This event inaugurates the WORLD ITALIAN LANGUAGE WEEK – 2013
Italian Jazz Concert
With the Patronage of the President of the Republic of Italy WORLD ITALIAN LANGUAGE WEEK
“Ricerca, Scoperta, Innovazione: l’Italia dei Saperi”
(Research, Discovery, Innovation: Italy, the Land of Knowledge)
Italian Jazz Concert
by
Piero Delle Monache Quartet
with
Piero delle Monache – saxophone
Giovanni Ceccarelli – piano & keyboard
Tito Mangialajo Rantzer – double bass
Alessandro Marzi – Drums
at
Italian Institute of Culture
on Thursday, 10th October 2013
Concert starts at 7pm. (doors open at 6.30)
FREE ENTRY
______________________________
Parco della Musica Records
presents
Piero Delle Monache Quartet
THUNUPA
Piero Delle Monache tenor saxophone/body percussion/loop
Giovanni Ceccarelli fender rhodes
Tito Mangialajo Rantzer double bass
Alessandro Marzi drums
Imagine an old Andean god, tall and bearded, who arrives on Earth after years of chaos and brings a new order among men. Imagine a volcano 5,400 metres high in Bolivia. Then think of mysterious music, original, with a strong narrative ability, tuned with a tenor saxophone and enriched by the support of vocal loops and human body percussions, or performed, in some parts, by the most classical of formations: a jazz quartet. All this is Thunupa. A South American legend, the name of a very high volcano, and now also a disc which arrives after “rolling years” experienced as an adventure (see the title of the fourth piece) and that suddenly explodes, transporting the listeners to an unhurried time and an indefinite space that leaves ample freedom to the imagination.
Piero Delle Monache, a new entry in Parco della Musica Records, as well as the youngest artist in the catalogue, is the leader of the THUNUPA Project. The disc has ten original pieces which let one discover and appreciate the improvisational development of the leader, his personal search for the sound and his particular artistic vein. The group, characterized by an excellent interplay, owes the majority of its balance to the elegance of Giovanni Ceccarelli, among the most reliable sidemen, often at the side of artistes like Lee Konitz or Benny Golson. Among his may discs, we remember Inventario Incontra Ivan Lins (Blue Note) recorded with Ferruccio Spinetti and Francesco Petreni with the participation of Samuele Bersani, Fabrizio Bosso, Jessica Brando and many others; to the experience of the double bassist Tito Mangialajo Rantzer, from Milan, present in over 50 recordings and collaborator of Silvio Soldini in the production of the soundtracks of some of his films (“Agata e la Tempesta”, “Pane e Tulipani”, “Brucio nel Vento” and others); to the versatility of Alessandro Marzi, a percussionist from Rome, who moves from jazz to bossa nova to pop, often flanking the guitarist Eddy Palermo and present in Alex Britti’s 2010 tour. Also worthy of mention is the disc cover: a photo of the author taken by Stefano Schirato, formerly a photojournalist for newspapers like the New York Times, VanityFair, Gioia, as well as photographer of scenes in the films “Baarìa” by Giuseppe Tornatore and “Basilicata Coast to Coast” by Rocco Papaleo.
In February 2012 Piero Delle Monache turned 30 years, half of which were spent in music, in a variety of roles: saxophonist, composer, artistic director and excellent teacher. His journey of research saw him evolving from a first phase, markedly Coltranian, to a personal and fresh style, imbued in jazz, but by now difficult to classify, still melodic, almost cinematographic. After years of training that saw him alternating between Bologna, Rome and Brussels, he returned to live in Abruzzo, his land of origin, where everything started…. As an adolescent, he undertook music studies thanks to a Heineken advertisement and the party atmosphere that developed around musicians. He thus enrolled in the Accademia Musicale Pescarese to proceed to the Conservatorio “A. Martini” of Bologna in the 2000s, which he ended with a thesis entitled “Lo Zen e i
sovracuti. Un metodo didattico per imparare a suonare il sax con naturalezza” (Zen and sovracuti. A teaching method to learn how to play the saxophone unaffectedly). As a commuting student he rented a room located by chance on the same street as the saxophonist Piero Odorici who thus became one of his first and true points of reference.
He continued attending master classes and seminars and won numerous scholarships, among which was that of Siena Jazz and the one from the Berkeley College of Music. In Bologna he also completed his university studies: from the beginning he enrolled in DAMS (Faculty of Arts, Music and Performing Arts) to then find himself graduating in Political Science with full marks, defending a thesis in Macroeconomics whose objective was, however, to be strongly linked to the music world and more specifically to the prospect of the development of the market of the Italian jazz music recording industry. He crowned his academic journey, attending summer seminars conducted by the Americans Mark Turner and Chris Potter at the Saint Louis College in Rome as the official translator, experiences that revealed to him important “secrets” on the artistic expression. In time music was transformed from a great passion to absorbing work. In big bands or with formations in his name, Piero Delle Monache played on the stages of prestigious clubs and festivals, among which are Pescara Jazz, Young Jazz in Town, Umbria Jazz, Odio L’Estate, Moody Jazz Café, Cantina Bentivoglio, Sound Jazz Club of Brussels, Jacques Pelzer of Liège. As a sideman he participated in the recording of over ten discs, up to the recording of Welcome, the first album in his name, with which he registered remarkable success with the public and a lot of attention from the press: specialized magazines, radio stations, blogs and webzines reserved significant space for him and Jazzit assigned him the sticker “Jazzit Likes It” as one of the best discs of the month. In 2011 he was further decorated with the prestigious Premio Clessidra in Musica, an honour conferred to those artistes who, with their activities, give distinction to the Region of Abruzzo.
Apart from collaborations with musicians like Flavio Boltro (Blue Note artiste, one of the topmost representatives of international contemporary jazz) and Francesco Bearzatti (very recently elected the best European musician), Piero Delle Monache is the leader of his group, with Giovanni Ceccarelli on the piano, Tito Mangialajo on the double bass and Alessandro Marzi on the drums. “Thunupa” is the first album by the quartet as well as the second in the name of Piero Delle Monache. Multifaceted and versatile, Piero is also the Artistic Director of the agency Altotenore Comunicazione & Jazz and has the organization of numerous shows and festivals in Abruzzo to his credit.
TRACKLIST:
• Samar in Arabic means to narrate stories
• Ascolta se piove is the translation of the romantic name of a street of a small Norman town
• Aperol is the imaginary dialogue between the waiter of the café and a regular patron
• Rollin’ Years (Mr. Michael Blindlove) rolling years, which Piero Delle Monache experienced encountering and running into many adventures, between one relocation and another
• RW2 is the second track of a suite dedicated to the Rwandese war and the subsequent exodus
• Rue des Saisons is inspired by a street of the multi-ethnic university district of Brussels
• Sweetness is dedicated to the sweetness of life
• Ascolta se piove in a solo version is a sort of monologue
• Thunupa is the title track of the disc. It surprises us with the introduction of some voices recorded in the studio, suddenly phoning friends and colleagues and inviting them to repeat some sentences of a book
• Dreamers was composed thinking of the role of creators and dreamers
From the 5th to the 18th of October the saxophonist from Abruzzo will bring the music from his CD “Thunupa”, published by Parco della Musica Records, to Africa.
Libreville, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Maputo, Johannesburg, Capetown, Harare: these are the African cities to which, from the 5th to the 18th of October, the saxophonist from Abruzzo, Piero Delle Monache will bring the music from his CD “Thunupa”, published by Parco della Musica Records. Released in May 2012, the CD has won prestigious acknowledgments: apart from the Italian ones of Musica Jazz and Jazzit (the relevant seals plus nomination for Jazzit awards and listing among the 100 best CDs of the year), it also received the 4Etoiles seal of the French Jazz Magazine.
Organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Fondazione Musica per Roma, the Thunupa African Tour is the fourth of the Italo-African tours launched by the Direzione Generale per la Promozione del Sistema Paese (Directorate General for the Promotion of the Country System) and Piero Delle Monache’s first inter-continental tour. Accompanying the saxophonist will be two of the musicians who recorded the CD with him – Tito Mangialajo Rantzer on the double bass and Alessandro Marzi on percussion – and the pianist Giovanni Ceccarelli.
Saturday 5th October – Addis Ababa (Italian Institute of Culture)
Sunday 7th October – Libreville (French Cultural Institute)
Thursday 10th October – Nairobi (Italian Institute of Culture)
Saturday 12th October – Maputo (Gil Vicente)
Sunday 13th October – Johannesburg (Theatre on The Square)
Wednesday 16th October – Capetown (Hidding Hall, Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts)
Friday 18th October – Harare (Italian Club)
Piero Delle Monache Press Office
Federica Fusco