Danilo Rea in Concert at Bologna Jazz Festival
Tuesday, Aug. 5 at 9:15 p.m. will stage the second event of the Giardini al CUBO series tagged Bologna Jazz Festival. After the great success of the Terell Stafford Quartet last June, the Danilo Rea Trio featuring Ares Tavolazzi and Fabrizio Sferra will perform this time in the setting of the Porta Europa raised garden.
The gardens at the cube are packed again this evening. It is 8:15 p.m. and already people are struggling to find a seat despite the more than 500 chairs available. All this makes me happy; people are thirsty for music.
The audience around me is so diverse, I could define the target audience: 5-70. Music unites, this is a fact and the facts prove it … but our politicians, especially those sitting in parliament who think only about the electoral law or italicum, all this seems not to care. (See situation of the Valley Theater ed. ) And so it is that I am about to witness and meet for the first time the great pianist Danilo Rea whom I unfortunately missed during the last season of RoxyBarTV where he accompanied Gino Paoli on piano. The watchword tonight will be only one: Jazz.
Who is Danilo Rea?
Danilo Rea, one of the most versatile piano talents on the Italian scene, made his jazz debut in 1975 with Enzo Pietropaoli and Roberto Gatto, forming the Rome Trio and collaborating over the years with big names in American jazz such as Chet Baker, Lee Konitz, John Scofield, Joe Lovano and Art Farmer. In 1997 he gave birth, with double bassist Enzo Pietropaoli and drummer Fabrizio Sferra, to Doctor 3. His collaborations in the pop field are also numerous, as a trusted pianist for artists such as Mina, Claudio Baglioni, Pino Daniele and Gino Paoli.
Danilo Rea, piano; Ares Tavolazzi, double bass; Fabrizio Sferra, drums.
The evening begins without the need for much introduction. The audience is attentive and well prepared. The trio is anticipated on stage and the applause starts, majestic.
The beginning is feeble. Almost as if to communicate, “Hey, now let’s get started eh. Let us just skim the instruments for a moment that we’re looking for the right inspiration for tonight,” said and done. Not even two minutes of “warming up” and the trio bursts into improvisation like the masters they are, taking us on an ethereal journey of hope, speed, delicacy, register changes, awe, and magic. This is jazz gentlemen and this gentleman has a name: Danilo Rea.
It goes on. This second piece in some places reminds me of some passages from De Andrè’s“The Fisherman,” and I don’t know why, but that is also the beauty of jazz. Making you associate with something unconsciously. All excellently posed and interspersed with a few solos here and there. Drum solos, however, in jazz, alas, I never understood them. Could it be a strain of me as a pianist? There are a few throughout the concert but I must say that they remain perfect in terms of duration and color of the solo. Never invasive, always within the right standards and respectful toward the audience. Kudos to Fabrizio (on drums).
One image I want to take home tonight is the reflection of the musicians on the ceiling above the stage. The stage is lit from left to right by colors, in order: pink, fuchsia, purple. Reflecting the image on the ceiling, I take a snapshot and here are Danilo ‘s hands circling over the pink flying on the piano. In the center in the fuchsia part we have the vertical figure of Ares merging with the double bass in almost imperceptible micro-movements, ending on Fabrizio ‘s viola, which is instead a succession of up, down, right, left, within which you can easily make out the drum sticks.
Along with this image I want to carry with me the typical screams and shouts of jazz audiences that suddenly rise up during a solo, an unexpected passage, or a quote slipped in here and there during the performance. And this is how this game between audience and performer is repeated, several times on“Over the raimbow” , unmistakable from the very first notes even as they are excellently framed by Danilo in an improvisation by the great master that he is.
Unexpectedly comes a“How Deep Is Your Love” by the Bee Gees. I never expected that-neither did the audience I think. Many around me whisper it. Once again music unites. And it is on this track that the trio bids us farewell. Honored by a delirious hall.
Of course, it is only a non-final. The trio gives us yet another great rendition by performing in such delicate jazz the song“Io che amo solo te” by Sergio Endrigo, again melting the audience who whisper the song in silence. All around me I see couples of all ages singing into each other’s eyes this fantastic piece of our Italian history.
The trio bids us farewell but by popular demand they grant an encore. We say goodbye to the song“Cheek to Cheek” by Frank Sinatra. The latter I had never heard before and is a great discovery, especially in this unreleased version. The lights came on, again this evening music brought us together. Music has this great power that is to bind people together in a universal language, traversing the depths of our existence to try to still give us the hope that we so need to face this great journey that is life.
What I take home tonight are two very important concepts:
– in life you never stop learning
– take life like jazz: in total freedom.
Although it is not a song for this evening, I am going to play you this rendition of Mia Martini’s“Almeno tu nell’Universo.”
Goodnight Bologna.
I’ve always dreamed of being able to write freely about music. The article you have just read is part of my project which I called maim (union of words thank goodness so be it); menomasia is not just a musical column, but it is at the same time the hope of being able to continue to pursue music, the real one, experienced in live shows. Outside the traditional commercial schemes.
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