February 15, 2025

Website about Jazz and Blues

Umbria Jazz Winter is a festival: the lineup is well-rehearsed and especially the Italian and umbrian stages: Videos, Photos

Umbria Jazz Winter is a festival that is a little different from the others: it does not focus on the great variety of proposals, but on a more compact program, in which a limited number of groups present themselves in gradually variable configurations, and often mix with each other by exchanging their musicians.

Facilitated by the concentrated proximity of the stages (they are just a few minutes’ walk from each other), it tends more towards the formula of a sort of ‘widespread jazz club’, where the various bands alternate intensely, but at the same time showing different aspects of music in the different sets that are entrusted to them.

This is even more true for the Palazzo dei Sette, whose cloister, covered by a glass dome, is home to a continuous series of concerts that follow one another from late morning to late at night. The groups that animate this rather intimate stage are destined to work rather closely and in close contact with an audience that continually rotates.

One of these has earned the title of ‘House Band’, and is perhaps the best contender for the Stakanov Award of Umbria Jazz Winter: Piero Odorici tenor sax, Daniele Scannapieco also on tenor, Luca Mannutza on piano, Will Jones III on drums and Jasen Weaver on bass.

The frontline is well-tested and veteran of the Italian and Umbrian stages in particular: Odorici among other things, in addition to being a prominent figure in the Bologna scene (he also leads the Camera Jazz Club, an important detail), is George Cables’ trusted man, who in all the frequent Italian passages wants him at his side: no small recognition, if you consider that it comes from the refined pianist carried in the palm of the hand by the latest Dexter Gordon and Art Pepper.

A group with two tenor saxophones in the front line might at first leave one perplexed: but the Odorici – Scannapieco pairing seems to be made on purpose to highlight the subtle, but clearly perceptible differences in approach and sensitivity between the two: Odorici is more sly and feline, even in tone, Scannapieco is more aggressive and passionate, who seems to me to barely conceal a ‘Coltranian inside’ temperament, as I say…

The dynamic and brilliant Mannutza is the pianist who is needed to give lustre to the choices of repertoire, which range from an openly modal Kenny Drew to a sumptuous Dexter Gordon. Bass and drums give a nice contribution, even if the relentless metronomic scansion and the lightning breaks of Will Jones III leave a big mark.

An hour of elegant and passionate advanced hard bop seems to have passed amidst the warm support of a nice audience, it is approaching one in the morning, when after the applause for the last song the sly Odorici lets fall a: “…. But I would have invited some friends too …. “.

He hasn’t even finished saying it that an adrenaline-filled Emmett Cohen has already jumped on stage, receiving from the good Mannutza the delivery of the stool in the piano.

Emmett is like a mouse in a cheese: joy of playing, encyclopedic knowledge of the Real Book of jazz and great talent as an accompanist (not by chance pursued by several singers) make him the ideal man for a situation like this. From the piano, sketchy phrases begin to emerge that betray the pianist’s joyful impatience…

In fact, the handover to the bass is more problematic: Weaver seems to make many recommendations about his instrument to the newcomer Phil Norris, intricate conciliabules follow…maybe, but I seem to notice some form of passive resistance on the part of the young bassist :-). Norris cuts it short and a second double bass appears on stage, to the delight of the technicians…

In the end, they start off with a bang amidst the excitement of the audience that for the rest of the night will provide the necessary fuel for a full-blown ‘after hours’ jam session. The powerful and vibrant Norris becomes the protagonist of the first burning track of the session.

At the end, a very warm ovation from the audience: it is really needed because the brave Scannapieco does not appear to be in ideal shape, a glove covers and uncovers his right hand, every now and then our man sits down to rest on a speaker. A very brief changing of the guard, this time, and behind the double bass appears with his coat still on Jermaine Paul, the bassist of Joel Ross’ trio.

We start again in a hurry, with the audience that continues to increase in revs: at a certain point the battered Scannapieco enters with determination and puts in an overwhelming and very tense solo, it must have lasted almost ten minutes… and here is the hero of the evening, greeted by a roar that, in addition to making the skylight vibrate, also makes the person directly involved jump.

When there are a few minutes to two, someone decides it is time to go to sleep and turns off the amplification… but the musicians and the audience linger a little longer in the room to work off the enthusiasm. All good things have an end, unfortunately.

Walking through the streets of Orvieto I think that it was a unique and rare opportunity: seeing jazz being played in its ideal environment was a real privilege…. We have so few environments and situations like this in our parts now. Midnight blues… Milton56

A little piece of emotion for you too: the beginning of the House Band concert…dedicated to the recently deceased Anthony Pinciotti, former companion of the band’s adventures.