PRAXIS - Pino Minafra & Roberto Ottaviano - Cenerentola - 1982

In July 1968, Cecil Taylor plays live, in solo piano, a long four-part suite called PRAXIS (thanks to sotise), which will be published in two vinyl only fourteen years later, for the initiative of Kostas Yiannoulopoulos.

Fourteen years later, in that same 1982, Pino Minafra and Roberto Ottaviano founded a quintet called the PRAXIS (the original nucleus had been created by Riccardo Di Bari drummer and militant ideology of Andria).

Then, in 1990, Pino Minafra (with Vittorino Curci and Richard Bergeron) presented at the Festival di Noci his most ambitious creation, the Italian Instabile Orchestra, probably the best fruit of Italian jazz, at international level, despite an unexplained deafness of most traditional Italian festivals.

Just a few years later, the circle is closed, when on 10 September 2000, during the 8th TALOS Festival, Cecil Taylor will play with The Orchestra created by Minafra.

That everything started from there, as in a fairy tale?

Credits:

«cenerentola»

Label: LETICHETTA
Catalog# JLP 014
Format: LP
Country: Italy

Recorded in Bari at the Casa di Pulcinella (# A1)
and at the CM Studio (# B2)
between November and December 1982

Pino Minafra (trumpet),
Roberto Ottaviano (alto sax and soprano, clarinet),
Pippo Fumaroli (el. piano, piano), Ilario De Marinis (el. bass),
Vincenzo Mazzone (drums, percussion)
Michele Lomuto (trombone) on # 1.


Tracklisting:


Side A

1) Cenerentola - 19'28"

Side B

2) Praxis Suite - 22'40"

Enrico Pieranunzi - In That Dawn Of Music - Rare and Unpublished tracks

What else to add on Enrico Pieranunzi that you don't already know, or that the website of the artist can not explain?

What I'd like to tell you, however, is that once the magazine Musica Jazz, the first and the most specific Italian publication dedicated to this music, attached in homage to his readers precious LP or CD like this, where they were published unreleased recordings taken from rare live concerts. Then, for reasons of publishing rights or because it's more convenient to choose the easy way out, this is no longer happened.

This does not detract from the prestige and professionalism of this publication.
I think especially in the historical memory that this magazine, operating since 1945, the year of Italy's liberation from fascism, built with passion, and is now available online, thanks to the National Center for Jazz Studies Arrigo Polillo, on the initiative and editorial care by Francesco Martinelli.

For me, however, the decision to make available these unpublished recordings, which were likely to forget, is the closest thing to the spirit of preservation and sharing of jazz that inspires my blog. Now you can listen Enrico Pieranunzi, but there are also unpublished records of Gianluigi Trovesi, Guido Manusardi, Giorgio Gaslini, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Gianni Basso, Massimo Urbani, Chet Baker in Italy, and others that now I don't remember.

This is because, besides the pleasure of hearing a good record, those unreleased recordings, contributed, in an excellent manner, to write the history of music that is based essentially on his performances, rather than on the written page.

I hope that now, with the new editor and with the interesting and transverse direction of Filippo Bianchi, the desire to document the sound of this music, returns one of the priorities of this magazine.

Credits:

In That Dawn Of Music

CD out of commerce
exclusive for the associates of
Musica Jazz magazine

Label: Soul Note / Musica Jazz
Catalog# SLMJ 003-2
Format: CD
Country: Italy
Date of release: October 1993


Tracklisting:


Part One

1) Someday My Prince Will Come (L. Morey - F. Churchill) - 7'57"
Enrico Pieranunzi (piano), Mads Vinding (bass), Alex Riel (drums)
live broadcast from Danish Radio, Copenaghen 1990, August 13

2) Impromptu No. 5 (E. Pieranunzi) - 4'29"
Enrico Pieranunzi (piano)
Live at Ivrea Jazz Festival 1993, March 12

3) Anthropology (Charlie Parker - Dizzy Gillespie) - 6'52"
Enrico Pieranunzi (piano), Paul Motian (drums)
Live at Roccella Ionica 1992, August 27

4) What's What (E. Pieranunzi) - 12'05"
Pietro Tonolo (tenor sax), Enrico Pieranunzi (piano),
Enzo Pietropaoli (bass), Fabrizio Sferra (drums)
Live at "Fabrik", Hamburg 1992, November 21

Part Two

5) Je Ne Sais Quoi (E. Pieranunzi) - 8'52"
Enrico Pieranunzi (piano), Marc Johnson (bass)
live broadcast from Radio de la Suisse Romande,
Losanna 1990, December 13

6) Straight Non Chaser (Thelonious Monk) - 4'48"
Enrico Pieranunzi (piano), Paul Motian (drums)
Live at Roccella Ionica 1992, August 27

7) In That Dawn Of Music (E. Pieranunzi) - 7'39"
Stefano D'Anna (tenor sax), Enrico Pieranunzi (piano),
Enzo Pietropaoli (bass), Roberto Gatto (drums)
Rome 1990, April 18

8) Someday My Prince Will Come (L. Morey - F. Churchill) - 11'21"
Enrico Pieranunzi (piano),
Enzo Pietropaoli (bass), Fabrizio Sferra (drums)
Live at "Jazzhouse", Copenaghen 1992, November 20

Nunzio Rotondo - Italian Jazz of the Roaring 50's

Nunzio Rotondo (Palestrina, Rome, 1924/ Rome 2009, September 15), a trumpeter and composer, is considered one of the most important Italian jazz musicians.

In 1949 he formed the Hot Club Rome sextet with Franco Raffaelli (alto saxophone), Ettore Crisostomi (piano), Carlo Pes (guitar), Carletto Loffredo (bass) and Gilberto "Gil" Cuppini (drums). In the 1950s, he would also be involved in some of the earliest recordings of Bebop in Italy.

On the night of March 29th, 1952 Rotondo was introduced by Charles Delaunay for his debut performance at the Salon du Jazz, the Salle Pleyel, the same stage that had hosted musicians such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. He began recording in the 1950s with Gino Marinacci, Aurelio Ciarallo, Vittorio Paltrinieri, Romano Mussolini, Roberto Nicolosi, Berto Pisano, Giancarlo Barigozzi and Pepito Pignatelli, among others. He would also join the ranks of Italian jazz musicians whose music appeared on the Columbia label in the United States.

During the 1960s he took a break from performing and recording, instead working on Radio Rai with Franco D'Andrea, Mal Waldron, Gato Barbieri, Maurizio Majorana, Dodo Goya, Roberto Podio, Pierre Favre and Franco Tonani. He also worked with Piero Piccioni on soundtrack projects and TV documentaries.

In the early 1970s, he returned to live performing with a new quintet that included Enzo Scoppa (tenor saxophone), D'Andrea (piano), Bruno Tommaso (bass) and Franco Mondini (drums).
In his later years, Nunzio's live performances became more and more rare outside of radio performances.

Credits:

Nunzio Rotondo Vol.1

Label: COLUMBIA
Catalog# CPSQ 542
Format: LP
Country: Italy

Recorded in Milan 1952/1953


Tracklisting:

Side A

A1) Move (Denzil Best)
A2) There's A Small Hotel (Rodgers - Hart)
A3) Quarter (Rotondo)
A4) These Coolish Things (Rotondo)
A5) Stelle Filanti (Rotondo)
A6) You Go To My Head (J. Fred Coots)

Sestetto Nunzio Rotondo dell'Hot Club di Roma
Nunzio Rotondo (tp), Franco Raffaelli (alto sax),
Ettore Crisostomi (piano), Carlo Pes (guitar),
Carlo Loffredo (bass), Gil Cuppini (drums)

Recorded in Milan 1952, March 27

Side B

B1) Pol City (Rotondo)
B2) Embraceable You (Gershwin)
same personell and date of side A

B3) Cool, Please (Rotondo)
B4) Obsession in E Flat (Rotondo)
B5) Cool Feeling (Rotondo)

Nunzio Rotondo and his Cool Stars
Nunzio Rotondo (tp), Gino Marinacci (tenor sax),
Aurelio Ciarallo (bass clarinet), Franco De Masi (french horn),
Vittorio Paltrinieri (piano, organ),
Tonino Ferrelli (bass), Gil Cuppini (drums)

Recorded in Milan 1953, March 7

B6) Music For Nobody (Rotondo)
B7) Fine and Dandy (James - Swift)

Nunzio Rotondo and his Cool Stars
Nunzio Rotondo (tp), Aurelio Ciarallo (bass clarinet),
Vittorio Paltrinieri (piano, organ), Tonino Ferrelli (bass),
Gil Cuppini (drums)

Recorded in Milan 1953, March 9

Giorgio Gaslini Big Band Live - GRIDO - 1968

In May 1968, Giorgio Gaslini puts up a big band unique in Italy, and perhaps also in Europe, with great soloists as Dino Piana, Sergio Fanni, Glauco Masetti, Eraldo Volonté and Gianni Bedori, who will interpret his idea of total music, playing songs "that move between contemporary music and the African-American music, incorporating elements that come from the gospel, as the free jazz".

This balanced mix of improvisation and musical notation, the audacity of instrumental voices, the collective / libertarian aspect of the Orchestra, the epic form and, at the same time, the modern themes, and the urgency of the social message, leave a indelible mark on jazz of tomorrow.

The most immediate example is the Italian Instabile Orchestra, founded by Pino Minafra in '90, probably the most ambitious and successful collaborative project that has ever happened in Italy, where Gaslini collaborated from '92 to 1996.

Credits:

GRIDO*

Label: CICALA
Catalog# BL 7131 J
Format: LP
Country: Italy

Recorded at Teatro Lirico in Milan, May 28, 1968

Giorgio Gaslini (piano), Sergio Fanni, Emilio Soana (trumpet),
Dino Piana, Giancarlo Romani (valve trombone),
Eraldo Volontè (tenor sax), Glauco Masetti (soprano sax, alto),
Sergio Rigon (baritone sax), Gianni Bedori (alto sax, tenor sax),
Manlio Palumbo (french horn), Alessandro Ferrero (horn),
Bruno Crovetto, Carlo Milano (bass),
Gianni Cazzola (drums).

Special guest on track #B2, Steve Lacy (soprano sax)


*first print on DURIUM A 77199


Tracklisting:

Side A

A1) Invention - 5'50"
A2) Il Fiume Furore - 8'42"
A3) All'Origine - 6'00"

Side B

B1) Canto Per I Martiri Negri - 9'45"
B2) Grido - 11'30"