Various
Artists | Jazz in Italy in the '50s
Riviera Jazz Records
Various
Artists | Jazz & Hot Singers in the '30s
Riviera Jazz Records
America’s
music has always been its most beloved cultural export. Just
look at the globally sweeping phenomena of blues, rock ’n’
roll, soul, and, most recently, hip hop. But it’s jazz,
of course, that predates them all in terms of deep-seated
worldwide appreciation, coming of age as it did during the
advent of recording technology itself in the early 20th century.
(Yes, the blues are older than jazz, but they didn’t
really have impact abroad until the early ‘60s folk
boom.) And much like subsequent genres, jazz was often embraced
by the younger generations of other countries as rebel music;
an occurrence explored on Riviera Jazz’s earlier titles,
specifically 1995’s Jazz in Italy Under the Fascism.
But outside of the realm of socio-political considerations,
it’s always interesting to hear how foreign musicians
interpret and personalize what’s been seen as uniquely
American music. With its “Jazz in Italy” series
(12 volumes so far), Riviera has been doing an exceptional
job of chronicling the history of jazz in the land of Fellini
and linguini.
Jazz
in Italy in the ’50s concentrates on three figures who
dominated Italy’s postwar modern jazz landscape: trumpeter
Nunzio Rotondo and pianists Umberto Cesari and Armando Trovajoli.
Most of the disc is given over to Trovajoli, who leads a trio
date highlighted by the excellent “Afternoon Blues”
and a pair of lukewarm string-orchestra sessions obviously
inspired by Charlie Parker with Strings. As he was with all
modernists, Bird was the word, and the bebop pioneer’s
effect is all over the tracks by Rotondi’s quintet (great
solos by tenorist Gino Marinacci and alto man Marcello Boschi).
The sole cut featuring Lenny Tristano disciple Cesari, as
the leader of the under-recorded Trio di Roma, is a reading
of “Begin the Beguine” built on top of “Night
in Tunisia” that also features the spare, razor-like
playing of guitarist Carlo Pes.,..CONTINUE...
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