9 appointments including concerts, tributes, conversations and listening guides with some of the most influential names on the Italian scene and beyond. It will be a May dedicated to jazz that promoted throughout the Pisan territory by Toscana Produzione Musica (TPM), a production centre chaired by Paolo Zampini with the artistic direction of Francesco Mariotti and Maurizio Busìa and the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Region of Tuscany and the Fondazione Pisa.
Three locations are involved: the Teatro Sant'Andrea in Pisa, the Teatro Marchionneschi in Guardistallo and the Città del Teatro in Cascina. Among the events on the bill are the tribute to jazz queen Carmen McRae, with special guest sax star Stefano "Cocco" Cantini (4/05 in Guardistallo and 11/05 at the Città del Teatro) and the presentation of "Constellations of Hope", the latest project by pianist Giovanni Guidi - reference artist of the legendary ECM label (19/05 Teatro Sant'Andrea). And then the original productions by TPM, with international stars Alessandro Lanzoni and Francesco Dillon together in the "Nubes" project (26/05 Teatro Sant'Andrea), Monica Demuru and Cristiano Calcagnile with the acclaimed live performance inspired by Pasolini's "Solo una cosa ho avuto nel mondo" (26/05 Teatro Sant'Andrea), and Tomorrow's Jazz Award-winning double bass player Michelangelo Scandroglio with the "The iron way" quartet to establish a musical connection between the Tuscan Maremma and London (30/05 Guardistallo and 2/06 Teatro Sant'Andrea). Not to be missed are the dialogues with one of Italy's leading experts in the history of jazz, Francesco Martinelli, who will take the audience on a journey to the roots of Mediterranean music accompanied by two of its leading exponents: Gabriele Coen and Ziad Trabelsi (18/05 Guardistallo and 19/05 Teatro Sant'Andrea). Info and admission on www.toscanaproduzionemusica.it.
It starts on Saturday 4 May at 9.00 p.m. at the Marchionneschi Theatre in Guardistallo (via Palestro 44) with "The Songs Carmen Sang", a project to celebrate the legacy of the African-American singer, pianist, composer and actress Carmen McRae, today considered one of the most influential and communicative performers of the 20th century as well as the undisputed and most talented heir of Billie Holiday. Honoured with the title of Jazz Master by the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) in 1994, she has been counted as one of the greatest jazz singers of all time, alongside stars of the calibre of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Leading the way in the discovery of this extraordinary artist will be Serena Berneschi, a young Tuscan singer who has conducted detailed research on McRae, culminating in 2020 (the centenary of the singer's birth) with the publication of the book 'La pittrice di suoni - vita e musica di Carmen McRae' (The Painter of Sounds - Life and Music of Carmen McRae), published by 96, Rue de-La-Fontaine Edizioni. Serena Berneschi will be accompanied by Daniele Gorgone on piano, Gianluca Grisafi on bass and Alessio Burberi on drums. The live performance features the extraordinary participation of saxophonist Stefano “Cocco” Cantini, already a collaborator of names such as Chet Baker, Michel Petrucciani, Dave Holland, Kenny Wheeler, Enrico Rava, Paolo Fresu, Enrico Pieranunzi and many others. Afterwards, on Saturday 11 May at 5.30 p.m. at the Franca Rame and Dario Fo Hall of the Città del Teatro in Cascina (via Tosco Romagnola 656), the concert will be hosted as part of the Art View 2024 festival, dedicated to visual art and women in art.
Forward again in Guardistallo on Saturday 18 May at 9.30 pm for a dialogue with scholar Francesco Martinelli joined by Gabriele Coen on clarinets and soprano sax, Ziad Trabelsi on oud, voice and electronics, and Marco Loddo on double bass. A journey through migrations of rhythms and melodies, encounters of peoples and creation of cultures. By questioning our hierarchies of listening we can overcome Orientalism and exoticism and understand how nationalistic and identity claims are generated by a distorted narrative. Interpreters of Jewish and Arab musical culture respectively, Coen and Trabelsi weave a dense musical dialogue that reveals the common roots of Mediterranean cultures through traditional pieces but also by proposing their own original compositions, with the rhythmic contribution of Loddo. The initiative will be repeated in a matinee on Sunday 19 May at 11.00 a.m. at the Tetro Sant'Andrea in Pisa (via del Cuore).
Also at Sant'Andrea on Sunday 19 May at 9.15 pm is the presentation of 'Constellations of Hope', a new live work by pianist Giovanni Guidi, for more than a decade on the roster of the ECM label, founded by Manfred Eicher. In recent years, Guidi has recorded and collected a series of voices, phrases, short encounters with people at home in Italy, abroad on tour, in stations, airports, bars, or perhaps online in front of a screen. Anecdotes, experiences, advice, warnings, dreams and tragedies come together to form the small daily story of our being human, of our living, hoping, desiring. Guidi's solo piano project ties these voices together in "constellations of hope", in which the piano dialogues with samples that gracefully enter and leave the music, as if to provide the cue, the theme for new improvisations. "Constellations of Hope" tells a story that is abstract and concrete, lyrical and dissonant, improvised but also organised into a tale about today's world.
The concerts continue on Sunday 26 May at the Teatro Sant'Andrea with a double date. At 6 p.m. "Nubes": together on stage the internationally renowned pianist Alessandro Lanzoni and the eclectic talent of cellist Francesco Dillon. A musical itinerary that crosses the borders between improvisation and contemporary compositions, between written scores and jazz, creating a fascinating combination of sounds and styles. Lanzoni and Dillon challenge and complement each other, creating a creative tension that results in an unprecedented experience for the listener, between virtuosity, sensitivity and emotional depth. At 9.15 p.m. "Solo una cosa ho avuto nel mondo" (Only one thing I had in the world): a response to the sound suggestion of "La Ricotta", Pasolini's 1963 film episode, by actress, singer and author Monica Demuru and drummer, percussionist and composer Cristiano Calcagnile. "To the film's pastiche of contrasts, to the poetic word-sounds and to the brutal and unbelieving reality of the world, we pose ourselves with our sonorous dismay, our also light-hearted approach to the mystery of the religious and historical question, to pity for the lost humanity, for the wavering intellect, for the misery of the poor and the unmasked artist".
Finally, we return to Guardistallo on Thursday 30 May at 9.30 pm with 'The iron way'. Maria Chiara Argirò on the piano, Riccardo Chiaberta on percussion, Michelangelo Scandroglio on double bass, and Londoner Alex Hitchcock on saxophone will reflect on possible links between two cities as different as London and Follonica, on the Tuscan coast. London, capital of what was the richest and most extensive empire of the 19th century, headed by an extraordinary woman, Victoria, owed its infinite wealth to the nascent industrial civilisation based on the production and processing of a very ancient material: iron. Also during this period, or even before, another enlightened ruler, Leopold of Tuscany, set up in the marshy Maremma, at Follonica, the Imperial and Royal Administration of the Rio mines and foundries for the processing, production and export of the iron that was mined on Elba. A sort of village-factory, with foundries, clock tower, workers' quarters, monumental gate and the church of San Leopoldo, an iron church. So is iron the link that unites two places that are distant in every possible aspect? Following "The iron way" will return to Pisa at Sant'Andrea on Sunday 2 June at 9.30 pm.
Acknowledged by the Ministry of Culture for 2022-2024 and supported by the Ministry of Culture, the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, the Fondazione Pisa and the Region of Tuscany, Toscana Produzione Musica is a system of artistic residencies, support for the dialogue between music and the performing arts as well as for touring and distribution, with the aim of enhancing the excellence of the territory while keeping an eye on the sounds of the world. A diffuse body, with PARC in Florence as its base camp in axis with La Città del Teatro in Cascina to promote an open artistic vision while maintaining as a fundamental element the relationship between excellence of form and depth of ideas and values intrinsic in individual projects.
Info
www.toscanaproduzionemusica.it
Admission Theatre Sant'Andrea
Single ticket: € 8 full price, € 5 reduced (students, Exwide members)
Season ticket 5 concerts: € 25 full price, € 20 reduced (students, Exwide members)
Subscription 19 May - 2 concerts: € 10 full price, € 8 reduced (students, Exwide members)
Season ticket 26 May - 2 concerts: € 10 full, € 8 reduced (students, Exwide members)
Advance sales on Ticketone
Admission tickets Marchionneschi Theatre
Single event: € 8 full price, € 5 reduced
Subscription (3 concerts): € 12 full, € 10 reduced
Advance sales on Ticketone
Admission Theatre City
Numbered single seat: € 10
