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Jazz Criticism: African American Music and Emerging Social Forces

Il Jazz in Italia: Fascism and the Sanctuary
MUS2080
Dafydd Williams
A90765397
Bmus (Year Abroad) W304
Date of Submission: May 24th 2013

Word Count: 3956 (3527)

While studying at a Conservatorio in Parma, Italy last year, I opted to take jazz modules in the hope of
improving my versatility as a pianist by gaining knowledge in a wider variety of musical styles. I had
been brought up in the so called 'classical tradition' but became interested at a fairly young age into
what exactly improvisation and jazz was and wanted the chance to learn more. I feel guilty saying
the word 'Jazz' as it fails to encapsulate the specific type of music I was working with, and has been
adopted as a single umbrella term that I use for want of a better word in this essay. However, it was
interesting to take such modules (jazz/experimental) in a conservative and traditionalist country in
which often only native Italian music is seen as the most important and respected. While it is true
that in most Italian conservatoires there are jazz departments, the head of department in Parma,
Roberto Bonati was particularly interested in free improvisation and was trying to push the
boundaries of music from the relatively closed minds of the Italian students. Among these students,
I met some of the most progressive and forward thinking people that I encountered over the whole
nine months I spent as an Erasmus student. I had the pleasure of working with some of them over
the course of an academic year, witnessing their musical progression and as an outsider listening to
their thoughts concerning the politics of their country.

Since returning, I have sought to undertake further research into the relationship between Italians
and jazz, including the fascist period of Il Duce - Benito Mussolini. This era is particularly worth
focussing on because of his son Romano's musical career. Added to this, the development of
independent record labels in the 1970s, including the much revered Black Saint/Soul Note in an
age in which America seemed to stifle the release of emerging jazz artists. Furthermore, the
complex relationship between the politics of modern Italy and the student population who are
fervently seeking a method of changing the current political situation through cultural channels such
as music. This desire for change has resulted in a group of people who have lost faith in corrupt

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politicians determining their future. In carrying out this research, I have found a country which has
not only fostered some of the most prestigious jazz talents in the world like David Murray and
Anthony Braxton, but is also producing some great names such as Stefano Bollani who, although
still relatively unknown outside of Italy, I strongly believe will play a big part in the future of pushing
the boundaries of a limitless music, irrespective of the political climate.

It is initially important to gain a perspective of the estranged relationship Italy had with jazz during
its years of fascist rule. It is an often hastily forgotten period amongst scholars as it is difficult to
understand why a music that is of the proletariat could become associated with, and used by an
oppressive right wing political organisation. However, it could be argued that this period laid the
foundations for future musical progress. The son of the infamous dictator, Romano Mussolini was a
jazz musician who was and still is unheard of outside of Italy, releasing a small but important
discography. He was an esteemed jazz pianist who although overshadowed by his parentage gave
numerous performances throughout his career including a well documented tour with Duke
Ellington and Chet Baker as part of the 'Mussolini All Stars'.1 His funeral in 2006 was paradigmatic
of the strange fusion between jazz and fascism in which George Gershwin's summertime and the
fascist salutes of I Camerati were mixed.2 The apparent contradiction between fascism and jazz
therefore needs to be understood as an adoption of a music that was inherently progressive by a
radical government which sought to become modernist. It is often thought that Fascist Italy
attempted to eradicate and ban any forms of jazz during its period in power in the same way that
Stalinist Russia campaigned against jazz music.3 However, contrary to popular belief, jazz was
adopted by the country in three different ways, as outlined by Roberto Dainotto. Firstly, through the
creation of an Italianate jazz. Secondly, by transformation of the racial element into a common
1 Roberto Dainotto, 'The Saxophone and the Pastoral. Italian Jazz in the Age of Fascist Modernity', Italica, Vol. 85,
No. 2/3 (Summer - Autumn, 2008), 273-294 (273).
2 Ibid., 273.
3 Ben Watson, Adorno for Revolutionaries (London: Unkant, 2011), 91.

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comical aesthetic and thirdly as a means of providing a mirror image of the state, in other words the
creation of a consensus through a new idealised construct.4 During this era, the names of popular
jazz figures were literally 'Italianized' by the Partito Nazionale Fascista, in an effort to adopt musicians
as their own. For example: Louis Armstrong became Luigi Braccioforte and Benny Goodman,
Beniamino Buonomo.5 However, it could be argued this was a realisation by a government which knew
that it would be difficult and near impossible to suppress or stop the popular appeal of jazz.
Following the racial laws of 1938, jazz actually grew exponentially in popularity although mainly
through individual listeners in a desire to prove a form of cultural elitism.6 Through singers such as
Natalino Otto, swing became widely accessible in Italy and pieces were quickly translated and
adapted for an Italian audience. This included the St. Louis Blues which became 'Tristezze di San
Luigi' and groups such as the Trio Lescano became the archetypal portrayal of what an Italian
version of swing should be.7 It is therefore difficult to conclude that this abstraction is accurate and
loyal to the real essence of what African American musicians were trying to achieve in the USA, in
the same way that swing was adopted by the white elitist in the west coast jazz scene for selfcultivation. However, although somewhat perverse, this adoption followed by translation into an
Italian portrayal of jazz laid the foundations for a future in which the country would become a
sanctuary following the end of fascism for musicians of the so called 'free jazz' movement.

Despite the boom of jazz popularity in the 1950's, most of the music emanating from Europe could
have been regarded as merely weak imitations of what was happening amongst African American
musicians, with only the occasional musician such as Swedish baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin
breaking this rule.8 However, a transformation occurred over the next few decades which meant that
4
5
6
7
8

Dainotto, 'Italian Jazz in the Age of Fascist Modernity', 291.

Ibid., 285.
Ibid., 285.
Ibid., 288.
Mike Heffley, Northern Sun, Southern Moon (Yale University Press, 2005), 65.

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musicians within European countries managed to find their own identities, distinctly different from
those emerging in America. The recording companies established within these decades in Europe
who were documenting the African Americans' so called 'Avant-Garde' Jazz movement have to be
considered responsible for this development.

Barely thirty years after the end of the war there was a crucial turning point in the development of
jazz in Europe. It is remarkable that a record label emerged out of a former fascist country that was
so eager to promote new forms of jazz music irrespective of nationality, race or musical style. Black
Saint, the avant garde label was established in 1975 and released a vast output of around 200
important albums including names such as Archie Shepp, David Murray, Sun Ra and Anthony
Braxton. Furthermore, its affiliated sister record company Soul Note established four years later also
released a wealthy collection of around 350 albums. In a period in which America seemed to stifle
in its own isolationism despite the great opportunities available following the Civil Rights Acts of
1964 and 1968, Europe became a harbour for some of the most forward thinking artists to ever
create music.

It is crucial to note that in the years between 1966 and 1981, almost 90 record companies were set
up in Europe in an effort to document what was really happening in jazz music.9 This took place in
an age in which America was struggling to develop culturally at the same pace as some of their
leading musicians like Archie Shepp and Cecil Taylor. Within this group of record labels, Italy
managed to produce a long list of record labels alongside the aforementioned Black Saint/Soul
Note which helped continue this notion of musical progress including Ferrari, Fore, Horo, Ingo, Jazz
and Oxford.10 Other important countries in the development of jazz labels included Germany,
9 Neil A.Wynn Cross the Water Blues African American Music in Europe (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi,
2007), 257.
10 Ibid., 258.

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Holland and France.11 Therefore it could be argued that African American musicians were in a way
adopted by Europe as there was strong recognition of a desire to document this body of work so
that others could both hear and learn from this group of experimental musicians. Cecil Taylor's
musical output was predominately promoted by European labels, releasing over one hundred
records and becoming a 'transnational figure'12 in the process. This emancipation from the static
notion of what is or what is not Jazz in America meant that the body of music endorsed by
European record labels now had something to teach its American counterpart.

To understand why these record labels were important it is necessary to consider how record labels
in America were promoting jazz music. The early careers of musicians such as Anthony Braxton,
Yusuf Lateef, Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra were rooted in the blues bands of America before
moving to New York in a desire to become fully immersed in a city that had helped further the
career of great musicians such as Duke Ellington within the same tradition. However, they were
denied full access to the city and the tradition that preceded them in which the Avant-Garde was
strictly reserved for the white elites.13 This relative narrow-mindedness in major U.S cities sparked
an art movement that resulted in musicians forming links between two cultural spaces beyond the
borders of America, often moving to cultural pockets within Europe or choosing to record albums
there. Christopher G. Bakriges suggests three motives for this desire to break out from beyond the
confines of the USA: chosen exile, expatriation and transculturation.14 Ultimately these musicians
were seeking refuge from inherent racial prejudices that existed within record labels in the U.S.A, in
which 'white men in suits' dominated the decisions taking place in corporate boardrooms, leading to
formation of an idealised concept of jazz. Broadly speaking, the 'men in suits' were promoting their
own image of what jazz was and should be onto the artists. However, by contrast, the European
11
12
13
14

Wynn, Cross the Water Blues, 259.

Ibid., 257.
Ibid., 251.
Ibid., 252.

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record managers promoted what the artists brought to them.

It could be argued that the inherent racial oppression in America has merely continued through the
cultural exploitation of African American musicians for financial gain for the western capitalist. The
commodification arose in an attempt (whether deliberate or not) to contain a music which was
opposed to the current political situation. The artists involved within this such as Miles Davis have
been submerged under western principles of success including wealth and ideas regarding what
constitutes musical excellence (in the sense of the bourgeoisie). It has consequently led to the
formation of an idealised type of jazz music, one which is endorsed by the Lincoln Center under its
chief instigator Wynton Marsalis. This idealised notion uses genre as an attempt to rationalise a
body of music under a few all encompassing terms with a focus on types such as 'Bop' and 'Swing',
words which do not allow for the constant dynamic nature and changing entity of the music. This,
however is not to say that similar things have not happened in Europe. Within our very institution
Newcastle University, there is a Jazz Orchestra which plays jazz standards repetitively, a group which
is full of white, well-educated (often medical or dentistry) students in the hope of bourgeois
gratification. Archie Shepp discussing the inherent bourgeoisification of music within America
eloquently states:
Because I think, whites in America have allowed themselves the luxury... we have been reluctantly
forced to give that luxury.. . Of interpreting our music anyway they see fit... It is a question of what
they choose, not what [we] intended.15
This interpretation of the music meant that white men in corporate boardrooms working for major
record labels were responsible for the portrayal of jazz as they saw fit. This meant the exclusion of
the most radical musicians who were often documenting the real and explicit situation of current
daily life in America through their music. Within this commodification, white 'cross-over' artists such
15 Wynn, Cross the Water Blues, 256.

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as Diana Krall have thrived in recent years. It is dominance of these major record labels such as
Sony Classical and Columbia (also owned by Sony) that has led to an obfuscation of some of the
innovators in Jazz over the past few decades. Thus, it is crucial to examine some of the smaller
European record labels including the ones established in Italy who were and still are documenting
the 'real stuff'.

However, this is not to say that there were not musicians who opted to stay within the USA and try
to push the boundaries musically and resist the limitations imposed by commodification. Most
notably this happened with Sun Ra and his Arkestra who made a lot of his own records without the
help of corporations. His awareness of his cultural roots was not entirely focussed in America and
he made constant reference to Africa, in particular Egypt and Afro-Futurism in an attempt to shake
off the confines of America's racist and isolationist stance.16 Sun Ra's refusal of American values
demonstrated resistance to oppression from a (in a deleuzian sense) 'paranoid' political system. He
was put in jail during the war period for being a pacifist. This could be why Sun Ra is constantly
forgotten in the canon of so called 'great' jazz bandleaders in the USA.

Before undertaking my Erasmus year in Italy, I only really considered America as the only place
where jazz could happen. I am arguing therefore, that an American ethnocentric viewpoint has
blinded our perception of where jazz is taking place today. This is most notably in Scandinavia,
particularly in Norway but perhaps more interestingly in Italy where musicians who have been
classically educated are becoming restless with tradition and are seeking new forms. Artists such as
Stefano Bollani, a pianist educated at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence or trumpeter Enrico
Rava are some of the most exciting talents to emerge out of a country which is producing credible
jazz. These are musicians who are combining the Italian 'bel canto' lyricism with the exploratory
16 John F. Szwed, Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra (New York: DaCapo, 1998), 68.

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nature of improvisation, only a handful of which are being discovered by critics in the United
States.

In a BBC documentary titled 'Girlfriend in a Coma: La Buona Italia e La Mala Italia', Bill Emmott
uses the example of Dante's Ignavia (sloth) as an animal example which shows resemblance of
capitalist governments who are too slow to keep up with cultural development. One which is content
with the current state and through its apathetic nature results in a country which stifles in a state of
fixedness. Italy's student movement today is emblematic of the desire for expression against this type
of government. Italy serves as an example of a paranoid government with firm roots in tradition.
However, the intelligentsia and others are increasingly interested in jazz music as a way of
expressing themselves against the state of rigidity in which the country is in. In particular the notion
that only Italianate music is important. As Bill Emmott suggests there are both examples of 'good
and bad capitalism' that lie within the Italian border, a country which has so much cultural and
economic capability yet fails to reach its highest potential through the corruption of a select few at
the top of the political ladder.17 Thus, students are actively creating a music which serves as a
reflection of the current situation and have found this voice through experimental music and Jazz as
a break away from traditionalist roots. It is in this expression that some of these jazz talents such as
Bollani and Rava have emerged.

In Parma, Roberto Bonati has set up a society called 'Parma Frontiere' in which the aims are to
promote projects within the world of jazz and contemporary music, searching for sonorities of
frontier music, in a melting-pot of different kinds of jazz, musical improvisation, ethnic and
classic extra-european music forms.18 This objective manages to encapsulate the essence of what
17 La Buona e La Mala Italia, by Bill Emmott, 2012, 98 min. (Documentary, BBC)
18 Roberto Bonati, 'The History of Parma Frontiere', Parma Frontiere 23 May 2008,
http://www.parmafrontiere.it/page.asp?IDCategoria=2017&IDSezione=12783 (12 May, 2013)

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people are trying to do within Italy, constantly pushing the boundaries into an unknown frontier to
new places and experiences of music after losing faith in politics as a result of corrupt governmental
policies. This realisation that music has become international and not geographically centred in one
location is an imperative concept in the creation of a music which adequately reflects our postmodern era of globalisation. Music once again is a vehicle for change: 'as a medium in which
culture, identity, selfhood and social reality are mixed together in an attempt to move the world'.19
Bonati is also actively involved as a musician in his self-titled trio, the 'Roberto Bonati Trio' alongside
pianist Alberto Tacchini (whom I studied 'Jazz Piano' with, focussing on learning about Monk,
Powell and Tristano) and drummer Roberto Dani. They experiment with different forms, with
global roots whilst retaining a few traditional Italian musical concepts. Some pieces even offer a brief
homage to Verdi, one of the most famous musicians to have graced the streets of Parma.20

Siena Jazz Workshops and the Siena Jazz Foundation are further proof of this desire to change the
current situation through a synthesis of the new and old. They are located within a Medicean
fortress yet within the walls some of the most radical music is being produced within Italy and
arguably Europe. The word 'Foundation' implies the very first brick in building towards a new
positivist future in Italy through music. This fusion is also present in the musicians who often teach
at the Foundation. Leading figures such as Stefano Battaglia, a pianist who deals comprehensively
with both Jazz and Classical repertoires,21 represents a unification of the musical tradition within
Italy whilst acknowledging the need for change through influence from the African American AvantGarde pioneers.

Finally, it is worth considering the Umbria Jazz Festival, which has rapidly become one of the most
19 Wynn, Cross the Water Blues, 263.
20 Roberto Bonati Trio Bianco il vestito nel buio [Video] (2011), retrieved May 13, 2013, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qslwy20DpXQ.
21 http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/musician.php?id=3694#.UYq0z7Tt420

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important festivals internationally. Once again, it highlights both the local and global scale of the
importance of jazz within the Italian border with both Italian and global artists on the line up.
Furthermore, it has managed to create an adequate synthesis of both the bourgeois notion of jazz
and the free improvisation/more experimental musicians of today. This year's programme is no
different and features artists such as Sonny Rollins performing together with the aforementioned
Enrico Rava and solo spots from musicians such as Stefano Bollani and Jack DeJohnette. This is
alongside musicians considered to stem from the neo-traditionalist jazz as promoted by Marsalis and
the Lincoln Center including himself, Diana Krall and even John Legend.22 This eclectic bill
suggests that these musicians can be celebrated alongside each other in a contemporary,
international context, providing adequate satisfaction for both the progressive and traditionalist
listener, perhaps even learning something from each other.

Through an analysis of jazz in Italy, it is clear to see that jazz has become an international music. It
originates from the diaspora of African American musicians who left a lasting legacy on European
countries who, in turn have adopted their positivist and progressivist attitudes towards music.
Through adoption, this great music has been able to continue without major interruption, striving
towards achievement of the artists' musical vision in the relatively safe haven of Europe. From this
perspective, it gives us an important tool to finally begin to analyse jazz from beyond the confines of
its original location. This comes in direct opposition to examining it from an American isolationist
and narrow-minded narrative. Let's make an effort to look at the whole picture rather than merely
focussing on where it all started.

Whilst helpful to analyse certain historical and social perspectives, the terms 'Afrological' and
'Eurological' as presented by George Lewis become a dichotomy of a music which is becoming
22 http://www.umbriajazz.com/pagine/ticket-000

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increasingly hybridised.23 Jazz is in Deleuzian terms the essence of a rhizome through its
interconnection globally and refusal of the dominant cultural hegemony that has been placed upon
it. It therefore should be treated as nodal, interconnected and non-aborescent. It is not a simple
lineage or canonisation originating from America but a music which forms connections to different
places and forms an assemblage. This is why the mundane chronological narratives of jazz lack depth,
because this music needs to be considered from a non-temporal and non-teleological stance. A
Rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing,
intermezzo.24 In the same way we need to perceive this body of music as having no alpha and
omega and as non-geographically focussed. It is a music which refuses to be broken under any
circumstances because it acts as response to the political, economical or cultural climate and as a
vehicle for change. Through an analysis of global jazz and allowance for the constant reworking of
theorisation, we can begin understand where this music is currently developing. In particular, which
musicians demand our attention and focus, rather than being obsessed with where and when it all
started.

2013
23 George E. Lewis, 'Improvised Music after 1950: Afrological and Eurological Perspectives', Black Music Research
Journal, 22, Supplement: Best of BMRJ (2002), 215-246.
24 Giles Deleuze & Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus (New York and London: Continuum, 2004), 27.

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Bibliography
Books
Baraka, Amiri, Black Music (New York: Akashic Books, 2010).
Giddins, Gary, Visions Of Jazz (USA: OUP, 2000).
Deleuze, Giles & Guattari, Felix, A Thousand Plateaus (New York and London: Continuum, 2004).
Heffley, Mike, Northern Sun, Southern Moon (Yale University Press, 2005).
Szwed, John F, Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra (New York: DaCapo, 1998).
Watson, Ben, (W C Bamberger Ed.) - Honesty is Explosive (Wildside Press, 2010).
Watson, Ben, Adorno for Revolutionaries (London: Unkant, 2011).
Wynn, Neil A, Cross the Water Blues African American Music in Europe (Jackson: University Press of
Mississippi, 2007).
Articles
Dainotto, Roberto, 'The Saxophone and the Pastoral. Italian Jazz in the Age of Fascist Modernity
Italica', Vol. 85 No. 2/3 Summer - Autumn, (2008), 273-294.
Lewis, George E., 'Improvised Music after 1950: Afrological and Eurological Perspectives', Black Music Research
Journal, 22, Supplement: Best of BMRJ (2002), 215-246.
Videos
La Buona e La Mala Italia by Bill Emmott, 2012, 98 min. (Documentary, BBC)
Storyville - The House I Live In by Eugene Jarecki 2012, 105 min. (Documentary, BBC)