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liberazione sculpture
cantina bentivoglio in bologna
wynton marsalis at the bentivoglio jazz club
After a week of asking around about music schools, music shops, and even if anyone knew someone with a piano, one of my students was kind enough to phone the Circolo Arci S. Cabasi on my behalf. I wrote about the Arci centre back in the January diary as somewhere I hoped I could perform my planned Victor Jara work. Considering the socialist nature of the place, it is incredible that their response to the request for information on hiring a room and a piano was exactly the same as that from the Tonelli institute last month - only available to students who pay for courses. What is going on here?! I am shocked and very definitely appalled by the closed mentality of these places. One of my other students has a friend who runs a musical equipment rental store, and has suggested I rent a piano at home, but considering my weekdays don't finish until 10pm, I don't think I'd be very popular with the neighbours for banging around on the piano at bedtime! Still, I suppose it is an option - if they'll carry the instrument up six flights of stairs to our attic apartment... Should have learnt something portable, or stuck to the accordion I began learning aged 7.
Fri 25th April 2008
Today is a national holiday, Festa della Liberazione, celebrating the end of nazi occupation during the last years of World War II. Carpi received a Silver Medal for Military Valour due to its participation in the resistance against the fascists and nazis, and there are many memorials to partisans killed during the fighting dotted around the city and the surrounding countryside. Parco della Resistenza (Resistance Park) is opposite the huge cemetery on Viale del Cipressi. The centre-piece of the park is the sculpture "Liberazione" by the artist Italo Bortolotti, unveiled on Liberation Day in 2000. The nearby former concentration camp at Fossoli was used by the Italian fascists to house British prisoners of war before being used by the occupying German forces as a stop off for Jewish "pieces" on the way to Auschwitz. It is difficult to imagine the horrors of WWII on the quiet streets of Carpi, but the pictures of the martyred heros of the resistance stare timelessly out from their memorials to remind us of darker times, and the sacrifices some are prepared to make for the liberation of others.
Sun 27th April 2008
Just when I started to worry that this period of musical isolation was going to become more of a permanent fixture than a temporary one, I suddenly have an invite to play at a jazz club in Bologna. The Andrea Ferrario band is playing at Bentivoglio Jazz Club between April 29th - May 3rd, and I've been invited along to play on May 2nd. Andrea Ferrario is a sax player and composer from Bologna (please go and take a look at his website at: www.andreafarrario.com) who I contacted through MySpace, where - after a year or so - I have a page again (visit www.myspace.com/stevetromansmusic to become a friend/fan and listen to more of my music). After all the emails, phone calls, in-person visits and casual enquiries, it turned out to be the Italian jazz MySpace community that proved the key to breaking into the scene. So, this coming Friday, we'll be getting the train from Carpi to Bologna and paying a musical visit to the jazz club at Cantina Bentivoglio, which has been running since 1989 and has played host to an amazing array of international jazz superstars over the years, including the awesome Dave Liebman, who will be performing there just 4 days after my guest spot! Expect a full report with photos and audio clips as soon as possible upon our return to Carpi following the gig...