It might seem like a diversion, but let’s spend a moment in praise of the “mantello di ufficiale”.
Yesterday was the first of the three core events of Bergamo Jazz: double bills at extremely grand Teatro Donizetti. When we, the audience, arrive at this hallowed theatre – which clearly and understandably brings pride to the city – the people on duty to greet us and who scan our tickets and admit us to this magical space are proudly wearing beautifully cut modern versions of nineteenth century dark grey military capes.
It is a lovely touch. We are reminded that we are entering a hallowed space. If we are going to be made welcome into this glorious, horseshoe-shaped opera house, we might as well be taken straight back to the time when Donizetti, one of Bergamo’s favourite sons (1797-1848) wrote his 70-plus operas. Yes, let’s celebrate the associations of the place. Civic pride expressed like this, surely, is a good thing.
Bergamo Jazz’s Artistic Director Joe Lovano seemed completely lost for words as he tried to convey his sense of sheer wonder at the overwhelming beauty and glory of the space, and to welcome the first band onstage.
Lux Quartet are pianist Myra Melford, drummer Alison Miller, saxophonist Dayna Stevens and bassist Nick Dunston. They are all strong players with a real history of working together. Miller with her busy lightness of touch and consistently persuasive energy has worked alongside Melford and her delicate sparseness and clarity for many years, and their intuitive understanding of each other is a joy to hear. Dunston is an incredibly positive player, and Stevens plays with wonderful intent, understanding, pacing and flow. I couldn’t help reflecting that having been there at a concert by three-quarters of this group in Montreal (with Scott Colley in lieu of Nick Dunston, and under the name of Alison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom – link to review below), this was a chance to hear them in ideal circumstances. Whereas the last time they had been in an outdoor venue, faced with an audience who just wanted to cheer everything loudly, this was a concert where the great balance, the expertly done sound, the evolving story of the music was being truly appreciated by an audience happy to listen.
The second set in the Teatro Donizetti was billed as “Legacy of Wayne Shorter”, and consisted of the three players who played with Wayne Shorter for more than two decades in his quartet: pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade, joined by Ravi Coltrane on soprano and tenor saxophones, and becoming a quintet with Joe Lovano for Shorter’s tune “Witch Hunt”.
The ties and the musical sixth sense which bind pianist, bassist and drummer are one of the joys of the music of our time. Perez’s way to hold a musical idea, and almost to suspend time while holding our attention are quite extraordinary. He seems to give us not just a phrase itself but also it’s “why”, the reason it has the shape it does. And the others intuit that: the level of listening between these players is constantly fascinating. I recently interviewed John Patitucci, and he told me about the inexplicable, mystical, near-religious things that would happen in the Shorter quartet, so this concert brought precious memories back. I was not sure what to expect from Ravi Coltrane, and, even afterwards, am trying to understand it. My main listening this week has been the Billy Hart Quartet with Mark Turner – I reviewed their new album this week for The Arts Desk. And being immersed in Mark Turner’s playing might be the very worst aural preparation one could possibly have to go and hear Ravi Coltrane. They are complete opposites. Ravi Coltrane plays with individual freedom and naturalness rather than artifice. Phrases and individual phrase lengths are not parts of a story, they just “are”, in the moment, and are then gone. The audience’s response was absolutely rapturous. Meanwhile this ‘critic’, with apologies, is still trying to work it out…
I very much enjoyed the 5pm concert by “La Via Del Ferro/ The Iron Way” ” at the subterranean Auditorio round the corner from the Teatro Donizetti, a band with London connections…Italian connections… New Zealand connections too: Alex Hitchcock on tenor sax, more impressive and complete every time one hears him, rising star of electronic music Maria Chiara Argirò on piano and keyboards, Michelangelo Scandroglio, genial and a very strong player on bass and highly effective drummer/leader Myele Manzanza.
This is a band which played some festivals in 2023 (Grey Cat in Follonica, London and Cambridge, where they played the last ever concert by Cambridge Modern Jazz at the Gonville Hotel). They all clearly get on well together, it is almost as if they want to celebrate their musical differences and make that the basis of friendship and enjoyable collaboration. That much was expressed most clearly by their encore. The Bergamo audience has a particularly assertive way of showing that it is expecting one and is not taking no for an answer. In this case, drummer and bandleader Manzana explained candidly that… actually… truth be told….the group had just exhausted its repertoire…so they would improvise the encore.
It worked brilliantly. Both Alex Hitchcock and Maria Chiara Argiro are adept across a whole range of styles and genres, and both have a great feeling for flow, continuity and shape and the four together made this work, before hot-footing it to the merch stall, where a large part of the audience which had found that just as the band had made musical sense… it would help the musicians make economic sense of this band to. Friendship is a good starting ingredient for a band: this is a unit whose further development will be fascinating to witness.
