A
friendly interview to Stefano
Nunzi...
[…]
We already have musicians, said the man from the group. I know I said and
I started playing. He
stared at me, he didn’t say a word. He waited until I finished. And
then asked: :
“What was it?”
“I
do not know”
His
eyes glimmered.
“When you do not know what it is, then it is jazz”.
“…Well,
actually even jazz has its rules”
Stefano says as soon as I finish reading Alessandro Baricco monologue,
Novecento. “People think it is the less
constrained music ever because it heartened ad-lib, but also jazz has its
own rules…”
I
am talking with Stefano
Nunzi in front of a glass of Verdicchio wine and some grapefruit
juice for me just at the time when 180°gradi
gets
ready for the aperitif. Our interview is much focused on yesterday concert
held here, in occasion of the “Guess who
is playing for dinner” closing night. It was one of the
appointments where gastronomy meets music in the fascinating atmosphere
created by swing. His double bass and the rhythms of his brother’s
(Andrea Nunzi) drums, created the perfect music background for
the leader of the trio: Silvia
Manco, a piano player and singer. The repertoire ranged from original compositions
by the leader of the group
close to the Brazilian music, to the great American Jazz Tradition.
They
are Roman by adoption, as Silvia is. They
were born in Fermo and then moved because they wanted to satisfy their
growing passion for jazz, in a more stimulating environment. The first to
go was Andrea in 1999, his brother followed the year after. Their
determination has been repaid even if the decision as Andrea tells me
today was “slightly
rash” because
“I didn’t know what to expect in that environment, I had
experienced music only here”. In
Rome they have found the right dimension where their talent was
acknowledged and gratified. They are now on the jazz set thanks to several
collaborations and projects (they have been member of the orchestra in the
musical dedicated to Billie Holiday, starring Ami Stewart). They also
perform in other settings such as events and theatres.
They
have both had their first approach with music when they were young, in
front of a piano keyboard. Andrea soon discovered his interest for drums
and started to study it as an autodidact. He
went through rock before getting to jazz. He
loved Elvin Jones sonority and John Coltrane, the famous quartet drummer
in 1960-1965.
Stefano
was also attracted by rock and he started to learn how to play guitar. “I
even wanted to play heavy metal”
he
recalls smiling. He doesn’t repudiate his first favourite music genre
that still likes listening to: “I
have been a great fan of Iron Maden, ACDC and Jimi Hendrix. If you play a
good Led Zeppelin Cd, I do appreciate it...”.
They
have enriched their collection with lot of jazz CDs from the most famous
jazz masters ever: Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Dexter
Gordon…They pay a lot of attention to the ever developing jazz language
around them. “I like soul, rhythm'n'blues…
I love James
Brown e i Blues Brothers” Stefano
says. His classic education has left its marks though. Among his favourite
musicians there are Beethoven, Mozart and Bach (“l
can feel how close they are to jazz sonority).
He
has cultivated his passion for jazz since he was studying double-bass at
the G.Rossini Music School in Fermo (he graduated in 1998 with M°Alfredo
Trebbi). “The
energy of this music makes me enthusiastic. It is not always a sounding
smack, apart in the Big Band, it is an energy that is there, it stays
still, it grows, this is the magic of the swing, the melody of
blues....”.
He
and Andrea fell immediately in love with jazz thanks to some CDs their
friend Eric Cisbani, a
percussionist. Stefano was also enchanted by a cassette his jazz guitar
teacher had recorded for him when he was just 15-16. They were Joe Pass
performances, a guitarist with Italian origins
“I felt something different from what I was used to” he
says “and it definitly appealed to me. I
was flabbergusted at the thought that a person playing solo could manage
to produce such music. It
has been a sparkle. From
that moment on I have been all for jazz, as a guitarist first and as a
double-bass player later...”
He
kept on listening to that kind of music and then decided that he would
have devoted all the studying necessary to explore the deepness of the
language that: “it is not in the Italian
cultural background, while the Americans were born with it, they have it
in their DNA. I dare say though that we have a good feeling with swing,
soft and fluid”.
To better understand this culture some years ago he went to New York and
he is willing to go back soon. “That
has been fantastic. The journey has been a pilgrimage in the places were
jazz was born and where it still flourishes. The musicians I met became my
role models. They were there, in the atmosphere where jazz is still
developing. This is why I love that world, it is a never ending research.
Alessandra Alessiani
for Paradise Possible
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