LINER NOTES

Coltrane, Coleman and much more Between the Adriatic Sea and the Apennines

I was there the night this music was recorded at Jazz Village Festival in Pesaro, organized by Fano Jazz Club. It happens, but not that often and never as much as it is necessary, to attend to such a magical performance which creates an immediate and palpable feeling between who plays and who listens. When this happens, it is usually due to inscrutable elements, rarely replicable in other situations. Jazz is where you find it and when the poetic flow is blowing it is better to preserve this fleeting moment for the future, someone would call it hic et nunc, to share it with those who want it, when and where it is unknown. Not only was applause numerous and convinced, but also were many among the audience who asked for a CD to remember the gig, with the aim to reproduce again and privately the emotions shared with the musicians during the performance. Firstly, the publication of this live responds to this request. I was among the few who received a copy of the live recording and during my trip back to Milano from Pesaro, I listened to it many times in my car, getting surprised each time from the fact that I really liked that music, taking into consideration that I am notoriously a difficult and demanding listener. Not trusting myself, while having dinner with my friend and graphic designer Marco Pennisi, where also the new director of Musica Jazz Luca Conti was present, I played the record for

them as a Blindfold test: without revealing who was playing and where it was recorded. Theirs and others appreciation was unanimous together with the strong suggestion to publish the record. More than Jazz, this music could be labeled as World Jazz, given that it makes sense but it is just for making it clear, the two themes by John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman are the ones which characterize it as it is, and I don’t think it is by chance. The trio and the tenor’s voice catch the spirit of the themes and of the times and they provide with a visceral and poetic version which is able to elicit emotions to who listens to it for the power contained in the theme, and for the expressiveness and assertiveness of its enunciation, which can touch the deepest heartstrings of listeners’ sensitivity. But it is also a sign that these repertoires and musical conceptions, born in a totally different context and motivations, still have not worn out their propelling force. The rest is up to date, because it ranges from a nice theme by Garbarek, also linked to World Jazz, to two guitar loops on which two voices and multi-phonic vocalizes by the guitar player and percussionist overlap. Nowadays this practice is quite common, that I personally find pretty harmful in groups of the so-called vanguard, but it is not the case for this record. We actually refer to all those who try to create something new but fail. References of this group can be found in the global village, taking over memories and fragments of the golden age of modern jazz, mixed with Siberian and Brazilian ethnic memories and an appropriate use of technology for expressive aims and not noise music. However, everything works and surprisingly it works exactly where one would never expect to find it. I was born in that area and coming back there after 50 years surprises me, because I could never imagine to find musicians who not only play Coltrane, but also know Jazz and many other stuff which happen in the world today in places which are apparently far but that new technologies bring closer, even if once it happened to attend to a performance of a musician as much skillful as unknown, playing Lonnie’s Lament by Coltrane wonderfully somewhere in the middle of the Apennines mountains. It is important to be aware of that and possibly be there. If we can make up something, just for the sake of showing that we were there, it is even better. It is because of this that I want this record to exist, because it has some emotions, not dances to convey, and it is a sign of something that happened, happens and will happen again in other places and in other shapes in close or distant places. I would also suggest to jazz fans and promoters to pay a lot of attention to what is happening both in Marches and Pesaro Urbino province where, beyond the actual musical situation of Conservatorio Rossini, numerous and talented musicians who would deserve a greater exposure can be found. But this can be the case for other places in Italy as well.

Sergio Veschi