Ho scoperto per caso in Internet un saggio scritto dalla dottoressa Adriana Baldassi dal titolo “Jazz: a state of mind”. La cosa interessante è che vengo citato in questo articolo in virtù del progetto dedicato ad Italo Calvino che ho proposto qualche anno fa insieme all’Odd Times Quintet. Ecco alcuni estratti dal saggio (potete fare il download dell’intero articolo a questo LINK):
Italo Calvino’s main character in If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler behaves, throughout the whole story, just as Jazz seemed to have done during the past eleven decades: a traveler who is sometimes discreet, sometimes furtive, sometimes a celebrity, illegal, disrespectful of any convention, able to creep into the inspiration of almost any kind of artist as an inexhaustible source of dynamic energy. It should be underlined that Calvino’s story is divided into 12 chapters, just as many beats as are required in a Blues harmonic series.
Kristian Sensini, was the producer of a monographic show inspired by Italo Calvino’s book. The main topic was “When Jazz meets Literature.” Original songs were performed, each of them inspired by a different chapter of the Calvino masterpiece. Special attention was given to Ludmilla and all disguised female characters encountered in Calvino’s book with a Jazz song entitled Mille Anime (A Thousand Souls), lyric by Agnese Flagiello.
Kristian Sensini, an Italian jazz arranger and composer from Loreto, established in 2005 the Odd Times Quintet. The show has been performed in several theatres and Jazz festivals, together
with Stefano Bollani and Mirko Guerrini.
According to Kristian Sensini every single song is a white canvas to be painted with arrangement, improvisation and interaction of the musicians. Each song is performed in a very original and personal way, never forgetting the sense of humor and the sense of wonder, without which you can’t play good Jazz. It’s like a crosswise approach to music, with modern electric and acoustic sounds, still keeping the roots of Blues and Afro-American music, with the attitude of continuous renewal and variations on the theme: the melody works here as a reference point.
(http://www.myspaceprofiles.org/profiles/115732551.html)
Mille Anime by Kristian Sensini: “Mille me/ Uno e mille me/ Si riflettono bianchi davanti a me/ Infiniti me/ Senza tempo in un limbo sospeso/ Mille me/ Mille anime/ Io le sento nascondersi dentro me/ In frantumi confusi lontani dal vivere/ Vagano/ Le mie ombre intrecciano/ Ricordi
sbiaditi, perduti/ Lampi di vertigine/ Mille me/ Uno e mille me/ Si riflettono stanchi davanti a me/ Infiniti me/ Nello specchio ad un filo sospeso/.”
A Thousand Souls by Kristian Sensini: “A thousand of me/ A thousand and one of me/ Are reflected white in front of me/ Countless me/ Without time suspended in a limbo// A thousand of me/ A thousand souls/ I feel them hiding inside me/ Smashed in disarray away from life//They wander/ My shadows intertwine/ Faded lost memories/Flashes of dizziness// A thousand of me/ A thousand and one of me// Are reflected tiredly in front of me/ Countless me/ In the mirror suspended//”
(translation by the writer).