A friendly interview
to Silvia
Manco...
I
met Silvia after their concert 180°gradi.
una
cotta per il pane,
a nice and original bakery - confectionary’s – restaurant – bar
situated in Fermo town on
26 July 2007.
She has performed together with Stefano
e Andrea Nunzi,
drums and double bass. She is the leader of the trio. Their
concert, held on the closing night of “Guess who is playing for
dinner”, has attracted the attention of the audience with music
ranging from jazz and bossa nova, and pieces that she has written.
Silvia
Manco
was born in the Salento. Her approach to music was through a piano, but
she has always loved singing. She was supported by her dad, a piano bar
musician, but the jazz was so appealing to her that she decided to move to
a more stimulating and favourable environment. “This is why I got to
Rome to have my chance”.
She
has lived in Rome for 10 years now. She is much appreciated in Italy and
abroad, and a lot of fans and colleagues leave meaningful messages on the
web page.
She plays the piano and sings. She has her own groups and also
collaborates with other Italian jazz artists (Luca
Velotti
and the vocal trio Boop!Sisters, just to name a couple). “It
is important to collaborate with different people. It is important not to
let things just go around yourself... different inputs are valuable”.
Her
debut album “Big
city is for me” was
launched at the beginning of 2007 and produced by Micca Club Records in
Roma. Among the artists that have collaborated to her album there are Pietro
Lussu
(piano), Stefano Nunzi (double
bass), Sandro Deidda (sax) and Armando Sciommeri (drums).
Silvia Manco has arranged several musical pieces, but she was also the
author of five of them, music and Italian and English lyrics.
She
is inspired by American song-writers, but she has enriched her work with
her Mediterrean origins.
“...I am trying a blend of jazz repertoire with Italian singer-
songwriters singers. There is also some Brazilian culture...”. Bossa
nova (a music genre born in Brazil at the end of the Fifties) is in fact
easily detectable in her music and her voice knows well how to transmit
the feeling.
Silvia likes this kind of music, but she does listen to several other
kinds of music “pop, singer-songwriters, Pino Daniele … naturally
enough she prefers jazz. I love listening to different voices, saxophones,
trumpet...and a lot of Brazilian music”.
The
day after the interview she was heading to Assisi for a concert, and then
all the way down to Catania to play the piano with Lino Patruno.
A lot of events were planned for August, Rome, Sardinia... her long term
project is an other disk. She will probably record it in autumns and then
promote it “Recording some pieces helps fixing the elements, but
playing live is the most important thing ever”.
I
wanted to ask what kind of people love jazz, she anticipated me explaining
me that she has noticed this genre attracts “curious people that do
not want to know exactly where the evening will get to... People who are
open to surprises, that would be the perfect audience. The interaction of
the audience is fantastic because jazz is also energy and sharing it is
really positive”.
When
I ask what is jazz for her, she goes:
“it
is a dynamic music, open to receive and to take inspiration from what
develops around. I do believe it will never die because it always embodies
several influences... I would define it as a ever developing music, a
music perfect for those who would love to open to the world...loving jazz
is also a way of life!”.
Alessandra Alessiani
for Paradise Possible
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