14 January 2009

Giorgio Gaslini Quartetto “Live” – Murales – Dischi della Quercia Q 28001

Here is one of my favourite Gaslini’s recording and, in my opinion, one of the best of the ’70 no only in European jazz. Giorgio Gaslini, has been, without any doubt, one of the most important musicians in modern jazz in Italy (I think in Europe too) and the one who gave an invaluable contribution to the growth of jazz knowledge in Italy, both from a theorical and a technical point of view. He has been the first in Italy who teached jazz music in an accademical place it happened in 1972 at the Conservatorio di S. Cecilia in Rome. But It’ almost impossible to summarize here Gaslini’s story and his contribution to the growth of Italian musical culture. Piano player, composer for movies (about 40 soundtracks amongst which the Michelangelo Antonioni score for “La Notte” is undoubtedly a masterpiece), jazz and classical music composer and player, teacher, fine theorist, writer, political activist…


Excerpt from the cover notes (traslated from italian)

“Murales” is a Suite for quartet (piano, alto sax, bass and drums) in four movements. The general feeling of the suite is amongst the epical and the lirycal.

But I’m such an enemy of labels and of all the misunderstandings and outbursts to which they give rise, that I prefer let the audience, to which this music is dedicated, to think what they want.

The first three movements were performed for the first time at the “Italian Jazz New Trends Festival” organized in the Main Hall of the Milano’s State University by the Student’s Movement with a resounding outcome.in 1975 november the 30th.

The fourth movement was born a litte later for the concert-play named “Murales” on stage in Rome at the “Teatro delle Arti” (Arts’ Theater) in 1975 january the fifth.

In this last occasion the suite has been played in it’s entirety and recorded live: so it’s where come from the music here contained.

During the following three years “Murales” was played by the same original quartet in about 250 concerts all over Italy, so becoming the symbol of the whole new musical wave that was growing with the new generations. Essential, this time again, has been the contribution of my three wonderful workmate: Gianni, Bruno and Andrea.

But most important of all has been the truthful contribution of thousand of new young listeners in the whole Italy. Taking part, in these years, to the concerts the contribute to create, with us, the atmosphere, the meaning and the shape of the music of our quartet.

Giorgio Gaslini

Excerpts from Andrea Centazzo’s book: Musician Withoud Boundaries

Section II -. Music At Last


Centazzo's remarkable debut with the Quartetto Gaslini took place on the 23rd of November 1973 al the Piccolo Scala in Milan. Gaslini had chosen this concert to introduce his new concept for making music: the Total Music Concert. Gaslini explained, "Mine is a different way of conceiving music, it's more open, it takes in a whole series of experiments. It is the passing from a sectorial musical mentality to one that is completely open to the totality of possibilities available."

A chorus of approval greeted Centazzo in this first phase of his career as percussionist. "He has brought new energy and freshness to the music of the group His druniming presents remarkable characteristics, and wholly personal traits He has brought to the percussion of the quartet a variety, an opening to a new and very pertinent dimension.”

Important album recordings were added to this touring activity in Italy; Concerto della Resistenza, Concerto della Libertà and Murales were released in the space of just two years.

The '70s in Italy (and Europe, in general) were times of extreme political tension charged with subversion, terrorism and bombings. Looking back at those times, Centazzo remarks on how demagogic it was to have played that type of music in those situations, where the public, although always numerous, was present for politicalmotives rather than from any real desire to hear the music itself.

"Unfortunately the experience with Giorgio Gaslini came to a traumatic end, leaving me with a bitter taste in my mouth. This was truly a shame, since for me it was an exciting period musically and not simply because of the very essence of the music (which, in my opinion was the best that Gaslini has written in his long creative life). As is often the case, it wasn't the musical differences that divided us but personality conflicts. Effectively the age difference continually brought us to an unresolved father-son conflict, which went beyond the purely musical considerations to invade the everyday aspects of our lives. In final analysis, Giorgio wanted to recapture the classic values of jazz: the theme, melody, swing, four-four scansion; whereas I was going through a period of considerable cultural and political unease and wanted to get as far away from these things as possible. Giorgio was aiming to reconstruct the music and I, in turn, to disintegrate it."

Andrea Centazzo

Links:
http://www.giorgiogaslini.it/en/biografia.html
http://www.andreacentazzo.com/Books/book02.html
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:3ifixqu5ldae~T1

Readings:
http://www.giorgiogaslini.it/libri.phpò


An important annotation: the Gaslini’s jazz legacy has been partially re-issued in its entirety (Integrale- Antologia Cronologica) by the Soul Note label (recently bought by Italian CAM Records). The Integrale consists in a series of double cd. At this moment the last album re-issued (Vol. 7 & 8) is “Colloquio con Malcolm X- a musical action” originally publishe on PDU.

Murales, recorded in 1976, will certainly be, perhaps in the next months, in the next double album. For this reason I’ve decided to let the links active for only two weeks. I apologize but this seemed to me the only possible way to post this amazing music. Enjoy it!


Links in comments as soon as possible.

26 comments:

LYM said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
serviceton said...

LYM - Fantastic !
Just at the minute having a hard time with MediaFire (only can get the 1st part) - but I'm looking forward to this immensely.
I first encountered Gaslini on the duet record w/ Roswell Rudd (recorded 3 or 4 years after this one..?) - I didn't hear it until the mid-80s anyway - then the Braxton/Gaslini record, then Live in New York, then Multipli..... and so on..
The Soul Note series interests me greatly
Wonderful musician
thanks ! (still looking forward)..

LYM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LYM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LYM said...

@serviceton,
Thanks a lot for the appreciation!
I had some doubt in posting this italian material, not for the quality of the music here in contained that semms to me amazing, but since it is so little know (even in Italy or perhaps more in Italy than outside) consequently I thought It can be of litte interest here.
Dear serviceton please let me know if You continue to have problem in downloading with Mediafire since I’ve had some in uploading the 2nd and 3rd part.
I can re-upload the whole album.



A list of Gaslini’s albums:

Quartet - New Orleans Suite – Dischi della Quercia Q 28002
Sestetto - Free Acrtions – Dischi della Quercia Q 28003
Sestetto - Graffiti – Dischi della Quercia Q 28005
Duo W Roswell Rudd - Sharing – Dischi della Quercia Q 28007
Duo W Anthony Braxton - Four Pieces – Dischi della Quercia Q 28015
Quartetto - Skies Of China– Dischi della Quercia Q 28019
Quintetto - Multipli – Soul Note 121 220-1
Solo – Plays Monk – Soul Note 1220

See YOU. :-) LYM

angelito said...

the part 1 of the link doesn´t work(invalid file).Can you please repost it.
Thanks in advance.

wightdj said...

I was only able to DL part 3. The other 2 parts Mediafire said were invalid. Please repost.

1009 said...

Don't forget *Fabbrica Occupata*. That's a scorcher, w/ like Steve Lacy, Tony Oxley, Paul Rutherford etc.

Thanks for this.

Anonymous said...

This is wondeful! I've been looking for Gaslini recordings for years but in the States they're almost impossible to find (or very very expensive). Any chance you can post more, especially his trio or solo albums?

1009 said...

Weird. I'm getting parts 1 & 3 but mediafire says 2 is invalid. But it's not the usual "invalid": it scans the file for "viruses," then gets to the point where you can click to download, & only then says the file is invalid. In my experience when the file is down the link goes straight to the "invalid" screen.

LYM said...

@1009 and anynone interested here,
I apologize for some problems with Mediafire. Anyway this is the first time I've had some problem. I've tried to re up and files 1 and 3 has been re-upped I hope correctly. The problem with part two was probably due to the fact that the server was verifiyn the file. now I'm re-upping part two again hope will bw soon OK.
About Gaslini's works. Unluckily I have only the Gaslini's albums listed here. In addiction i've got "Fabbrica occupata" at a low bitrate and the astonishing "Tempo e relazione " (year 1957) on an antological album published by the italian jazz review "Musica Jazz". Anyway both the composition are in print and published in the "Integrale - Antologia Cronologica" so I will not post them here.
Thanks for the kind appreciation!
See YOU :-) LYM

LYM said...

@all
I've reposted the files and downloaded quickly. With my connection now everything works fine.
See YOU. :-) LYM

juan antonio said...

Hola.
Gracias por este Gaslini y por tantas y tantas joyitas tan difíciles de conseguir que tan generosamente pones a nuestra disposición.
Juan Antonio.

lc said...

thank you so much, for sharing a taste of Gaslini's work in the '70s.

catta said...

Great stuff LYM! really enjoyed this one and would love to hear more of Gaslini's 70's music. Thanks so much for your diligent efforts in sharing this fascinating disc. Needless to say I'll be looking to buy the Soul Note reissue when it appears.

ghostrancedance said...

Thanks, LYM!

I'm looking forward to unpacking this.

He's one of my favorites. That Gaslini Plays Monk CD is a classic...

Anonymous said...

This is a great find! Thank you so much for posting this lost gem.

LYM said...

@ghostrancedance & ictus75
thanks to You for Your kind appreciation, I consider this one a little masterpiece, happy to see that someone else appreciate this music still fresh and exciting today. I think most part of the high quality of this music is due to the 3 marvellous musicians involved. The next Gaslini's group will be with other musicians and recorded many interesting albums in the next years.
Heard not so much at the Monk album, I love much more Gaslini as composer and band leader than pianist, Anyway his Monk album is perhaps one of his best solo piano. He has a deep knowledge of Monk's music, apparently so far awwy from his musical world, so that he even wrote a monographical little book on Monk's music (only in italian).
See YOU. LYM

Anonymous said...

Thank you

Andrej

stephan said...

Hi, LYM.

May I download this files?
"This file is currently set to private".

Thanx

LYM said...

@stephan and anyone interested in
try now I've set them to public again for just a few days


Enjoy the music!

SEE YOU. :-) LYM

Andy said...

It's still running. Thanks

Anonymous said...

Terrific, I remember their incredible gigs during late 70ties.
Thx a lot

roberth said...

thank you LYM these links are still very much alive
can't wait to hear
roberth

Ernst Grgo Nebhuth said...

Removed the links. Murales is available as part of a - great! - box set.
F.e. http://www.camjazz.com/giorgio-gaslini.html

Nick said...

They also have original vinyl copies