A positive outcome for Teatro delle Erbe’s evenings. Enzo Gentile · Il Giornale, 1987.
Mutual exchange of experience and a dialectical approach to sound sum up the evenings Associazione Culturale Musica Oggi organised with the Civica Scuola di Musica at Teatro delle Erbe, explicitly entitled New Composition Between Jazz and Music Today.
Musicians of different, complementary backgrounds took turns at the Via Mercato theatre, fitting a context unified by the organisers’ request: new compositions written and performed for the occasion. Each evening juxtaposed jazz-derived ensembles with more classically oriented ones. Thursday’s closing was particularly interesting, with Claudio Fasoli’s quintet preceded by pieces from a very young classical composer, sixteen-year-old Jacopo Baboni.
Fasoli’s line-up was substantial. Known also to 1970s rock and fusion audiences through Perigeo, he has just released For Once on Milan’s Splasc(h), featuring two bassists, Marco Vaggi and Piero Leveratto, also present at Teatro delle Erbe with excellent drummer Gianni Cazzola, young Swiss trumpeter Ilaria Kramer and the leader on saxophones. Audiences liked the group; the experiment succeeded and drew sincere applause.
Wednesday had featured Gaetano Liguori’s quintet, reinforced by friend Guido Mazzon on trumpet. A warm success, and the leader announced a recording-publishing initiative matching his longstanding political commitment.
“I am about to launch Folk Line, a section of Bull Records, until now devoted to jazz,” explained Liguori, who closed with an unusual Blowin’ in the Wind. “In the studio I recorded material coming out shortly as Revolutionary Songs of the Polisario Front, my first ethnically rooted production. If audiences encourage it, I intend to continue.” [A few connecting words are unclear in the clipping.]
Musica Oggi’s representative commented: “We did everything quickly, but the artistic result and reception encourage us to continue. New composers lack spaces. It would be wonderful to offer them a recording outlet too: one project we are pursuing. In September, or spring at the latest, we will repeat the series, perhaps more coherently and with still more music and musicians.”