Edition number 13 of the Festival, this time in full coincidence with The Liberation Day (April 25th), the national holiday celebrating the 80th anniversary of the victory against nazi-fascists troops that were still occupying northern Italy. Torino and Piedmont were the fulcrum of the partisans struggle and paid a tremendous price in terms of dead or tortured people, mostly very young. As usual, the TJF took place in several locations across the city. A snapshot of the concerts we attended, as follows.
ENRICO RAVA - Fearless Five (Teatro Colosseo, April 23)
The old Maestro (85 years old) is back in his hometown when in 1956, attending the Miles’s concert, had the epiphany that drove him to buy a trumpet and become the legendary musician we know. Along his long career, he used to give a chance to a lot of “rookies” (what a real Maestro should always do…) and this time ain’t an exception: all members of the band, Fearless Five, are around their 30s and, needless to say, fully deserve to be Rava’s partners in crime for this stage of his endless sonic journey. Matteo Paggi (trombone), Francesco Ponticelli (double bass), Francesco Diodati (guitar) and Evita Polidoro (drums, vocal) deliver full cylinders swing flavors, free escapades boosted by electronics, as well as Abercrombie-esque guitar nuances, in a smooth circular, democratic and mutual exchange with Enrico’s flugelhorn, still cristal and pristine like fresh mountain water. They won Musica Jazz magazine’s 2025 poll, both as best band and best record and the sold out theater (1500 seats) eventually saluted those fearless souls with endless applause. No doubt, the trumpeters (see also Wadada and McPhee) traded their souls at the Crossroad for the Eternal Youth.
FERRAIUOLO/MIRABASSI - Disubbidire sempre (Educatorio della Provvidenza, April 24)
Despite a solid classical upbringing, the duo of Fausto Ferraiuolo (piano) and Gabriele Mirabassi (clarinet) pushes full speed ahead towards unusual music territories, picking up and mixing genres, influences and styles, leaving the comfort zone as soon as they can and forcing the audience to listen to their music without too many landmarks and paradigms. They emphasize the ludic subtext of their concert and the solid interplay, the intertwined and overlapped musical textures are certainly joyful and emotional, through a well working balance between composed structures and free expression. “Disubbidire sempre” (“Disobey always”, a wonderful project-title that alone was worth being there), aptly fits this ongoing exploration of new and challenging musical paths.
CALIBRO 35 - Exploration (Teatro Colosseo, April 24)
Undisputed aces from Milano, self defined as “jazz robbers”, we owe them the retro futuristic re-discovery of those soundtracks mined from the inexhaustible goldmine of the 60’s and 70’s Italian B movies (if not C or D…). While the films certainly didn’t leave a mark in the Cinema’s Holy Book, totally different was their musical cotè. The likes of Piccioni, Bakalov, Umiliani, Micalizzi, Ortolani, Martelli, Lesinar, just to name a few and without considering Morricone, were off the scale, top notch composers, ignored by the Kritiks and forgotten under the dust of time, before, thanks to Easy Tempo and Soul Jazz collections, Tarantino’s worshipping and the works of Mike Patton and John Zorn, they eventually found a decent spotlight on their enormous class and talent. Calibro 35’s blasting sound, through covering obscure pebbles or writing new material, wonderfully able to avoid an algid and calligraphic coverage, deliver hot and sweaty grooves, greasy blaxploitation lines that make you feel at the wheel of Starsky & Hutch’s Gran Torino, screeching the tyres on today’s L.A. freeways. The chemistry between the four musicians (Massimo Martellotta guitar, synth; Enrico Gabrielli flute, saxophone, keyboards, electronics; Fabio Rondanini drums; Roberto Dragonetti bass) after almost 20 years spent playing all over the globe, allows the rocket ship to fly with a nitro booster, driving the screaming, ecstatic audience completely nuts.
ZOE PIA - Eic eden inverted collective “Atlantidei” (Teatro Vittoria, April 25)
Paraphrasing the theory of cognitive balance, according to which “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, we could say that anyone who plays with our heroes will alway deserve the admission ticket. This is what happens with Zoe Pia, the young musician (clarinet, launeddas, electronics) from Sardinia who played a bunch of dates with Mats Gustafsson last year, leaving behind a huge stream of positive reviews, thus making it mandatory for us to attend her gig, the live debut of the project “Atlantidei”. Four young percussionists (Mattia Pia, Nicola Ciccarelli, Paolo Nocentini, Carlo Alberto Chittolina), from classical music upbringing, shake the venue to its foundations, beating every kind of beatable instrument: bass, snare, tom, cymbals, vibraphone, xylophone, marimbas, kettledrum, tambourine, gong, even a plastic basin, building up a fascinating, polychrome, sonic landscape in which Zoe is unrolling her amazing, tangled textures. The outcome is never cacophonic or out of focus but rather lyrical and compelling, thanks to a brave, emotional and uncompromising performance, able to move the audience deeply. Such a free-ancestral voyage, starting from the mythical Atlantide/Sardinia, finds its arrival station on the Black Continent with the band leaving the stage muttering a litany called “Africa”: no better way to end a really beautiful concert.
VIJAY IYER - Piano solo (Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, April 25)
Piano solo is a peculiar beast, definitely not a couch pet and, to be honest, not our super favorite cup of tea but given that: 1) we have a super handy chance to see Iyer for the first time; 2) to skip such a gig could leave a bitter wave of regrets for very long time; 3) our solo records by Evans and Monk were worn out by thousands of listens, we head to the Conservatorio Hall, fuelled with confidence and hope. A magnificent grand piano placed beside the enormous, towering, ancient pipe organ, pride of the prestigious musical institution, is welcoming the people for a sold out gig. Not a typical jazz audience, we’d say, but, yes, you're right, what the hell is a “typical jazz audience”? Then Vijay enters the stage, a slight bow and takes place on the piano. Dead silence, music, applause, standing up, slight bow, dead silence, music, applause and so on, the same ritual until the very end. Hyper virtuosity, crossed-handed playing, mathematical progressions: is this jazz? Or is it classical music? Or are our skills too weak and inadequate to understand what is it? Silly questions, sure thing. The concert goes and so does the unease. Mental flashbacks bring us back Breezy screaming at the audience “have hugs, have drinks, make noise!”. Silly thoughts, sure things. Don't get us wrong: no blasphemy or disrespect towards a sheer, undisputed musical talent, just a place light years beyond our idea of jazz. And music. Simple as that.
JAN BANG SEXTET - “Alighting” (Hiroshima mon Amour, April 25)
The Norwegian musician and producer, long time collaborator of the likes of Hamid Drake, Jon Hassel and David Sylvian, founder of the Punkt Festival, is coming to town with a project specifically composed for the Festival, called “Alighting”, delivered by an ad hoc sextet of musicians, gathered on stage for the very first time. Along with the band leader (voice, live sampling), we find the astonishing turkish, Amsterdam-based Sanem Kalfa (voice, cello); the Catalan Santi Careta (acoustic and electric guitar); from Norway Mats Eilertsen (double bass) and Eivind Aarset (guitar, electronics); on drums the “Enfant du Pays”, the mighty Michele Rabbia. No boundaries, no walls, no tariffs, no gods, just a common language: the music. Bang lends the voice to almost every song and his monochromatic singing à la David Sylvian, smoothly matches the labyrinthic plots beautifully drawn by such marvellous music partners. The suffused atmospheres and the tinged, almost ambient, textures would have needed a more intimate seating theater, maybe, while the legendary Hiroshima, an all-stand-up venue with the boozer just a few meters from the stage, is better suited for Cockney Rejects or Henry Rollins than for scandinavian jazz, you bet, but everything went really well and the audience warmly appreciated.
TONONI/CAVALLANTI - “Nexus plays Dolphy” (Casa Teatro Ragazzi, April 26)
Nexus is an open project put in place in 1981 by drummer Tiziano Tononi and reedist Daniele Cavallanti that involved along the years the “Parterre des Rois” of Italian jazz scene: Enrico Rava, Gabriele Mitelli, Gianluca Trovesi; Pasquale Mirra, Silvia Bolognesi, to name a few. After around ten records of original compositions, along with tributes to Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, Don Cherry, Roland Kirk, John Carter, John Gilmore and Charles Mingus, this time, as a new chapter of their sonic adventures, they decided to challenge one of the most vertical music walls: Eric Dolphy. The master Roberto Ottaviano (soprano sax), Alessandro Castelli (trombone), Emanuele Parrini (violin), Luca Gusella (vibraphone), Andrea Grossi (double bass) are the climbing companions of Tononi and Cavallanti, engaged in the almost impossible task of walking on thin ice, avoiding to fall down in the crevasses of pale xerox copies or disrespectful outcomes. And they win because they dare to dare: keeping the Dolphian coordinates as untouchable cardinal points, they freely float through the most impervious and tricky routes on the map. The engine runs so perfectly oiled that even the violin (despite some pretty solid counter-evidence, not a jazz device, sorry) sounds as a necessary tool. The dedication of the final song to the people of Gaza is a commendable note for this great combo. FYI, an official record of this tribute is available.
LAKECIA BENJAMIN - “Phoenix Reimagined” (Teatro Colosseo, April 28th)
If any Festival worthy of the name has (must have..) its moment of Glamour, this was Lakecia’s gig, no doubt. The White House Inauguration, Obama’s appreciation, The Late Night Shows, the covers of every music magazine from Pocatello to Timbuktu, the nearly fatal car incident, her platforms and golden lamè outfit, all helped to make mrs. Benjamin the Last Sensation in Town, or, at least, one of them. Such a freight train of hype preceding her arrival in Torino made us pretty cautious and suspicious but, as for any snobbish preconception (that was ours), we were wrong, totally wrong. Sublime class, enthusiastical verve, contagious involvement, unstoppable positive mood, make the concert a 1000 Fahrenheit degrees live experience, electrocuting the sold out venue. The musical palette is polychrome and challenging: intense solos; credible street rhymes shot like an AK 47; impeccable balance on the high tension wires of “My favorite thing”; a leader always devoted to an ongoing and generous interplay with band members. Needless to say, the level of the musicians on stage is worthy of her: Elias Bailey and Dorian Phelps are the powerhouse rhythm section, while the Corean John Chin paints on piano terrific textures à la Chick Corea. The final encore, a thermonuclear rendition of Booker T’s “Green Onions” blows off the roof, testifying that jazz is not and will never be a rhetorical, academic exercise.
DUDU’ KOUATE 4TET - (Teatro Juvarra, April 30)
From the arrival on Sicilian shores as an immigrant from Senegal to become the percussionist of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago: this simple sentence could summarize the adventurous personal and artistic life of Dudù Quate, the last musician we saw at this edition of the TJF. Kouate, coming from a griot upbringing, spent his life collecting songs, musical sketches, patterns and rituals from different African languages, then combined them with contemporary languages, thus building a bridge between tradition and innovation. Easy to say, much more difficult to realise, avoiding a watered, undrinkable “fusion”, good for a dentist’s waiting room but not for our Blog. The stage test dispels all doubts, fully accomplishing the goal through a well focused deployment of ideas onto sounds, beautifully delivered by Simon Sieger (piano, keyboards, trombone); Alan Keary (electric bass, violin) and Zeynep Ayse Hatipoglu (cello), while Dudù, beside voice, ngoni, water drum and talking drum, is committed to beating a very wide range of tribal percussions. As he explained, the 4TET offers to past and future sounds and voices the chance to be gathered together, building up a moment of unity and brotherhood, according to the African principle of Ubuntu: I am because we are. The collaboration with Moor Mother will generate a record, scheduled for the beginning of 2026, and we already tied a string around our finger.
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