Interview with an ungrateful, impolite, dull, unhuman, drawn creature, as if pianist Emanuele Rizzo. An interview by email in writing. 

JazzBluesNews.com: – First, let’s start out with where you grew up, and what got you interested in music. How exactly did your adventure take off? When did you realize that this was a passion you could make a living out of?

Emanuele Rizzo։ – All my life I studied classical music and got an academic diploma. At the same time as a teenager, I got lost in the path of my life for personal reasons but managed to get an academic degree. After graduation I discovered jazz and it changed my life. I trained to learn to understand and get to the bottom of this genre. At 28 I realized I could pursue a career as a musician.

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JBN: – How has your sound evolved over time? What have you been doing to find and develop your own sound?

ER: – My sound is the result of years of listening, but above all the study of the solos of the great musicians who have made the history of this music. I have learned hundreds of solos and continue to do so. I studied: Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Teddy Wilson, Michel Petrucciani, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Clark, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Kelly and many others.

JBN: – Don’t list names of greatness with your stupid thoughts and empty head, don’t hide behind them. What routine practices or exercises have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical proficiency, in terms of both rhythm and harmony?

ER: – Playing on records and knowing the language in a profound way.

JBN: – Have you changed through the years? Any charges or overall evolution? And if so why?

ER: – I changed because change happens in every instant of our lives. Music is only one aspect of life. It’s life itself that makes me evolve, all experiences change me and change my sound.

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JBN: – In your opinion, what’s the balance in music between intellect and soul?

ER: – In my opinion intellect is needed when you are at home and preparing for a concert. When you have to perform it takes only soul and heart.

JBN: – There’s a two-way relationship between audience and artist; are you okay with delivering people the emotion they long for?

ER: – Surely the public must interact or at least participate in the performance. It should transmit the warmth that the performer needs to play better. The artist must be himself and respect the audience

JBN: – How can we get young people interested in jazz when most of standard tunes are half a century old?

ER: – We interest them by showing them the truth of who we are, respecting their tastes, but at the same time transmitting our passion to them.

JBN: – John Coltrane once said that music was his spirit. How do you perceive the spirit and the meaning of life?

ER: – I perceive it by living and confronting myself with the experiences that life offers me starting from the little things. Thanking life because I’m lucky enough to live one more day or even just lucky enough to walk and breathe oxygen.

JBN: – If you could change one single thing in the musical world and that would become reality, what would that be?

ER: – This is a question that apparently seems easy. In the end I wouldn’t change anything, because every encounter and every experience is life-forming

JBN: – Whom do you find yourself listening to these days?

ER: – These days I’m listening to Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly and Benny Goodman.

OUR US/EU Jazz and Blues Association 2023

JBN: – Let’s take a trip with a time machine: where and why would you really want to go?

ER: – I would like to live the swing era listening live Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins․

JBN: – Do You like our questions? So far, it’s been me asking you questions, now may I have a question from yourself…

ER: – What do you want from this interview?

JBN: – I wanted to hear interesting thoughts, but it was not expected from an fool like you, it turns out. Get out of jazz, this is no place for a dilettante like you.

 

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Interview by Emmanuel Bolton