Farewell to Rome

Rome was the end of our trip. It's a place we know well so it's not so much a tourist haunt for us and anyway, it's a city that has a life other than tourism. None-the-less, we are nothing if not dumbstruck by the ancient world and later history that pervades this city. People live with it, largely ignore it, express pride for it. Tourists just gawk. Despite the years I spent there, there's always something new, and it's surprisingly renowned. This time we did an outing to Villa Adriana (Hadrian's villa) with cousins, stopping at the "Cimitero acattolico" on the way, sited with Rome's own pyramid, Piramide di Caius Cestius, and a museum visit to the Basilica di San Clemente, a church with three levels of foundations that record use of the site since ancient times, perhaps the Great Fire of 64CE, perhaps the mint of Rome, definitely a mithraem and housing and decorations through classical and Byzantine to baroque styles. All distributed over about 20 vertical metres displaying the rise and rise of physical Rome. Some pics, although none of St Clemente which doesn't allow photography.

Wealth and dignity

The Borghese are still remembered in Rome for the Gardens and the Gallery as well as papal history. I'd never visited the Borghese Gallery. It was booked out last time we were in Rome. The gallery is comfortably small but still busy. Access is in 2-hour blocks, so everyone is entering and leaving together. Strange. Especially when you get the call and security clears the rooms. This is not the Pitti but it's a nice collection. Paintings by Perugino, Raphael, Caravaggio, Titian and the like, statues by Bernini and Canova and a collection of Roman arts, statues and friezes, in rooms painted in grotesque fresco style. Look for the cocky amongst the pics above.

Too meaningful for me

I like a melody (not least the great standards that merge whimsy with depth) but I found the quietude and mesmerism of Oded Tzur just too much for me. The band was all good. The volume consistently and convincingly rose in each piece from a ppp(p) that was only just audible to loud with abandon usually in someone’s solo and the solos were good. Oded himself did some interesting outings, especially developing repeating phrases that crossed bars and mutated through intervals and perhaps resolved in time. He talked once of Tihai as an Indian classical music rhythmic technique that resolves on a key beat (usually 1 of a bar) after three repeats. Again repeating, he mentioned his three weddings (NYC, Israel, Brazil) and “the most important thing in the world / the most important thing in the world / the most important thing in the world is LOVE”. Three themes, three repeats: a tihai in presentation and in verse. Cool! In fact, everything I seemed to count was in 3 or 6 but I didn’t count everything. Pianist Nitai Hershkovit is a Smalls regular and an impressive player. He soloed impressively and accompanied nicely here too: usually restrained, in the style of the band, then growing in volume and intensity, again in the style of the band. Drummer Colin was nicely outgoing, I thought, and bassist Petros had a lovely tone (mic and a Realist Copperhead?), perhaps highlighted by the very low volume, and played mostly fairly straight syncopated lines but could expand as in one fast thumb position melody played unison with piano. These are decent NYC players but playing just too deep for my enjoyment. It got me wondering about politics, US and others, Trump and Netanyahu; how we account for our own politics (we Australians increasingly need to account); just how Oded feels about this; how this music in relevant. For that matter, is it a relevant question? But, again, deep. I’ll leave this here as I left early there. Decent players but just not for me, at least on the night.

Oded Tzur (tenor) led a quartet with Nitai Hershkovit (piano), Petros Klampanis (bass) and Colin Stranahan (drums) at the Casa del Jazz in Rome.

Negotiating travel

Again, dark footpaths, distant locations, traffic to avoid. This was a Roman jazz night. The place was the Casa del Jazz, claimed as “un luogo unico in Europa, in cui convergono attività concertistiche, culturali e didattiche”. It’s in the Villa Osio, in a park, just outside the walls of Rome past the Terme di Caracalla, near the Porte Ardeatina with its streaming traffic. OK for cars but difficult for public transport but always stunning to be surrounded by this history so worth it. I arrived by bus past Rome’s genuine ancient pyramid (tomb of Gaius Cestius, built 18–12BCE, smaller and younger than Egypt's) and walked lumpy footpaths in the dark around speedy traffic, even being felled by an unseen branch. But I got there. The concert was in a small theatre rather than a bar; well equipped with PA and piano. The Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet was sponsored by the Polish Embassy for Poland’s 100th birthday. I’d checked out YouTube and found a hip-looking group playing to festivals so was in two minds. I shouldn’t have been: I was seriously won-over. This was well arranged music with generous space for solos but with planned exits and returns, unexpected compositions often playing on simple themes, blues or the like, but interspersing solos from free to formal; solos varying in support from truly alone to accompanied; mostly syncopated grooves and just one swing passage; varied in style from C20th pianism through jazz and pop to blues. I found the approach genuinely thrilling and just hung out for solos by Joanna on piano and Marek on tenor. At one stage they combined for a duet that thrilled with invention and tonal contravention. But so did Mark and trumpeter Oskar combine nicely. Drummer Qba took a most odd but interesting of solos, not at all the marching band virtuosity of the Americans but intricate in tone and even pitch given some gamelan-like percussion. Wojtek stood at centre with EUB laying pentatonics and prompting widely with smiles. Joanna especially responded. This being an embassy event, there were free drinks after and I spoke to her shortly. She’d studied classical and never followed jazz and was influenced now by the likes of composer Gervasoni (Antonio, must look him up). Wojtek just introduced a few titles. I got the impression from one naming that it had run through many passages over 30-minutes or so. Or maybe he just hadn't introduced others. Not sure. But I found this thrilling and inventive and playful with pop and rock and blues references; both fun and worthy, and that’s a great combination. And to see those YouTube videos, this band is getting to a new generation and that’s mightily worthy. Much enjoyed.

Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet performed at the Casa del Jazz in Rome. They comprised Wojtek Mazolewski (bass, composer), Oskar Torok (trumpet), Marek Pospiezalski (tenor), Joanna Duda (bass) and Qba Janicki (drums).

The saint of music

I’ve seen Santa Cecilia often enough in churches and museums. Finally I’ve heard Santa her. Santa Cecilia is the saint of music and she gives her name to perhaps Italy’s and Rome’s key musical institution (La Scala and others may disagree), the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. We missed their orchestra on tour in Frankfurt but we caught the first of their annual concert series in Rome. It was at Parco della Musica, a music complex of five theatres designed by Renzo Piano, in the concert hall called, what else, Sala Santa Cecilia. This is a big room lined with bulging timber that seats 2,744. Getting there was somewhat a trial, negotiating rough unlit footpaths along busy traffic but the room is good. The Italians were chatty (very much in the aisles) and the orchestra is informal. It was a good size, ~95 with seven bassist playing played 5-string instruments. From the top, this was an exciting and entertaining concert played with lovely skills and strong dynamics. Glinka Ruslan and Ludmilla overture opened at a pace way beyond when I’ve played it. So it should, all cascading scalar runs and exhilaration. Great! Then visiting Russian pianist, Daniil Trifonov, playing Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto no.3 Dminor. Again, stunning and thrilling and dense with notes. Ferocious, lush, romantic with the second movement running into the third and virtuosic piano. Fabulous playing by Trifonov and nicely conversational by the orchestra. Then a little encore on solo piano and a strange sight of Italians standing and chatting throughout the hall, at least those who didn’t exit for the interval. And the finale, Tchaikovsky Symphony no.4. To paraphrase Wikipedia, it’s a loose structure of large-scale orchestral writing and emotions and instrumental colors; a hybrid of the symphony’s architectural form and the symphonic poem’s literary form with self-contained contrasting sections displaying drama within movements. Whatever, it was exhilarating and emotional and sweeping and played with massed forces. Again a wonderful and involving performance. Santa Cecilia deserves her place.

The Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia performed Glinka, Rachmnainov and Tchaikovskyat Parco della Musica in Rome. Antonio Pappano (conductor) directed and Daniil Trifonov (piano) soloed.

Da Gregory

I’ve often pondered that only 12 notes can make all (Western) music. Branford Marsalis said much the same thing in an article I read with the implication that nothing we play is new. I was thinking that while I was listening to a the band at Gregory’s jazz club in Rome. I expected Fresh Fish Quintet but I think I only got one or two of them with some mates. This was a quartet playing standards and modern jazz tunes.
They started with Moment’s notice and followed it with September in the rain, and I was revelling in the grooves and interplay and solos that spelt out the tunes with great clarity and the styles with no jarring. So I thought of those 12 notes and how they can be played with the right feel and the right conception and then it’s satisfying. The piano was concentrated, playful, toying with harmony but focussed. They played Joe Henderson and the trumpet felt insistent. Then later a Cedar Walton tune, and I thought of Freddie Hubbard. Then What’s new, and I realised how the bass was spelling the chords, full toned and harmonically clear. Always with a busy substrata of drums. Then listening to the whole, I felt the responsiveness in the piano comping and throughout in the rhythm section. Alex Boneham had suggested this club and the drummer had played with Alex and also plays with Sarah McKenzie and Hugh Stuckey. It’s a small jazz world. Then some sit ins for the second set. Alice, female vocals, for two songs: I only have eyes for you and End of the love affair. It’s a surprise to hear the words after hearing the instrumentals so often. I’m taken by the dense tragedy of the words and intrigued by the just slightly accented English: “I'm reckless it's true, but what else can you do…”. (It doesn’t work quite the same on paper). Then two tenor saxists sit in for a few tunes, There will never be another you and Well you needn’t and whatever Bebop with another drummer. Then it’s 2am and the band ends; Gregory’s starts late: 10pm. Luckily I’m close so no issues with transport, so it’s a relaxed outing. Great music, though. Standards and jazz tunes played as they should be, with just the right use of those 12 notes. All those transcriptions are not for nothing because this is a culture and you have to learn the language. These guys may be Italian but they speak jazz with aplomb. A great night at a lovely little jazz club. The band was Francesco Lento (trumpet), Pietro Lussu (piano), Francesco Puglisi (bass) and Marco Valeri (drums). The sit ins were Alice Ricciardi (female vocal), Phil Allen (tenor), Filippo Orefice (tenor) and Emanuele Zappia (drums). The venue was Gregory’s Jazz Club in Rome.