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Piano & Jazz on the island

Why are there throughout Italy events and jazz evenings? Is it the jazz that goes out of fashion or something really is changing in the musical culture of our country? One thing is certain; we can no longer talk about jazz as niche music for the chosen few or experts of the field. Improvisation, phrasing, contamination. The spread of this kind of music among the most dense and significant of the twentieth century is certainly tied to the spirit behind this art.

A freedom of expression that stimulates our senses and leads us to what should be the goal more authentic of the music: to thrill. The jazz therefore as philosophy of life, eternal source of freedom, beauty, confidence.
In Ischia, an unmissable musical event of the year is the Festival Piano & Jazz. Now in its sixth edition, strongly wanted by the Carriero family and organized by the Ischia International Jazz Academy, will take place from August 25 to September 1, involving several of the most well-known location to listen to the live music. The arena of Negombo, first of all, is the live music temple on the island since the late ‘70s, where performed the most important names of Italian and international pop music. And again, ‘O'spasso’ of Calise, the Aragonese Castle, Piazza Santa Restituta in Lacco Ameno and the Albergo della Regina Isabella, heartland of another great summer event in Campania, the Ischia Global Film & Music Fest.
In the sign of contamination and freedom. The program of the concerts of Ischia Jazz & Piano  ranges among personalities not always tied to jazz, but thanks to the jazz have found fertile inspiration to enrich their sensitivity and their art. It is perhaps the case of Stefano Bollani, Milanese artist (but Tuscan of adoption), a pianist of great talent, with a repertoire in which music often opens a direct relationship with the audience. During his career he has brilliantly fused cultures, counter-cultures, sub-cultures, but what is most striking in his live shows is the balance that is able to maintain both serious and humorous, light weight and depth, "cultured" and "popular" music. A musician who is also an actor on stage, does not give up to wit and wonders and mixes jazz with the Italian and international lyric.
Roberto Gatto, one of the most complete Italian drummers, prefers instead the experimentation associated with new electronic sounds. Together with pianist and keyboardist Alfonso Santimone, and Pierpaolo Ranieri on the bass, embraces the challenge of a different concert every time, improvising, giving space to the creativity and concentration to drive the musicians (and the audience) towards a journey always fascinating and bold .
The collaborations do not end there. “Due di noi che ...” is the show that Gino Paoli and Danilo Rea will lead to Ischia Piano & Jazz. One of the fathers of the Italian song that meets the musician, perhaps better than any other, has declined in the great tradition of jazz music of his homeland, from classical to Italian pop. For years now the two men perform together enjoying success and acclaims. Only piano and voice, only their ability to chase, shake off and find themselves on a road that is one of the most beautiful repertoire of our musical heritage. From the classics by Paoli (“Il Cielo in una stanza”, “La Gatta”, “Averti addosso”) to those of the singer-songwriter song (“Vedrai” by Tenco, “La Canzone dell’amore” by De Andrè, “Albergo a ore” by Herbert Pagani).
And then there is Naples. A city that always moves the border between old and new. A laboratory contamination and cultural experimentation, according to the extraordinary vocation began after the Second World War, when the port, the taverns, the alleys, the smugglers and the musicians of the city became the spearhead of the contact between American and the Italian culture. Black music in Naples is a constant presence that has influenced all the musicians. A quite unique event, especially if you think that the very absence of contact with the people who invented the blues and jazz has created major problems of identity in many of our rock artists.
In Naples from Avitabile De Piscopo, from Senese to Bennato, from De Sio to De Crescenzo (in Piano & Jazz), and the Tribunal Mist Jazz Band, have all found inspiration in the African-American sound, in the multi-ethnic soul of a city that never ceases to exist, from the musical point of view, a place somewhere between song and blues. Spearhead of these musicians, Pino Daniele. Who returns to perform in Ischia after many years of absence (the last concert in the summer of 1988, after the release of “Bonne soirée”, perhaps one of his early records really international).
Pino Daniele was the man of the dialectic between two great traditions, and its music a synthesis, perhaps unique, among the Neapolitan folk (in the harmonies, melodies, in the bitter irony of certain texts) and the blues (in the rhythmic structure and instrumental technique). A long career, full of ups and downs as it should be (difficult to trace in the production recent masterpieces such as "Nero a metà" or "Vai mò"), but thanks to which popular music is still alive, it has evolved, not giving up entirely to its better ambitions.