Giorgio Gaslini

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Giorgio Gaslini (born October 22, 1929 in Milan , † July 29, 2014 in Borgo Val di Taro ) was an Italian jazz pianist and composer .

Gaslini recognized a European identity earlier than most other European jazz musicians and integrated elements of new music , especially serial creation , into his jazz concept: According to Salvatore Quasimodo , he was one of the "most lively and well-founded creators of contemporary music ."

Live and act

Gaslini took piano lessons as a child and made his first public appearances at the age of 13. At the age of 16 he made his first record with his jazz trio; as a pianist he relied on Thelonious Monk (to whom he also dedicated an album), Art Tatum and Lennie Tristano . Until 1951 he studied piano, composition and conducting at the Milan Conservatory . In 1957 he performed the octet Tempo e Relazione at the Festival Internazionale del Jazz di Sanremo , which is the first European composition of the Third Stream . Then John Lewis invited him to the Lenox School . He was the first Italian musician to be mentioned as a "new talent" in down-beat poll. As early as the early 1960s, he was looking for a collaboration with avant-garde musicians such as Eric Dolphy , Steve Lacy , Don Cherry , Roswell Rudd , Gato Barbieri and Jean-Luc Ponty and then similarly with Anthony Braxton , Eddie Gomez and Max Roach . He was the first to hold jazz courses at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (1972/73).

In addition, he wrote numerous commissioned compositions for the Teatro alla Scala , the Teatro dell 'Opera Roma or the Teatro Reggio di Parma, works for chamber orchestra and in 1966 chorus , a piece for flute solo premiered by Severino Gazzelloni . Gaslini later arranged the compositions by Albert Ayler and Sun Ra for piano solo, thus demonstrating their musical content. Between 1991 and 1995 he composed the works Piero Solaire and Skies of Europe (CD of the same name) for the Italian Instabile Orchestra , in which he also worked as a pianist during these years . Among the more recent recordings are the jazz opera Mister O (1997), which premiered in Verona , Ballets (1998) with quartet, Live (2000) with the Grande Orchestra Nazionale di Jazz , Cantos (2000) and Enigma (2001), which he founded in 1991. with the Proxima Centauri Orchestra . In his later years he composed and performed several symphonic works. He also wrote numerous film scores , for example for Michelangelo Antonioni's La notte (1961) or Gianni Vernuccio's Un Amore (1965). He was also the artistic director of the Imola Jazz Festival .

Prizes and awards

In 1999 Gaslini received the Django d'Or (Italy) . In 2002, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi presented him with a gold medal for his cultural merits. In 2009 he was awarded the Milano Per La Musica Prize.

Book publications

  • Giorgio Gaslini. Musica totale. Intuizioni, vita ed esperienze musicali nello spirito del '68. Feltrinelli, Milan 1975, (also in: Giorgio Gaslini. Il tempo del musicista totale. Milan: Dalai 2002. ISBN 88-8490-120-0 .)
  • Giorgio Gaslini. Tecnica e arte del jazz. Il ritmo, le scale, gli accordi, la composizione, l'improvvisazione, le nuove strade. BMG Ricordi, Milano 1982, ISBN 88-7592-356-6 .
  • Giorgio Gaslini. Thelonious Monk. Stampa Alternativa, Viterbo 1994, (second edition 2003), ISBN 88-7226-146-5 .

Film music (selection)

  • 1961: The Night (La notte)
  • 1965: Young skin (Un amore)
  • 1969: Embrace (Le sorelle)
  • 1972: Beautiful, naked and lovable (Rivelazioni di un maniaco sessuale al capo della squadra mobile)
  • 1972: Alone against the law (Il vero e il falso)
  • 1972: The Pfaffenspiegel (Quando le donne si chiamavano 'Madonne')
  • 1973: The Scoundrels (Le cinque giornate)
  • 1975: Rosso - Color of Death (Profondo rosso)
  • 1977: Kleinhoff Hotel

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ È morto Giorgio Gaslini, pianista e compositore: una vita per la musica
  2. ↑ “From the first moment I thought that we Europeans should couple jazz with our culture instead of Americans, and this even though I love American, especially black, jazz.” Quoted from Kunzler Jazz-Lexikon. P. 415.
  3. ↑ cit. n. Kunzler
personal data
SURNAME Gaslini, Giorgio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian jazz pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan
DATE OF DEATH 29th July 2014
Place of death Borgo Val di Taro