ROMA JAZZ FESTIVAL
33rd EDITION
“JAZZ LABELS”
The idea for the “Jazz Labels” project is due to the fortuituous recurrence, in 2009, of several historical anniversaries.
90 years ago the first jazz album was recorded in Italy. According to the researches by historians, devotees and collectors, the first Italian jazz record mus be backdated to April 25th 1919. It was “At the Jazz Band Ball” (La Rocca and Shields), performed by the Teatro Trianon Orchestra conducted by the Maestro Nicola Moleti on La Società del Grammofono's disc, Green Label (R 8371). This proves that jazz music has always existed in Italy.
70 years ago the American record company Blue Note was founded. Blue Note's heritage offers a broad overview of the entire history of 20th century jazz music. A huge amount of materials and talents to be inspired by are stored in its archives. Among others: Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter and many more. No doubt it is the most long-lived and representative label in jazz scene.
50 years ago Columbia released “Kind of Blue”, the best-selling album in jazz history (about 10 million copies) and, above all, regarded as the greatest jazz album of all time. Miles Davis' Kind of Blue greatly influenced the history of contemporary music. It was recorded in March 1959 and was released in August. As a metter of fact, it is not just jazz. It is a total work of art, performed by Davis together with a great band: John Coltrane, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley.
On february 1917, the first jazz album was by chance recorded by five white musicians, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. So began the recording history of one of the freest and most fertile musical genres of mankind, a sound that has influenced both Twentieth-century and present day culture: jazz music. Popular music par excellence - since it is conveyed in mass media - jazz stands in its own tradition, always reinventing and passing it down to future generations. This is made possible only by the close relationship between jazz and sound recording technologies since the beginning of '900 and the many sound recordings that, through the decades, have accompanied the development of this “extemporized” music. A century ago, such major labels as Columbia, Verve and Atlantic led the process of innovation in jazz and, together with other labels, invested a lot in the record production to discover new talents. After the fast development of music companies over the last decades, several labels have become part of record giants producing different genres, like rock and pop music, so that jazz was relegated to the last place. Thus, the need of so many young talents to publish new music and enter the market led, since the end of the Forties, to the rise of independent labels in United States and Europe. Italian independent record companies too achieved their “golden age” between the '70s and the beginning of the '90s, thanks mainly to the commitment and passion of “small” independent producers like Gala Records, Horo, Dire, Red Records, Black Saint and Splasc(h), the latest. Today, this tradition is being carried on with dedication by such labels as CamJazz, Egea, Veneto jazz, Auand, Schema, El Gallo Rojo and many more - a group of labels pursuing an idea and an ethic of production. So, independent labels have gained a role by leading the game both in terms of creative vision and artistic freedom. Of course, majors can offer to their artists far better sales opportunities. Their products, however, are much more market-oriented. Same old story: the epic battle between art and business. 33rd Roma Jazz Festival will focus on some aspects of this challenge, offering a schedule of events and previews featuring international artists and young talents supported by the main American and European record companies.
Artistic director
Mario Ciampà
ENRICO GUARINO
Born in Rome in 1951. Age of ten he started attending the studio of realist painter Tom Vittorio Novelli, where he studied draw and oil painting technique. Stronger than solid experience setting other expressive techniques such as sculpture, collage, photography. His artistic practice knows ups and downs cohabit with a passion for music and the practice of medicine. The meeting with the American Pop Art and Hyper realism was fatal for him. Since 2000, his artistic activity is constant and finalized. In 2005 he began exhibiting photographic work.
