style on the 10th July at the jazz club "E Lucevan Le Stelle" in Montepulciano, Tuscany and are looking forward to returning there in early September. 

http://www.locandasanfrancesco.it
http://www.montepulciano.com/new.it.php?cod=1457 

The Castello in Caprese Michelangelo, also in Tuscany, is host to their next concert on 25th July, followed by a performance at the jazz festival in Monterchi, Tuscany on 12th August.

More details about the Trio can be found on Marco's website www.marcomarconi.com/trio_lumière.htm and at www.myspace.com/triolumiere

Fabrizio de Andrè Competition, Genova, 21 June 2009

2009-07-13T14:54:00.005+01:00

The winner of the Fabrizio de Andrè music competition, Notturno per Faber", held in Genova in June,  was Busciuba (www.myspace.com/busciuba), a great friend of Marco and Trio Lumière.

The competition was organised by the Genova Council in collaboration with the De Andrè Foundation and MySpace Italia, coinciding with the exhibition being held in the city at the Palazzo Ducale.

The competition, called "notturno per faber" involved writing a piece of music in the style of de Andrè based on two brief texts written by Fabrizio called "I Notturni".

When Basciuba found out that he had won first prize (joint with Fouve (010) in Trio), he called Trio Lumière to perform the piece with him during a gala dinner at the Palazzo Ducale on the evening of 21 June 2009.

Basciuba commented on MySpace "It was a great party last night at the Palazzo Ducale!  A party which, as far as it concerned me, would not have been possible without the brotherly help and talent of Trio Lumière, a fantastic jazz trio, comprising Marco Marconi (piano and keyboard), Mauro Giorgeschi (drums and percussion) and Giulio Angori (bass and double bass)."

Bottega del Vino, Perugia, Umbria

2008-05-12T20:07:00.002+01:00

Marco will be performing on Wednesday 21st May at the reknowned Bottega del Vino in Perugia, Umbria.

Long known as one of the best bars for jazz in the capital, Bottega del Vino is pleased to have Marco and his acoustic trio playing there. With the sultry voice of Daniela Maltese and Giovanni Sannipoli on sax, this is an evening not to miss!

For more information on the evening, email info@marcomarconi.com for details.

Lumiere Jazz Trio at Syrah, Città di Castello, Umbria

2008-05-12T19:55:00.003+01:00

The innovative Lumiere Jazz Trio is performing live next Friday, 16th May, at the stunning champagne bar, Syrah in Città di Castello in Umbria.

Playing original music composed by Marco Marconi, the trio consists of Mauro Giorgeschi on drums, Giulio Angiori on bass and Marco on piano.

Have a look at www.myspace.com/triolumiere to see and hear some of their music from a live concert last summer.

The trio recently had a huge success playing for a private concert at the Henri Cartier Bresson Exhibition held last month in Sansepolcro.

Anyone interested in booking the trio for a concert or private function should contact Marco by email on info@marcomarconi.com .

Marco Marconi becomes a Doctor of Jazz!

2008-05-11T08:43:00.003+01:00

Great news! At the end of last month, Marco Marconi had the final exams of his post grad in Jazz at the Consevatory of Music in Perugia, Umbria.

Playing and conducting a piece for octet that he composed himself called "Seven Friends" and a piece written by Amedeo Tommasi called "Zamboni 22", Marco also gave a talk about his thesis on the great Amedeo Tommasi himself. Amedeo has written many songs and theme music for films and tv series including films by Pupi Avati and more famously music for "the legend of the pianist of the ocean".

The panel of judges were unanimous in giving Marco top grades and Marco passed with 100%!

He is now officially a Dottore of Jazz!!!

Umbria Jazz, Perugia 11th to 20th July 2008

2008-04-14T10:51:00.001+01:00

Exciting news! Confermed for Umbria Jazz 2008:

Sonny Rollins, exclusive in Italy for 2008!

Alicia Keys, REM, Enrico Rava, Mario Biondi, Carla Bley, Paolo Fresu, STefano Bollani, Cassandra Wilson, Herbie Hancock, Gary Burton, Pat Metheney...

It's a fantastic line up this year! Tickets are already available on line and the full programme for Umbria Jazz 2008 will be on line by 8th May.

Book your accommodation at www.wheretostayinumbria.com for July and enjoy the atmosphere and music of Umbria Jazz for yourselves.

www.umbriajazz.com

2007-10-05T18:01:00.000+01:00

By Budd Kopman

David Berger & The Sultans of Swing at Birdland

Birdland New York, NY September 25, 2007

David Berger and his Sultans of Swing have a regular Tuesday gig at Birdland and recently have included vocalist Champian Fulton for some tunes in the set.

Berger talked a bit about the music, and made the point that this band is not trying to recreate an historic style, but rather that this is the music he and the band members love—all too clearly evidenced by the body language and playing of every member of the band.

What is it about the music of the Swing Era and hence this band's music that is so appealing? The most obvious component is the rhythms used. Swing can vary so much that it is hard to define — you just know it when you hear it, and Berger is a master of that delicious change from being in 2 to being in 4. He also has the feeling in his bones for just the right tempo — not too fast and not too slow — just right. The rhythms automatically do two things: get you moving and bring on a smile.

Berger is an acknowledged authority on Duke Ellington and the Swing Era, and his arrangements, while using every familiar riff and technique of the big bands, do not copy any particular band's style. Those familiar with Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Jimmy Lunceford, Benny Carter or even Glenn Miller (to name a few) will recognize the sound of closely-voiced saxophones, incisive trumpet interjections, and a rich trombone choir.

More than anything else, the music is joyous and celebrates being alive. Far from being simplistic, it is quite sophisticated — both in its intricacy and its worldly-wise evocation of a bygone era while imparting a sense of immediacy and well-being that is hard to find elsewhere.

Champian Fulton did three tunes from her (and Berger's) new record Champian and only further cemented how deeply she feels this music, despite being only in her twenties. Her genuine love of the style assured that the words really meant something and communicated directly with the audience.

Visit David Berger on the web.

New York Jazz Scene

2007-10-05T17:54:00.000+01:00

By Budd Kopman

David Berger & The Sultans of Swing at Birdland

Birdland New York, NY September 25, 2007

David Berger and his Sultans of Swing have a regular Tuesday gig at Birdland and recently have included vocalist Champian Fulton for some tunes in the set.

The rhythm section of piano, bass and drums was spot on, the members knowing exactly what they were doing. While different tunes highlighted each of a three, as a team, they are the engine of the band and push it with that delicate drive that, for most of us, defines Swing.
Berger is an acknowledged authority on Duke Ellington and the Swing Era, and his arrangements, while using every familiar riff and technique of the big bands, do not copy any particular band's style. Those familiar with Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Jimmy Lunceford, Benny Carter or even Glenn Miller (to name a few) will recognize the sound of closely-voiced saxophones, incisive trumpet interjections, and a rich trombone choir.

Visit David Berger on the web.

Jazz in New York

2007-04-14T16:46:00.000+01:00

Jazz in New York

AAJ has writers on the scene in New York who let us know what's going on:

David S. Ware at The Stone

A frequent solo performer in Europe, tenor David S. Ware’s made a rare stateside visit, presenting a solo program at The Stone March 11th. With a new recording of his quartet’s American farewell concert from last year’s Vision Festival now available, the evening’s first set offered an intriguing dynamic, with Ware sans his forceful quartet of William Parker, Matthew Shipp and Guillermo E. Brown (the latter two played in duo for the night’s second set) versus the Ware-less quartet aka trio recently released on Splasc(h) (The Trio Plays Ware). Lumbering center stage, shaking bells and tambourine while orbiting his sax in a purifying-like dance/chant, he repeated, “Ganapati” and “Ganesh” (names for the Hindu god of wisdom), exclaiming “Remove all obstacles”—before grasping his horn. A near 10-minute imposing improv echoed a theme of multiphonic overtones through Trane-like sheets of sound. One could hear the history of music, even sound, from under his spewed multi-layered tones. His second improv had more elastic experimental tones, occasional circular breathing, responsive high-decibel horn screams and vocalized anguished cries circling in and out of his horn. With ample altissimo focus rarely encompassing mere single notes but rather serving as a catalyst for chemical reaction of multiple warm tones with high frequencies—Ware played with such intensity and at such volume, his imposing sound transcended space and time. Most assuredly, music for the (strato)spheres.

Queva Lutz Memorial at Saint Peter's

The year is still young but has already given us our fair share of jazz memorial services. The remembrance of Queva Lutz (proprietor of Greenwich Village’s 55Bar who passed away February 26th) was at Saint Peter’s March 15th, proving one of the more emotional and musical. The pre-Queva 55Bar was considered a “dive,” open since 1919, adding jazz in the early ‘80s. When she took over the club in 2001, it soon became an international destination. An impressive range of musicians showed (and played) their respects, including many vocalists Queva regularly booked: Ayana Lowe and “Sweet Georgia” Brown each sang succinct a cappella spirituals, KJ Lenhert peformed a Richie Havens-like “God Bless the Child” on acoustic guitar, Kate McGarry duoed with guitarist Keith Ganz and Lisa Sokolov sang to minimalist piano accompaniment on a powerful “Ol’ Man River.” Electric bassist/vocalist Richard Bona’s tear-jerking opener “Still There” set the stage, helping to paint a vivid picture of Queva. Harpist Edmar Casteneda’s astonishing solo performance revealed how truly open Lutz was to having as eclectic a jazz space as could be. And Cecil Taylor, a regular 55Bar patron, played a séance-like solo that found the piano’s lid shaking to the point of near levitation. His patient clusters came full circle after more typical start-and-stop dense rhythmic runs, an emotional roller coaster apropos to what anyone who knew Queva has been going through since hearing of her passing.

~ Laurence Donohue-Greene

Rob Reddy

2007-02-27T19:15:00.000+01:00

Rob Reddy: The Fine Line Between Composition and Comfort

Article from www.allaboutjazz.com by Paul Olson

Rob Reddy’s one of the prominent soprano saxophonists working today, but his reputation has been built upon his work as bandleader and, especially, as a composer. He’s been a presence in New York for 20 years now, having studied with soprano player Dave Liebman and reedsman Makanda Ken McIntyre before graduating from the first-ever jazz program at Greenwich Village’s New School.
Reddy played as a sideman with bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson (Jackson encouraging him to pick up the alto saxophone, an instrument he hadn’t played in years) before starting his first group, a trio with Workman and drummer Pheeroan Aklaff. His first recording, Post-War Euphoria (Songlines, 1996) was a sextet set by his group Rob Reddy’s Honor System, and was marked by all the elements that mark his music to this day: tight ensemble playing, fierce improvisation that’s never indifferent to the character of the composition, and the sextet format itself, which—personnel and instrumentation varying—has been the lineup for all but one of Reddy’s recordings. Reddy’s surrounded himself with some of improvisational music’s least generic musicians—players like Aklaff, drummer Guillermo Brown, guitarist Jef Lee Parker, bassist Dom Richards and violinist Charles Burnham—but the group performances on his CDs are, paradoxically, among the most unified and composition-centered in jazz music.
In addition to a healthy and ever-increasing number of commissions coming in for his compositions, Reddy released A Hundred Jumping Devils in late 2006, a release by his group Gift Horse. This is his first CD in five years and the first-ever release on his own Reddy Music imprint. It’s worth the wait. I spoke with Reddy about the new recording, his thoughts on composition and improvisation, the players in Gift Horse, the soprano saxophone, and much more.

Jazz Guide NYC

2007-02-21T20:20:00.000+01:00

As I am soon to be going to New York, this jazz guide to NYC seems to have been published just at the right time! Read this review by Jim Santella on www.allaboutjazz.com .

Jazz Guide NYC Steve Dollar Softcover; 176 pages; 2nd edition ISBN: 978-1-892145-43-7 The Little Bookroom 2007

Revealing much more than simply where to go and what to do in New York, Jazz Guide NYC provides detailed and valuable information about the city's current jazz ecology, its artists and events.

Steve Dollar's up-to-the-minute reflections will vividly reveal New York and its jazz scene to readers in other parts of the world, who may never see the city in real life, but will also be of interest to lifelong New Yorkers. Taking the reader on a tour of jazz in the city, Dollar writes about the musicians, past and present, who have done so much to shape the music.

As a dedicated jazz professional himself, Dollar has discussed the state of jazz with many people, and his candid commentaries flow in conversational style. Along with information about clubs, we learn about festivals, institutions, jazz radio stations, museums and more.

Dollar has left nothing out, and the book includes discussions on a range of legacy artists like Duke Ellington, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Louis Armstrong to more contemporary figures such as trumpeter Dave Douglas, pianist Eric Reed, guitarist Bill Frisell and saxophonist Donny McCaslin. Dollar is a writer who is in touch with current trends and knows what time it is.

Billie Holiday Lady Sings the Blues

2007-02-12T14:10:00.000+01:00

Having just studied Billie Holiday as part of my post grad course and having watched a documentary about her extraordinary life, I was interested to learn that Billie's autobiography has just been republished. Read this interesting review by Suzanne Lorge on www.allaboutjazz.com .

Lady Sings The Blues: The 50th Anniversary Edition Billie Holiday with William Dufty

In 1956 Billie Holiday sat down with ghostwriter William Dufty and recounted the story of her life. At times during the 224-page narrative Holiday seems compelled to justify the telling of her tale and issues rueful warnings about the dangers of drug use, as if her artistry were not enough to warrant interest in her as a person, as if the public shame of her various addictions nullified her public accomplishments.
While certain facts of Holiday’s personal account of her childhood remain contested—her mother’s age and her biological father’s identity, for instance—there is no contest over Holiday’s contribution to the jazz vocal tradition. What’s curious about her autobiography is how little she talks about the actual craft of singing; every discussion about music segues into an anecdote about one of the many sadists, racists, and opportunists that populate her story.
In telling her story Holiday usually opts for self-effacement over victimization, however. She draws only an indirect line between the wretchedness of her early life and her later self-medication; in between pleas for greater compassion for addicts she blames herself for not being strong enough to resist the poison. Her apologies most often give way to a muted rage at the injustices and abuses she suffered in her segregated, impoverished world; arguably, it was this struggle between her assertion and her passivity that made her music so revolutionary, and that in turn render her words so interesting.
From the unwritten epilogue to Holiday’s autobiography we know, 50 years later, how Holiday turned that muted rage most tragically against herself. Holiday died in 1959—three years after the original publication of her book—of cirrhosis of the liver at age 44. Ultimately the lesson we take away from her story is not the intended “just say no,” but that sometimes, against the odds, beauty grows to magnificent heights with the least bit of sun.
Harlem Moon Classics, a division of Random House, re-released the Holiday autobiography, Lady Sings The Blues, in late July. Expanding on the original, the publisher has added a foreword and a complete listing of Holiday’s discography, both by writer David Ritz. Also accompanying this 50th anniversary edition is a 10-track tribute CD of songs that Holiday either wrote or popularized, now recorded by some of today’s top R&B and jazz artists. Fifty years of social and technological change are evident in the skilled arrangements and slick production of the CD; while the tunes stand on their own merit and the performances are above reproach, absent is Holiday’s insistent, painful howl for release.
There is no fault in this: Perhaps we did learn something after all from Holiday the first time.

Monks Bones and Ben Riley's Monks Legacy

2007-02-03T12:06:00.000+01:00

For my jazz diploma, I wrote a thesis on the life of the incredible pianist and deeply interesting character that was Thelonious Monk. I read the review below on allaboutjazz.com with great interest and thank Francis Lo Kee for having written it.
Here are two CDs that pay homage to the great composer-pianist Thelonious Monk (1917-1982), who passed away 25 years ago this month. Though both share a common composer, the recordings are quite different.

Memories of T contains some excellent music. An overview would include great playing by all the instrumentalists, good choice of tunes (including the somewhat infrequently played “Gallop’s Gallop”, “Brake’s Sake” and “Shuffle Boil”) and excellent arrangements reminiscent of the visionary ones Hall Overton did for a medium-sized band playing Monk in the early ‘60s. This band, led by Ben Riley (one of the world’s most swinging drummers, who played with Monk on a regular basis, perhaps more than any other drummer) is similar to that Overton ensemble, this band sounding bigger than a septet because of the effective arrangements. Also the use of the guitar in place of the piano ironically provides more transparency to the vertical voicings of Monk and is one of the best examples of writing for the guitar in an ensemble since George Russell’s bands (especially with guitarist Barry Galbraith).

Trumpeter Don Sickler wrote these wonderful, inventive and swinging arrangements and he mentions in the liner notes (sometimes in great detail) how he used transcriptions from varied recordings as source material. Some arrangements might use a melodic quote from a recording in 1955 and then piano voicings for a recording done in 1964. Sound confusing? Well, when you listen you will be dancing around the room: perhaps the epitome of great jazz is that its impact is immediate but its depth is revealed over years of continued, joyful listening. “Rhythm-A-Ning” states the melody (with the bass saxophone giving it extra body) and the opening tenor solo uses material from Monk’s Live at the It Club as a counterpoint to the solo. Then the guitar comps for part of the alto solo and then it’s back to It Club material for the next alto part. Then it’s all about the arrangement, but still swinging hard as if a blowing session. Then a Riley drum solo leads back into the out-head. An eight minute swinging take on “I’ve Got Rhythm” unfolds like a symphony or is it a symphony that swings like Beethoven would have, if he knew?

Though the arrangements on Memories of T are quite intricate at times, the vivacious swing feel is never sacrificed and everyone involved - saxophonists Bruce Williams, Jay Branford, Wayne Escoffery and Jimmy Greene, guitarist Freddie Bryant and the aforementioned Sickler and Riley - turns in great solos.

Perhaps Monk’s Bones follows the more common modus operandi of head, solos, head-out, but it is a heartfelt effort. The version of “Ugly-Beauty” is poignant: a gentler dynamic and a slower tempo than the original (from Monk’s Underground). “Monk’s Dream” and “Little Rootie Tootie” exploit the two trombones’ (Roswell Rudd and Max Perkoff) brash tone quality and emphasize it by harmonizing parts of the melodies in dissonant parallel intervals.

Standing apart and far to the left of the other tunes on this CD is the arrangement of “Friday the 13th”. Monk’s original tune is quite unique within his own oeuvre, perhaps his most simple: a repeating four-bar phrase (over a two-bar harmonic rhythm). Here drummer Chuck Bernstein begins alone on the berimbau (a Brazilian percussion instrument that uses a single string as its percussive drone) that sonically and rhythmically breaks away from common jazz orchestration. Eventually he establishes a groove over which Monk’s melody (transposed from the original key of G to E here) enters. The two trombones in particular begin to improvise in counterpoint but soon all musicians are freely improvising to the berimbau groove. The absence of the piano is also striking because it allows the berimbau, bass and two trombones work in the ‘cracks’ of pitch: the frequencies in between a piano’s F and F# for instance. A truly unique performance!

Review from allaboutjazz.com by Francis Lo Kee

2007-01-29T08:57:00.000+01:00

Considering Genius: Writings On Jazz Stanley Crouch Hardcover; 339 pages ISBN: 9780465015177 Perseus Books Group 2006

Article by Mark Rattner, allaboutjazz.com

Stanley Crouch's Considering Genius is a collection of essays on jazz that spans the writer’s thirty-year career as social critic, arbiter of jazz aesthetics, and antagonist to the jazz establishment. Covering a wide swath of musical and cultural territory, the collection includes essays on some of the great jazz musicians, the roots of neo-conservative jazz aesthetics, and the notorious Jazz Times columns that knocked a self-satisfied jazz establishment back on its heels. Also featured are ample doses of Crouch’s scathing criticism on the politics of racial victimization and the over emphasis in jazz on innovation at the expense of authenticity.

While Crouch can be outspoken, arcane, and at times downright caustic, his knowledge of the music is unassailable. In Considering Genius, he combines musical expertise with a keen ability to articulate universal themes of expression in jazz, making it a valuable and highly informative collection.
In his prologue, Crouch offers an up close and personal look at the musical and cultural influences that shaped his perspective while growing up in Los Angeles during the 1960s. He discusses the impact of the Watts riot, the growing influence of Black Nationalism, and how Ralph Ellison’s concepts of personal meaning and cultural synthesis led him to reject the “rhetorical wind-up toys” of the black separatist movement.

Crouch cultivated his early jazz roots with the sounds of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Gerry Mulligan, but he cites John Lewis and the MJQ as an example of a “Negro version of cool jazz that blossomed forward in a blue heat that was decidedly unique and not at all cool.” Also pivotal in Crouch’s perspective is the work of Charles Murray—author of Stomping The Blues—who articulated the idea of blues music as a vehicle for poetic and universal artistic expression with roots in the African-American experience.

While Ellison and Murray form the basis for Crouch’s intellectual perspective, it is Duke Ellington’s music that embodies what he calls the “Negro aesthetic” in jazz. Ellington’s mastery of blues expression and his personal poise and integrity seem to capture Ellison’s ideal of cultural synthesis and Murray’s concept of the blues as a fine art. Much to the chagrin of some jazz progressives, Crouch cites Ellington as a touchstone for the “irrefutable elements” in jazz: 4/4 time, blues, ballads, swing feeling, and Afro-Hispanic rhythms. While some take issue with this definition as restrictive and self serving, Crouch demonstrates convincingly that his jazz aesthetic is based on a tough-minded optimism borne of African-American experience, and one that requires its practitioners to meet the demands of the music rather than side step them.

In his essays on musicians, Crouch explores one of his favorite topics, that mastery of the essential elements of the jazz tradition is a prerequisite for innovation. Crouch explains that Charles Mingus’ deep experience with many of the jazz masters enabled him to fuse disparate elements of the tradition and reinterpret the jazz rhythm section. Miles Davis, we are told, learned the “epistemology of the blues” from Charlie Parker, and followed the example of Louis Armstrong, Lester Young and Billie Holiday in whittling down the jazz language to its basic elements. In “Rooster Ben: King Of Romance” Crouch shows us that Ben Webster was a master of nuance and expression who offered an alternative to the European standard of instrumental virtuosity. Sometimes you get the feeling that Crouch is reaching just a little too far to make some of these connections, but more often than not he offers compelling insight into the underlying continuity in jazz.

Aside from his more controversial pronouncements about jazz, there is no doubt that Crouch communicates unabashed joy for the possibilities in the music. In discussing the drummer, Billy Higgins, he writes, “Higgins was the freest of anyone I have ever heard. If you liked to play on the front of the beat that was fine with him, if you played in the middle he could get with that, and if you liked to lag in the caboose he could get to that car and hang all the way back there with you.” Crouch can make you mad, and he can make you laugh out loud, but he will definitely make you think. This is excellent and insightful writing on jazz.