"Metti una sera a cena " interview with Edda Dell'Orso

I was listening to an Ennio Morricone soundtrack , I was traveling with the sound of the Italian Soundtrack Lady voice Edda Dell'Orso , the Soundtrack was " Metti una sera a cena " .
I decide to look for this fantastic voice , call her and ask for an interview .
This woman was never too much on the scene and it was not easy to find her , but after met , I realyze that she is a humble woman and a great artist , so in invite her for a dinner " a cena " .
this is the result .

"Metti una sera a cena " interview with Edda Dell'Orso


What are your musical origins? What were your influences?

Musically I began as a pianist. I started to play the piano when I was 5 or 6 years old. The music that I listened to were mainly music from American film scores, mainly music by Gershwin, Cole Porter.

What were your experiences before your contact with the world of cinema?






I started with the chorus. A classical chorus that was called Coro Polifonico. I then moved to the Franco Potenza chorus and finally with Maestro Alessandroni (I Cantori Moderni )where I was lead soprano. Every now and again a voice was needed for 7 or 8 measures and it was then that I became to Morricone's attention for the first time. And then came C'era una volta il West (Once A Upon A Time In The West)and thus was born the “instrumental voice” which is was what I loved to do when I was small.

Speaking of Alessandroni and Cantori Moderni, you were part of this very versatile and in demand vocal group. How did the hiring come about?
You recorded many film scores in a relatively short time. Were the composers in competition with each other to have you work with them?


The hiring of Cantori came from Alessandroni, Morricone, and Cipriani. They would call me at home. While for other engagements we were contacted by the management of the single Orchestras.



How did you go about developing a theme? Did the projection of the film or the reading the screenplay have any influence or did the composer instruct on how the piece should by executed?

Umiliani, Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Jess Franco, Berto Pisano, Alessandro Alessandroni, You sang with the greatest masters of music for films during the golden age for this genre. What were you feelings and emotions at the time?

During that period we made many recordings. At times I would find myself in the recording studio from 9 in the morning until midnight. In any case there was a 3 hour shift every day and we worked very hard but it was very exciting to work with such masters. It was my life.


I heard your voice when I was just 5 years old, listening to theme music to “Metti una sera a cena” which remains my favourite. Can you tell me something about the development of this music?

Usually I would be called in when the film was already finished. Many times I wouldn't even see the scene. Again, the Musical Director Morricone gave my the score and I would read and interpret it as if I was an instrument. This was my way of singing. I remember that Morricone played me the theme on the piano. The film director Patroni Griffi was also there. The theme was the one which I would have to sing. If I remember correctly, when I heard the first bars, that “haunting” riff, I was very affected by I told Morricone that it would be great if it was sung. That’s how the famous theme to “Metti una sera a cena” came about.

Do you usually listen to the theme tunes you have sung? Which is your favourite ?

All of them are great. I particularly like “La Donna Invisbile”(Morricone). I also like “Giù la testa”, “Margherita”, “le Stagioni della Vita”.


In the last few years film music has made a comeback and many theme tunes have been reissued, while a few have remained very rare and costly gems. What do you think of this comeback?

I think it’s due to the fact that they are showing those types of films again and also that Morricone is playing a lot with his orchestra and so he presents these themes again and the public appreciate them a lot.

Many of your songs for Morricone are vocalised or skat but a few times, “Verushka” for example you sing in a pseudo-English. How did this style of singing come about?

Let’s say that a few songs, mostly the Bossanovas, for example “La Donna Invisibile”were very suitable non only to vocalisation but to this thing also. If you ask me what I was saying. I don’t know. Maybe every now and again an English syllable would come out but all this would come from the way I would read the music, they’re called “Phonemicsi”

Many theme tune were inspired by jazz or Bossanova or Samba. These genres were all the rage at the time.

Usually Bossanova was chosen for the lighter situations, let’s say, erotic, (Director Dell’Orso). Let’s say it wasn’t exactly Bossanova which is a quite definite Brazilian way of music. It was a lighter rhythm that resembled Bossanova. Morricone played plenty of that.

Did you ever sing on compositions that were later used as soundtracks?

I sang “Il treno” by Bruno Nicolai that had been written for an advert for the Ministry of Transport. Many times I would sing and then honestly I wouldn’t know what use they would be put to.






What are your plans for the future? What are you doing at the moment?

When there’s an opportunity, I sing. Benefit concerts and a new CD called “A childs dream”... A Morricone double CD will shortly be released with all the famous tracks I song on, all original recordings apart from the theme to “Deborah”, which due to some editorial reason had to be re-done.

Ray Mantilla Birthday Jazzmotel impressions

Celebrating Ray Mantilla’s 75th birthday is not something you do every day.
I’ll skip the presentation of this artist as Jazzitlalia has already elaborated upon him with interviews and articles. I’ll focus on the emotions and sensations that the evening afforded me.

Thanks to Zero Zero Jazz and Associazione Culturale Miles I had the privilege as an independent Jazzmotel journalist and connoisseur of Latin Jazz music to attend this celebration from the late afternoon, attending the sound-check, the concert and the after-concert.

On arrival at the Don Mazza Auditorium in Padova, after trying with some difficulty to find parking, I enter this student college that houses a recently built concert hall and I await the arrival of the artists.

When they arrive I instantly take note of their warm-hearted friendliness, which probably is a by-product of their 40 years of touring, playing and meeting people.

The stage is practically ready, only the lights and sound-check are missing. Three congas Latin Percussion, 2 Timbales and a Cajon make up Mantilla’s instrumentation

The sound balance is over very quickly and is achieved by establishing a “true” sound rather than looking for a “perfect” sound. I note with great surprise the “electric” sound of pianist Edy Martinez. I then have the chance to meet the band and to ask Mantilla a few questions his about his music in the 60’s and 70’s focusing on “We Insist” which I find quite topical and up to date. He tells me about how he was contacted by Roach and about the atmosphere of that period ….a then a break and something to eat in a bar around the corner.

On my return the hall is packed and the background music is of great quality. The concert begins. I close my eyes and I have the sensation of being in the Bronx or in the Latin Barrio in the middle of the 70’s.
Martinez, with his electric piano typifies the sound of the gig, sounds that largely recall those of “The Other Road” by Ray Barretto FANIA on which Martinez contributed composing, in my opinion, the best tunes of that album.

With fantastic conga solos by Mantilla, jazzy embellishments by saxophonist Willie Williams (the Jazz “soul” of the band) and a fantastic rhythm section comprising a very tight Cucho Martinez on bass and Bill Elder on drums, after nearly two hours the Padova concert celebrating Mantilla’s birthday comes to an end.

A chat and a few drinks in the room housing the refreshments after the concert. I exchange emails and phone numbers and my evening as a Jazzmotel correspondent comes to a close accompanied by a piece of New York Barrio in my “Alma Latina”

JOE CUBA 1931 2009

interview with Antonello Vannucchi I Marc 4

Jazzmotel, after many interviews with European and worldwide jazz legends, returns home to Italy and begins a series of interviews with legends of music for film and library music.

Interview with Antonello Vannucchi.








During his career Antonello Vannucchi has performed with artist such as Chet Baker, Barney Kassel, Bobby Hackett, Kenny Clarke, Lee Konitz. Vannucchi, often pianist for Minnie Minoprio, also accompanied some of the great performers of Italian music from Mina to Ornella Vanoni.
Vannucchi also recorded “beat” songs for Ariston Records under the name of I 4 di Lucca later known as the great Marc 4.The name comes from the acrostic of the names of the founders (Maurizio, Antonello, Roberto, Carlo), all musicians wo were part of the Italian State Television (RAI) Orchestra. Essentially a studio band, because of the considerable technical ability of the single players, Marc 4 began to collaborate with the most prestigious authors of film scores : Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, Armando Trovajoli, Gianni Ferrio, Piero Piccioni, Piero Umiliani, Alessandro Alessandroni to name a few. At times the guitarist Bruno Battisti D'Amario also collaborated with them.




Later the group began to produce their own material which had its origins in the beat style but later developed more into bossa nova and jazz, They recorded a few LP's and singles which are now very rare and sought after.
The principle characteristic of their sound was Vannucchi's Hammond organ. They also worked on TV themes, for example with Mooke/Simona, the theme tune to the program Controfatica, and also the two singles Tema di Nino/Romanza Popolare, which in 1974 were used as the theme tune for a television series about a doctor.
The single players also had a significant career as session musicians.

Where does your unmistakeable style of jazz come from? Who were your favourite musicians and how did they influence you at the beginning of your career?

I was fascinated by BeBop. Miles Davis was the one that opened up my listening to jazz music. I remember a 78rpm called “Down "or something like that , I cannot remember well .
Dizzy Gillespie,Clark Terry , Ray Brown and Bud Powell also influenced my taste, I loved bop from the 40's and 50's. I wanted to use two saxes to recreate that typical sound, the Bebop sound.

You played for a long period with the RAI Orchestra, accompanying the queens of italian music such as Mina and Vanoni. Was it easy to get into RAI and play with such an orchestra?

I played with the Rai Orchestra from 1965 to 1995, I played with Mina, Vanoni and the Kessler Sisters. We also created a small combo that played with them when they toured. We played many concerts, in Europe and beyond.

Tell me about the fabulous group “I Marc 4”. How did they come about?







“I Marc 4” came together in the early 70's. We played on many film scores, we were session men, let's say.
At times, the music director Trovajoli like also Umiliani or Piccoli, asked us, in certain particular moments of a film, to create sounds that appealed to our taste, commentary music (library)
And from that the idea of recording these “commentaries” or other pieces under the name of “I Marc 4”.
The name derives from the initials of our names Carlo Pes, Maurizio Majorana, Roberto Podio and me Antonello Vannucchi.
The Serni label produced these records that were later used as library music on “Cronache Italiane” etc..



When you were writing pieces for soundtracks, surely you had more room to move creatively. Did you have a catalogue of pieces already composed or did you compose according to request and demand?


Most of the times they would give us some themes and we would create ad hoc soundscapes.

“I Marc 4” were defined as the “Trovajoli Soloists”. Other than with this Musical Director you also worked with composers such as Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, Gianni Ferrio, Piero Piccioni, Piero Umiliani, Alessandro Alessandroni.. How were you taken on or engaged. You were in high demand at the time...

Let's say that our sound was in demand,. We had an Hammond Organ and our sound was inspired by Jimmy Smith, this was the early 70's.

We could say that you were the rhythm session of the Italian theme music.

Exactly!! And we were also the rhythm session for the RAI Orchestra

At times you composed under other names. How come?

Being a part of RAI, myself Podio and Majorana, according to contract, we could not have a dual role and so when we were asked for a piece of library music, we'd record them under made up names or friends names in order to get round the problem of not being able to be under dual obligation. The names used were De Luca , Edmundo Rossi , Romolo Grano etc...

Which Musical Director was able to acknowledge your renown jazz vein?



Trovajoli for sure. He was a jazz player in his own right. Piccioni also loved jazz. He was very eccentric. !

You also played with jazz legends from overseas such as Chet Baker, Barney Kassel, Bobby Hackett, Kenny Clarke, Lee Konitz.
Was there a difference between playing with foreign musicians who were strictly jazz and Italian composers who had a background of classical or popular music?

When Baker came out of prison in Lucca in 1965, he came knocking straight at my door. We decided to form a group to accompany him during his concerts. We did this for quite a long time during his stay in Italy. The group was composed by me on vibraphone, Baker on trumpet, Andrea Tommaso on double bass and Franco Mondini on drums.

Mina, The Kesslers Sisters, “La Bussola”. What was the atmosphere like in Rome in the early 70's ?

The atmosphere was fantastic and always electric.

Do you ever listen by chance, to some theme tune which you played on or some recording by Marc 4 ?








Yes I still have all the vinyl records of our work and every now and again I listen to them. I know them off by heart by now.

What do you think about the desire that there is now (in the last few years) to look for, listen and even dance to that music.?

Naturally it pleases me ! I think that the music that we did then is very close to that which the young people listen to today, so it not difficult to see why they appreciate that type of music.

interview with Flora Purim

The music of Flora Plurim has been at the forefront of Latin and American jazz music for over 25 years. She has earned two Grammy nominations for Best Female Jazz Performance and Downbeat Magazine Best Female Singer accolade on four occasions.
Flora’s musical partners have included Gil Evans, Stan Getz, Chick Corea, Dizzy Gillespie and she has collaborated with Airto Moreira on over 30 albums since 1967 when they arrived in New York with him in from their native Rio.


Her musical taste and genius developed thanks to her father, a Russian émigré, who played violin and her mother who was a talented pianist in her own right. Before leaving Brazil to escape the repressive regime of the time, she, like many Brazilian musicians, had mastered playing piano and guitar whilst developing her impressive vocal talent.
After arriving in New York Flora and Airto became central to the period of musical expression and creativity which produced the first commercially successful Electric Jazz groups of the 70s.


Pianist Duke Pearson was the first American musician to invite Flora to sing alongside him on stage and on record. She then toured with Gil Evans, and she worked with Chick Corea and Stan Getz as part of the New Jazz movement that also contained the influence of the great Cannonball Adderley.




In the early 70’s, two classic albums - "Return to Forever" and "Light as a Feather" introduced the fusion jazz sound!

Her first solo album in the US, Butterfly Dreams was released in 1973, which catapulted her straight into the Top Five Jazz Singers on the Downbeat Magazine Fame Jazz Poll.

During her career Flora has given her contribution to some of the greatest recordings of the seventies - Carlos Santana, Hermeto Pascoal, Gil Evans, Chick Corea and Mickey Hart . In the mid-Eighties, Flora and Airto resumed their musical partnership to record two albums for Concord for which she received a Grammy nominations and she continues to record and perform right up to the present day.

Jazzmotel is proud to present a LADY OF JAZZ.

This is the interview with Flora Purim.





One question I always ask the artist interviewed for Jazzmotel is: What are your musical origins? How did your taste develop?


My music origins are Brazilian and classical.

In 1967 you left Brazil for New York. Up until then with whom had you collaborated and what had been your experiences in Rio. Tell me about the musical atmosphere that was around Brazil at that time.



I became a professional singer in 1965. I worked extensively with Hermeto Pascoal, Sambalanço Trio, Sambraza Trio and recorded my first LP, entitled Flora é MPM, for RCA Victor. I also sang with the big bands of Maestro Cipó and Pocho as well as with the small ensemble called 7 de Ouros. I worked at the night club Stardust and at the temple of the Bossa Nova in
São Paulo, the João Sebastião Bar. The musical atmosphere was of the high quality of musicians and musicianship that had only one interest in mind: play, play, play! Brazil was beautiful and very inspiring in many different ways.


Musically speaking, what differences did you notice between New York and Brazil?


When I arrived in New York, it was December of 1967, and all I wanted was to listen to my favorite singers and musicians in jazz, which I did in a couple nights when I found out that in the Harlem was a jazz hang called Club Baron. Every active musician in town would converge to that club after their regular gigs, with the purpose of jamming. In other words the difference was only one. I could improvise in any style, and that was acceptable and welcome.
That time was indeed energetic and electric.


How was your first musical contact with New York jazz and in what way did you become part of the jazz musicians scene?


Then I joined Chick Corea and the original Return To Forever, along with bass player Stanley Clark, saxophonist and flute player Joe Farrell, Airto Moreira on drums, while I played percussion and sang unison lines on the melodies with the saxophones and flutes of Joe Farrell. When the group was not touring I would be rehearsing and singing with one of my mentors Gil Evans and his Big Band.


The first time I heard your voice was when I heard "Stormy" from the album "It Could Only Happen With You" of Duke Pearson. And I loved it.
Tell me something about your experience with the music of Pearson and Blue Note.


Duke Pearson fell in love with Brazilian music at first contact. And besides being an A&R and executive director for Blue Note, Duke had his Big Band and invited me to sing in two of his vinyl (LP) records: “How Insensitive” and “It Could Only Happen With You”. It turned out very nicely. He loved it and so did I.


Gil Evans has influenced your music and your artistic development in many ways. Of all his work, what has left its mark on you the most?


One his collaborations with Miles Davies entitled Miles Ahead: Miles Davis +19.


How can we define that New Jazz movement introduced by you, Airto, Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke among others? That sort of Electric Jazz with tropical undertones from the beginning of the 70's that they call Fusion.


I feel that fusion is not a bad way to describe it, except that we have to clarify that there are many types of fusion. That was a Jazz/Brazilian fusion; maybe we should call it illusion.


George Duke, Deodato, Hermeto Pascoal, Duke Pearson, Cannonball Adderley, are a few of the musicians with who you have worked. How much have they influenced your way of making music?



George Duke and Hermeto Pascoal as well as Airto and Gil Evans were the ones who helped me to decide the way I chose to sing by encouraging me to go ahead with my experimentations and validating me by coming to recordings and being part of my process of evolution.


What do you think of contemporary music that fuses 70's jazz with electronic
music?


I think is fine to try it but not everybody knows what it takes to successfully achieve a good result.

Do you think it has the same significance as the electric jazz that you used
to play?


No, I don’t think so.

Flora Purim
Paris - France, June 10th 2008.

Interview with Lonnie Liston Smith

At this time we need Spiritual vibrations more than ever.
I had the great opportunity to get in touch with one of the great jazzmen
who was and still is very Spiritual in his way of thinking and exploring
jazz.
As you have read in my introduction to Lonnie Liston Smith he was very into
that Spiritual, Creative, Astral , Deep movement, along with Pharoah
Sanders and Leon Thomas (Peace be with him) among others...
As I knew, I discovered a Deep Man, a great musician and a new friend !
He also gave me some unpublished pics that you will see for the first time
here in JAZZMOTEL!!
This is what Lonnie Liston Smith and I talked about...










Lonnie , How have you defined your style, your piano playing style?
Which pianists or musicians have inspired your vision of jazz music?


I always wanted to develop a universal style of music, and when I am playing the piano and keyboards I try to be aware of the importance of using space. Miles Davis told me one time that musicians don't realize that what they don't play is just as important as what they do play.Miles Davis and John Coltrane inspired my vision of music the most!  Also Debussy and Ravel inspired my vision of music.





One of your first important experiences was with Art Blakey, thanks to the help of the player Mickey Bass . Tell me about your experience with Art Blakey and the great jazz scene .

Working with Art Blakey was a great experience because each member of the group would write songs and Art would not come to the rehearsals until we had learned all of the new songs, then he would come in and sat behind the drums and play each song as if he had heard these songs before.  It was amazing how Art could interpret these songs so quickly.




Another drummer who helped to increase your credibility was Max Roach. You played with him for about a year and then later recorded two albums with Rahsaan Roland, right up to 1968 when you met Pharoah Sanders.
what is changed after the encounter with Sanders ?



Working with Max Roach was quite a different experience because Max played in so many different time signatures (5/4, 7/4, etc.).  People don't realize Max Roach taught Dave Brubeck and his band how to play in 5/4 time. When I played with Rahsaan Roland Kirk I had to play all types of music.  Rahsaan liked to play the blues, dixieland music and also straight-ahead jazz.





That period was very much influenced by the spiritual slipstream left over by Coltrane. You started to experiment with the electric piano indian tambura and composed a few songs that later became defined as Cosmic Jazz .
Tell me about that sort of energy that influenced you, Leon Thomas, Pharoah Sanders and many other musicians of that period…
“Thembi “, "Upper Egypt", "Karma", "Creator Has a Master Plan", "Summun, Bukmun, Umyun", and "Jewels of Thought” were a sort of astral journey of jazz.
What kind of feeling was there in that period and how did jazz music blend with spirituality?



Leon Thomas, Pharoah Sanders and myself developed a whole new concept of jazz.  I wrote most of the music for the group when we were together.  We would stretch the music as far out as we could, and then bring the music back down to earth.I wrote "Astral Traveling" for Pharoah and that song really represented "Cosmic Jazz".  In that song I tried to capture the feeling of floating through space.
I want my music to heal all of the problems on the planet Earth, like wars, man's inhumanity to mankind, because if we don't learn to live in peace and harmony, then this whole planet will be destroyed.



You also performed on the recordings of Miles Davis’ “On The Corner” and “Big Fun”. How much did your closeness to Miles contribute to your evolution in jazz, a music that was becoming evermore experimental and open to certain influences and experimentations with electric instruments and free expressions in music.




Working with Miles Davis was the "ultimate"!  Miles was a musical genius on stage and off stage!  Every night working with Miles I had to be very creative because Miles had me playing a new keyboard, "The Yamaha Electric Organ".  He wanted to hear a new sound and the only time I had an opportunity to play the new keyboard was on stage. 




In 1974, after the experience with Gato Barbieri and the Flying Dutchman label, Bob Thiele, who had supported the album by Sanders, helped you to obtain your first contract for an album as a solo artist and leader. That album was “Astral Travelling”
Than the Cosmic Echoes were born .
Did that album allow you to record what you had in mind at the time?



After working with Miles Davis I formed "The Cosmic Echoes".  I saw that Miles had hooked up a lot of pedals to his trumpet, like the wah-wah pedal, etc..  So
I decided to hook up all these different pedals to my Fender Electric Piano and that's how I discovered the Lonnie Liston Smith Sound on the Electric Piano. 



How did the passage to Jazz Funk happen? Which sounds inspired this move?
In 1975, with “Expansions” you defined your style by creating a sort of Funky Jazz, very fresh but still maintaining your spiritual and astral vein. What can you tell me about this album?

After I recorded "EXPANSIONS", The Entire World labeled me "THE GODFATHER
OF JAZZ FUSION FUNK".



“Visions of a New World” and “Renaissance” were the next step, electric piano with echo and wah-wah effects, percussions and funk. In all of your work percussions are always much involved and you use more than one percussionists on one album.
How important were the percussions to you sound?



The sounds of different percussion instruments are very important because the sounds are so cosmic and universal, so I try to use percussion instruments as much as possible.

thanks Lonnie .

Thanks JAZZMOTEL Peace

Introducing Lonnie Liston Smith

Lonnie Liston Smith The acoustic pianist/electric keyboardist was born in Richmond, VA, on December 28, 1940, should not be confused with soul-jazz organist Lonnie Smith (see also Jazzmotel interview ).. . During the '60s or early '70s, he had been a sidemen for Pharoah Sanders, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Gato Barbieri, singer Betty Carter, and trumpeter Miles Davis. During Davis collaborations Smith signed with producer Bob Thiele's RCA-distributed Flying Dutchman label and recorded his first album as a leader, Astral Traveling (which Thiele produced).


In the early 70’s He formed the Cosmic Echoes and started he’s new adventure as a Leader .
Hes music as we saw for the Sanders / Leon Thomas period were very influenced by a kind of Cosmic Peaceful Spiritualism also finded in the post-bop works of space explorers like Coltrane, Sanders, Yusef Lateef, McCoy Tyner almongst all .
The first Cosmic Echoes lineup,included George Barron (soprano and tenor sax), Joe Beck (guitar), Cecil McBee (bass), David Lee, Jr. (drums), James Mtume (percussion), Sonny Morgan (percussion), Badal Roy (tabla drums), and Geeta Vashi (tamboura). Astral Traveling .The first Cosmic Echoes was an instrumental work , later on Lonnie added a vocalist to the Cosmic Echoes: his brother Donald Smith.
Their essential discography include Astral Traveling -- 1974's Thiele-produced Cosmic Funk, 1975's Expansions, 1975's Visions of a New World, 1976's Reflections of a Golden Dream, and 1977's Renaissance, all of which were on either Flying Dutchman or RCA proper.Lonnie run now Hes own Company called Loveland records .