The jazz soul of Sezuan
Luca Marsetti
Project Theatricalmusicalmonologue
English translation by
Riccardo Pirana
2011-2013
Foreword
This is a
medley of music and theatre based on
a real fact: the surprise of finding, together with the CD ordered in America
through eBay, the “gift” of a photographic book with text in Italian, based on
a piece by Bertholt Brecht staged in 1957 by Giorgio Strehler in Milan. So the curiosity of reading the theatre play
came to me, hence the recovery of the original text, the reading…
The set
The aim is to represent the view of a listening
room with pre + final + CD player ( + a record player?) in the middle, on a low
table; on both sides, a pair of speakers facing the audience.
In front, on the stage, a bench.
On the bench, a laptop pc, the envelope, the records.
A little tree on the floor could help complete
the stage decoration.
Behind the stereo system, a cloth represents the
background of a wall with pictures on both sides; the middle is left blank to
allow a slide show of images during the show (CD covers and pictures of the
play).
The use of a record player to play some tracks
emphasises theatrical gestures.
Actors: scenes could be played
each by a different actor or be assigned to more actors.
Music show: records are replaced
by a jazz band (piano, drums, contrabass, two trumpets, sax, voice) trying to
play some tracks if not all. For a comparison, the same track played by two
different trumpet players would do.
Reading-listening: reading and listening, either
separately or overlapped, is always a good experience, and is also a hint to
change the track list and suggest new ones, more personal, to “live” your own
adventure, a personal research of the hidden text, the nowhere land…
Closing remarks: this project could be developed
further and improved by someone more skilled than me and I would be pleased if
the final goal would be an opportunity of growth, an attempt to stimulate the
desire of research from the audience, far too distracted by special effects and
“coup de théatre”, while even a simple phrase would be enough to move our
conscience.
#
|
Scene
|
Monologue
|
Music1
|
Music2
|
Music3
|
Total
|
1
|
The Comparison
|
5:00
|
5:49
|
4:22
|
15:00
|
|
2
|
eBay
|
4:00
|
6:38 o 10:41 o 11:51
|
4:00
|
||
3
|
Capital Radio
|
3:00
|
9:04
|
4:28
|
5:29
|
22:00
|
4
|
You’ve got Mail…
|
7:00
|
18:05
|
7:00
|
||
5
|
The Triple Doors
|
6:00
|
5:06
|
6:00
|
||
6
|
Small Pieces of Wood
|
4:00
|
8:13
|
12:00
|
||
29:00
|
66:00
|
|||||
*
|
Final Greeting
|
8:43
|
9:00
|
|||
Discography:
#
|
Jazzman
|
Album
|
Track
|
Time
|
Date
|
|
1
|
Miles Davis
|
STEAMIN’
|
6.When I Fall In Love
|
4:22
|
1956-05-11
|
*
|
1
|
Blue
Mitchell
|
BLUE’S MOODS
|
6.When I Fall In Love
|
5:49
|
1960-08-24
|
|
2
|
Charles
Mingus
|
IN A SOULFUL MOD
|
3.Vassarlean
|
6:38
|
1960-10-20
|
|
6.Body & Soul
|
10:41
|
1960-11-11
|
||||
8.R&R
|
11:51
|
1960-11-11
|
||||
3
|
Miles Davis
|
Someday My Prince Will Come
|
1.Someday My Prince Will
Come
|
9:04
|
1961-03-20
|
*
|
3
|
Luca Flores
|
For Those I Never Knew
|
1.How Far Can You
Fly?(Ladder)
|
4:28
|
1995-03-29
|
|
3
|
Bobby
Durham Trio
|
We Three plus Friends
|
8.Una lunga storia d’amore
|
5:29
|
2001
|
|
4
|
John
Coltrane
|
Olè
Coltrane
|
1.Olè
|
18:05
|
1961-05-26
|
*
|
5
|
Miles Davis/Gil Evans
|
Sketches
of Spain
|
4.Saeta
|
5:06
|
1959-1960
|
*
|
6
|
Charles Mingus
|
MINGUS AH
UM
|
7.Fables
Of Faubus
|
8:13
|
1959
|
*
|
6
|
Stefano Bollani
|
GLEDA
|
9.Gleda
|
8:43
|
2004-01-11
|
(*) LP availability in case you use a record player…
References:
Author
|
Title
|
Publisher
|
Year
|
Pages
|
Piccolo Teatro
|
The Good Soul of
Szechuan
|
Comune di Milano
|
1982
|
111
|
Bertolt Brecht
|
The Good Soul of
Szechuan
|
Giulio Einaudi Editore
|
1958
|
186
|
Jazzit N°65
|
Mingus – The
Complete Candid Recordings
|
Vanni Editore
|
2011
|
129 – 131
|
Theatre School
|
2012.08.01
|
||
Permission to reproduce photos
|
|||
Pubblication on the magazine
|
#
|
||
Acting – Theatre School
|
#
|
||
Acting + Band, Theatre School
|
|||
Encore books
|
Montreal, Quebec –
Canada
|
2013.03.09
|
|
The John and Alice Coltrane Foundation
|
Los Angeles –
California – USA
|
Legend:
() : indications on
acting
[] : timing
{} : optional track
Introduction
The comparison: it’s the opening scene - the aim is to involve the audience in the
listening of two interpretations of the same track. Passion for music and
passion for the stereo system are two dishes of the same scales.
During rehearsals at
home, at first I had the feeling that friends who were requested to listen to
the two tracks for a comparison were in some kind of embarrassment; as a matter
of fact they suddenly had to change their role from audience into actors, as
they had to “play” the attitude of listening that we usually don’t have, maybe
because we are used to listen to music “on the fly”, doing something else or
while we are alone. Hence a certain unconscious fear of feeling something
different, unknown, as when listening to music along with others, sharing emotions
that we are used to keep secret.
eBay: it’s a piece of the
story that starts from the idea of a present to a friend. The concept is
collection, quality, and also sharing.
Capital Radio: a time lapse was needed between the cd order and its reception,
therefore I introduced the concept of Hit Parade, the rank that everyone of us
always keeps in mind and wants to share with others, possibly on the radio. But
this is also an opportunity to couple some personal notes about one’s life to
the music tracks.
You’ve got Mail…: it’s the crossroads between music (the ordered cd) and theatre (the
surprise of the tribute), the pretext to introduce the concept of the hidden
message, either in a music track or in a play, or through the pages of a book.
It is also a summary of the plot of “The Good Soul of Szechuan”, hoping that sooner or later this play will
be proposed again.
The Triple Doors: I’ve been impressed by the fact that Strehler started his work on
stage right from here. I therefore tried to understand the meaning of these
verses and to relate them to the everyday’s life. I believe that theatre, as
well as music, can challenge time provided that we put our souls into it,
something very personal and intimate. Once like today the ability of the author
to communicate, to raise his voice and be listened by the whole world.
Small pieces of wood: it’s the closing scene, our task, our mission, that is to avoid the
“sleep of reason” to prevent the world from being populated by monsters. Music,
theatre, cinema are precious and useful media when they give us messages,
provided that we, while participating, are able to catch them. We audience,
readers, listeners, should make an effort trying to avoid a passive attitude of
simple “consumers” of the next product on the market. A library stuffed with
books that we do not enjoy is like an empty library: just thousands of pages
telling nothing if no one of those changes our life.
Luca MarsettiVia C.Battisti, 12
23100 Sondrio (SO)
Cell. 347 8016227
1. The comparison
[00:00] (an
actor enters the scene and walks towards the stereo system, talking to himself)
-
Shall we turn on the stereo? It’s
been quite a long time since I don’t listen to it …
-
First the CD, i.e. the source…
(he turns on the device)
-
… what a nice word… “source: water that springs out from the
ground” … something quenching our thirst, that fills us, that brings relief,
joy, cheerfulness …
-
But it is also the start, the
beginning … the sound starts from here to reach the preamplifier …
(he turns on the device)
-
That filters it, makes it colourful,
that magnifies it … to pass it on to the final …
(he turns on the device)
-
That strengthen it, amplifies it … and,
finally, to the speakers …
(he strokes one, moving from the
stereo system)
-
The opposite twins of our ears …
(pause)
-
Some might say: well, a simplemp3
reader wouldn’t be enough?
-
Isn’t
music the same?
-
It
depends on …
(pause)
-
It’s the same difference between
opening a bottle of sparkling water and drinking the remaining of a bottle left
open for several days… it’s water all the same!
-
Travelling either in an old Fiat 500 or
in a Mercedes… it’s still travel!
-
By the way, I remember once…
-
when I left Sondrio, my hometown, one
Saturday August the 1st, headed to San Benedetto del Tronto (633 km – 393
miles): the journey took 13 hours by car! The people waiting for me thought
that I got lost… but it’s the memory of a tollgates that I always keep in mind…
me soaked in sweat inside my tiny car, a “A-112” model, my eyes burning,
windows wide open…
-
when, next to me, came a Mercedes,
windows closed, driven by a German dressed in tie and jacket, relaxed as he was
just watching a good movie lying in a sofa…
-
I
felt envy …
-
At that moment I realised I missed
something, or, better, that I didn’t get the importance of having some useful
things.
(pause)
-
But, is music just music? A
coordinate ensemble of sounds? Or maybe a message that slips, sneaks inside our
minds, a code opening definite doors, carrying us beyond the value of notes
making us feel strong emotions?
-
Why are some tracks everlasting hits?
Time goes by and they never fade away…
-
Is there something making them timeless?
-
I think there is: it’s the genius of
the author who is so forward for his age that the music he has written sounds fresh
even after decades…
-
Is for that reason that we still
listen to Jimi Hendrix? Or is that also because, beyond the music, among the
notes, you perceive his wanton soul? Is this element that still carry us away?
-
Therefore it’s not only genius, but
also soul the right blend that keeps the doors of time open.
(pause)
-
I started to listen to classical
music, but later I had had enough of the noise of vinyl, so I switched to disco
and rock music, as the watts causing my room’s door to vibrate were the
excitement of my 18 years of age…
-
Eventually, one day I received a
birthday gift from my girl-friend: it’s a record, TUTU by Miles Davis, and my
journey in the world of jazz starts.
-
What is jazz? Am I really entitled to
tell something about it?
-
I’m not a reviewer, I’m just a
listener, by I’m sensitive enough to feel EMOTIONS!
-
Art,
in my view, is something that gives emotions… following
this simple logic I wish to start by suggesting a comparison between two tracks
played by two young trumpet players: one, Miles Davis ‑ later on he’ll be a
star ‑ the other, Blue Mitchell (have you ever heard of him?), will be
completely forgotten.
-
Same title for both: “When I fall in love”
-
Same instruments used: trumpet, piano,
contrabass and drums.
-
Both performers are the same age: 30 years.
-
Strange enough, also the CD track is
the same, the sixth.
-
Miles Davis records the track in
November ’56, Blue Mitchell does the same four years later, in August ’60… {by the way, I wasn’t born yet, I was born two months
later, on October…}
-
Being love songs, they are slow … and
the trumpet with the mute adds that bit of lyrism needed to make these notes a
tender message …
-
Which one of the two performances
will touch you heart stronger?
-
Both the same way?
-
Or one more than the other?
-
All that remains is to try a
comparison of the tracks, listening to them one after the other: first Miles
Davis and then Blue Mitchell …
[05:00]
(he takes the CD, inserts it in the CD
player and starts it, he adjusts the sound, then he sits on the bench)
1
|
 |
6.
When I Fall in Love (E.Heyman, V.Young) - 4:20
|
Miles Davis (trumpet), Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (contrabass), Philly Joe
Jones (drums)
|
(at
the end of the play he stands up, takes the second record and starts playing it…)
2
|
 |
6.
When I Fall in Love (E.Heyman, V.Young) - 5:49
|
Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Winton Kelly (piano), Sam Jones (contrabass), Roy Brooks
(drums)
|
2. eBay
3
|
 |
3.Vassarlean (6:38)
6.Body & Soul (10:41)
8. R & R (11:51)
|
Roy Eldrige (trumpet), Jimmy Knepper (trombone),
Eric Dolphy (alto sax), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Charles Mingus
(contrabass), Jo Jones (drums)
|
[00:00] (An actor starts one of the above mentioned tracks, he adjusts the
volume in such a way that the music is the background and doesn’t top the words,
then he walks toward the bench and sits there astride)
-
I like eBay because it gives you the chance to find the
impossible …
(he opens a laptop pc)
-
Due to my naive attitude, I often
used to buy records according to their cover more than their content.
-
It’s exactly what happened when I
bought this CD by Charles Mingus entitled “In
A Soulful Mood”, for its big package with a hard cover … I thought it would
have been the right way to get acquainted with this famous performer.
-
I couldn’t possibly know I was going
to purchase a product recorded impeccably … but I was lucky, It’s one of the
most precious tracks in my collection, bought at the price of an ordinary CD!
-
Several years have passed, then I got
to know some people who encouraged me look for emotions from music, not to be
content of the first sound, but improving it constantly, taking care of all
components, including valves …
-
So mi the passion for stereo systems
came back and I partly renovated my old one, that of my 18 years …
-
I finally bought my first hi-fi CD
player to replace the portable one …
-
Then I eliminated my Japanese
amplifier in favour o fan English pre and a French final, both with valves …
-
I
replaced the wires …
-
I replaced my CDs, at least the most
important, looking for the best recordings, usually those Made in Japan …
-
I may say that now my stereo system
begins to have a soul … thanks most f all to the valves, that make the sound warmer,
closer to reality …
(a short break)
- And now a little digression into the other passion I have: comics …
-
I do this to explain, by a few words,
some very important notions like collection and sharing …
-
I consider Sergio Toppi one of the
greatest masters of Black & White.
-
He is the author of the
“Collezionista” (Collector) series, “he
who always gets what he wants”.
-
The main character, introducing
himself, says:
 |
I only collect objects having a
particular meaning to me, objects with a “life”, main characters of stories that
only I know from my researches.
Once I get them, I keep them for
myself: nobody will see them again!
|
-
So far, I can identify myself with
the Toppi’s character…
-
Nevertheless, I’m not jealous of my
treasures, on the contrary I like sharing, communicating…
-
Sure, when I’m home I listen to music
alone but, as soon as I can I like listening to it with friends…
-
This way started, during these music
meetings, with time and passion, a kind of hit of the best tracks to listen to.
-
One of my friend likes this record
most...
-
So, I want to make him a present: it’s nice when you can give something you
know he wishes to receive …
-
therefore I started my search on eBay
…
-
I eventually found it, still sealed,
in America.
[04:00] (the actor shuts the pc, gets up, walks towards the stereo system,
lowers the volume and then stops the CD)
3.
Capital
Radio
[00:00] (Actor,
addressed to the audience)
-
There’s
a radio (Capital Radio) broadcast I like because the speaker asks the audience
to choose three songs and, while introducing them together, they ask the reason
for that choice, if there is some memory related to the tracks.
-
This way
everyone brings part of himself to the attention of everyone, he enters the top
himself and, most of all, in my view, he turns his track into a top …
-
I tried
to propose some tracks, but had no chance … anyway I’m here now, and I can
listen to them explaining the reason for my choice to you.
-
All
three tracks are dedicated to women:
-
Third is
Miles Davis with “Someday My Prince Will Come”, the nine minutes of listening
are intense … but if you leave that notes carry you away, minutes will fly, like
the time that goes by always too quickly when you stay with the person you love
…
-
It’s not
a mere chance that the woman he was in love at that time was on the cover, and
I think that the smack a the end of the performance, like a kiss, tells what
this track means to him very well…
-
He gives
this track to her …
-
I
dedicate it to the woman I love …
[01:30]
4
|
 |
Miles Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor sax),
Hank Mobley (tenor sax), Wynton Kelly
(piano), Paul Chambers (contrabass),
Jimmy Cobb (drums)
|
(The actor sits, turning his back to the
audience)
(… at the
end of the track, after the smack …) [00:00]
-
At the
second place I would rank Luca Flores and more specifically his latest track:
“How Far Can You Fly? (Ladder)”.
-
It’s
been recorded on March 19, 1995
-
Piano solo, so intense …
-
He will
commit suicide ten days after having recorded this track …
-
I therefore
think that this last track may be is his will … a voiced recording of his thought,
of his voice, through the pressure of his fingers on keys.
-
He
touches on these keys, he strokes them, innumerable times, extending the sound as
long as possible …
-
I think
he, in that moment, achieved a particular inner, absolute peace, as if his
mission on this world would be fully successful.
-
Also in
final notes, it sounds like the greeting from a man who leaves on tiptoes,
unwanting to cause trouble, but it doesn’t sound like a farewell, as if, through
his music, would leave part of him, the best part, the good soul to us … forever
…
-
I consider
his track as a gift …
-
And I
dedicate it to all our mothers, our source …
[01:30] (the actor starts the CD and sits on the bench, turning his back to the
audience)
5
|
 |
1.How Far Can You Fly?
(Ladder)
(4:28)
|
Luca Flores (piano)
|
-
Last,
and therefore at first place, a dedication to the woman in our dreams, the one
so much desired and never encountered …
-
Well,
we’ll never know whether the dream is better than reality…
-
But if
we don’t have dreams …
-
Also
here we have young and emergent, Italian artists, who accompany an old Jazz
drum player
-
I’m in
love with this female voice, Michela’s voice …
-
You,
that made me shiver with the feeling of love …
-
You,
that managed to revive a song by Gino Paoli listened to for a thousand times …
6
|
 |
8.Una
lunga storia d’amore (A long love story) (5:29)
|
Bobby Durham (drums), Massimo Faraò (piano), Aldo Zunino (contrabass), Michela Resi (voice)
|
[00:30] (the actor stands up, inserts the CD, starts
the track, and bows out. He comes back near the end of the track holding an
envelope, to introduce the next scene…)
You’ve got mail…
[00:00] (an actor
takes an envelope A4 size)
-
How strange, the envelope
doesn’t seem to contain the CD I ordered …
(the actor opens
the envelope and holds a CD and a book in his hand)
-
Ah questa poi … un libro oltre al cd? Ma c’è uno
sbaglio, non l’ho ordinato …
-
Well, I
never, they sent me a free book … and it’s an Italian version … from America, something
that happened in Milan many years ago …
-
I can’t
believe it, what a combination … I would have never looked for you …
-
But,
just as you have found me … what about getting to know each other better?
-
Maybe we
could play a music as a background, something very intimate, personal, well
representing the breath of life: Olè, by John Coltrane, more than 18 minutes vortically
played in 1961 …
7
|
 |
1.Olé (John Coltrane) 18:05
|
John Coltrane (soprano sax), Eric Dolphy (flute), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), McCoy Tyner (piano), Reggie Workman (contrabass), Art Davis (contrabass), Elvin Jones (drums)
|
[01:00]
(the actor starts playing the CD/LP, keeping
the music as a background) [00:00]
-
We are
not going to listen to it all, also because the first time I listened to it I
had a kind of rejection … it bothered me … it was sclerotic, like pure
hysteria; still, that final passage, so ungraceful still intriguing, at the
edge of detuning, that slipped inside my brain as an obsession so deeply that I
had to listen to it every day, over and over again …
-
In this
track I found an unrelenting rhythm that leaves you breathless, as it was the
last time he plays …
-
And,
actually, there will be no further revisiting of this track in other records, as
travelling along this road would be too difficult or self-defeating …
(pause)
-
In my
view theatre is, in a way, like jazz music …
-
The same
track can be played in different ways according to the individual attitude, and
you certainly noticed that listening the first two tracks.
-
In
theatre you don’t play an instrument, but you use your voice as it was such …
-
But,
again, besides words, you often have to look for another hidden text, far more
interesting than the first one, that should be relished and meditated several
times, very quietly …
[01:30] (the
actor browses the book … behind him some images of the book appear …) [00:00]
-
Let’s
take “The Good Soul of
Szechuan” as an example …
-
It’s a
play that Brecht wrote in 1938 …
-
Then the
outbreak of war, the escape from the nazi Germany and the seeking for a new
homeland, a place to give birth to his ideas in and possibly be as far as
possible from war, that slowly spreads like a virus throughout Europe, and the
whole world …
-
But
wherever he goes, he’s always chased by the horrors of war, by those insane
ideas of purebred, that lead to the extermination of everything not included in
such requirements …
-
Therefore
a doubt arises about our humanity: what if God would come down to earth in
search of a good soul. Would he find it?
-
In fact
Brecht in his play put three gods, who wander around the world, bur only in Szechuan they eventually find a single good soul …
-
It
doesn’t matter if she’s a prostitute: they entrust her with a small capital
enough to start a new life and keep on to do good …
-
Anyway,
if a good soul really existed, how would it manage with money?
-
Would he
make an investment like, for instance, the Bible teaches us with the two good
servants who multiply their talents unlike the third one, who bury it?
-
Or would
he use it to help people without asking anything for himself?
-
And
doing so, how long would it last?
-
He would
soon run out of money and then revert to poverty, unable to help the poor, and
all would end up in nothing…
-
Maybe we
could find a way to make someone else who takes his place, someone energetic,
with a sense for business, who puts things right, who even makes profits, in
such a way that the good soul be able to go on making good…
-
So then,
like an inveterate actor, the good soul turn itself into its cousin, who knows
how to obtain where the other grants, who generates profits instead of losses …
-
However,
in this crescendo of transformation, people all around feel, more and more, the
need of the good soul or, at least, they miss it because, once you taste the fresh
water of a spring, you want more and more…
-
It’s no
coincidence that the one who shows the gods the good soul is a humble water
seller…
-
They all
end by fearing for it, they’re afraid that its cousin might have eliminated it,
that is, he might have overcome like, in fact, making money makes it impossible
to make good…
-
So they
ask for a judgment of the court … represented by the three gods…
-
Brecht
doesn’t give us an answer to this doubt: gods depart from the earth, leaving
the good soul asking for help, and leaving us with the unanswered question if
there still really exists a good soul on earth, someone able to do good without
asking anything in return.
-
Maybe we
shouldn’t think about a single good soul who takes the burden of the whole
world on its shoulders: this already happened 2000 years ago…
-
Maybe it
would be enough if everyone of us would do even a single good deed, at least every
now and then, with the aim of leading this good soul around the world.
-
It takes
little …
-
It
doesn’t take much …
[04:00] (the actor approaches the stereo system and
turns down the volume, then removes the record.)
4.
The triple
doors
[00:00] (an actor sits on the
bench, facing the audience)
-
A thin
thread links the previous track to this one (the actor shows the cds/lps): both
performers, Coltrane and Davis, played together to make some records, and one
in particular, the most popular of all, Kind Of Blues, where they played
Spanish rhythms in Flamenco Sketches …
-
Both
musicians, then, follow those rhythms and they develop them according to their
personal taste, creating other remarkable pieces with growing bands that, in
this case, grow as big as orchestras…
-
To my
ears, this song marks the knowledge of sound, the onset of an illness, audiophilia,
with no escape, often causing big problems, especially as far as money is
concerned…
-
But it’s
also the beginning of an intimate journey inside the track, searching for the
hidden notes, a nowhere land that we often cannot see, only because we don’t
know which way to look at…
-
We are
now going to listen to SAETA, an arrow stabbing the Our Lady’s heart, it’s a
re-arrangement of an Andalusian chant for the Holy Friday procession, an
intense prayer to the crucified Christ.
-
Miles
trumpet sends out long, excruciating calls, like the siren of a ship lost in
the fog, like the final cry for help of the Good soul, ignored by gods…
[01:30]
(the actor
starts the cd/lp and, after the first three trumpet calls, lowers the volume, keeping
the music in the background)
8
|
 |
4.Saeta (Evans)
(5:06)
|
[00:00]
-
It’s a
short writing by Brecht that is quite suitable to introduce us to the key
passage of the work, to the hidden message…
Reading a late Greek poet …
During the days that their fall was certain
(on the city walls the funeral dirge has already started)
The Trojans were making an attempt, with small pieces of wood, to keep the
triple doors standing, with small pieces.
And thus they started to feel brave and hopeful.
Therefore, also Trojans …
-
Strehler goes on saying: “Therefore, like the Trojans, we also…”
-
I must
confess that the first time I read this text the idea that someone tried to
keep heavy doors standing with small pieces of wood made me laugh …
-
It’s
really absurd, ridiculous, if you think about that… who would do that?
-
The more
so from the point of view of those who stay on top of the walls: they can see the
way things are really going on, and that’s why they start the funeral dirge …
they says everything is vain, everything is over…
-
Still,
people at the doors, the last bulwark of defense, do not surrender and start
with small, innocent pieces of wood, to reinforce, strengthen, to build the
barrier and make it solid.
-
Strehler
says that for Brecht good, the small pieces of wood, is in “Singing a song, assembling a machine, planting
something”
-
This is
the message from del Good Soul of Szechwan: it takes very little, some small
acts, to stop the evil, to keep it out of the walls …
-
We also,
therefore, like the Trojans, can protect our lives in everything we do, in our
job as in our spare time: let’s stop listening to those who stands from top
tell us that everything is vain, and want us to do nothing…
-
We
shouldn’t be satisfied with the appearance of things, but seek the “key to
understanding” through the pages of a book, the notes or the words of a song …
-
This is culture…
-
This is freedom …
-
This is life …
-
Let’s
stand up for it!
[02:30] (the
actor turns up the volume for the audience to listen the last part of the
record)
Small pieces of wood
[00:00] (the actor sits on the bench, facing the audience)
-
Sometimes music becomes an outcry
-
It’s a
hymn against violence
-
Often,
unknowingly, that hymn is handed down, from generation to generation: maybe the
first meaning, the initial cause gets lost, but the message streaming through
the notes stays amazingly alive.
-
Now, for
instance, take “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2: I think everyone of you would know
why that song was written …
-
But this
is jazz, in a musical track, without voice, without a spoken part that we are
supposed to guess through the notes …
-
However,
-
Charles
Mingus is the genius author …
-
Fables
of Faubus is the track …
-
In 1957,
the same year of representation of The Good Soul of Szechuan in Italy, Orval
Faubus, the Arkansas Governor, is the trigger … the precipitating cause … he ordered
the Arkansas National Guard to stop African-American students from attending
the Little Rock Central High School …
-
Just to
deny equal rights, just to have the last word … the following year Faubus closed
the school of Little Rock!
(pause)
-
Mingus couldn’t be silent …
-
He
wanted to speak his mind the best way he could …
-
So
Faubus has a track dedicated to him in the album Ah-Hum issued in 1959 …
-
I like a
particular moment when the instruments play asynchronously still maintaining a
cohesion that arises in the end …
-
This
makes me think to all of us: we are all different, we all think in different
ways, but if we have the same purpose in common we can, starting from different
sounds and rhythms, unite in unison and impose our rhythm.
-
RAI (the
Italian television) for examples used this track as a background to the
historical images of the Italians shouting abuse at the politician Bettino
Craxi the day he was forced to leave the government and, subsequently, our
country…
-
Fables
Of Craxi …
-
Fables
Of … Mingus!
[02:30] (the actor starts the cd/lp, then sits on the bench with his back towards
the audience)
9
|
 |
Charles
Mingus (contrabass, piano), John Handy (alto
sax), Booker Ervin (tenor sax), Shafi Hadi (tenor
sax), Jimmy
Knepper (trombone), Horace Parlan (piano), Dannie Richmond (drums)
|
-
This is what the French
reviewer Bernard Dort wrote on Brecht’s work:
{A solution
to this tragedy is urgent. Nazism is contaminating the entire Europe.}
It’s not man who should change himself. It’s
the world that should be transformed. It is necessary to create, recreate a world in which it’s possible for the man
to be himself, to be it in full, together with other men, and not against them.
-
Brecht
spends the years of warfare listening every day to the sporadic news on the
radio trying to understand to what extent evil was prevailing on good …
-
Today,
once more, we are thrown in the same situation, following the news on TV and
from the radio anxiously, the fluctuations of spread, an “entity” with no shape
of an enemy, but able to change your life, to restrict your freedom, your happiness,
take the dignity of a job from you, making you feel a useless person as you
cannot support your family anymore …
-
Therefore
I think these issues are still present-day and worth a reflection …
(a few seconds pause while the actor takes
the last cd to be listened)
-
A last thought …
-
It’s about
the title of a picture by Goya:
 |
The sleep of reason produces
monsters
|
-
It was
one of the topics of the exam in 1978, the year of my graduation …
-
And to
stay awake … I’d like to close with a final track, lively, danceable …
(the
actor moves towards the stereo system)
-
To run
in the world always bringing small pieces of wood with us …
-
by
Bollani – Bodilsen – Lund … Gleda!
-
Enjoy listening … ciao
10
|
 |
9.Gleda
(8:43)
|
[02:00]
(the actor starts the cd and leaves the scene)
(a dancer comes on the stage dancing on the
track’s notes)
NOTES
Audiophilia: I defined it as
an illness you can hardly recover from … as a matter of fact it’s a pleasant
illness, as we are talking about purism in listening. Still, when it’s
something with an end in itself, leads to the unpleasant sensation of being unappreciated
… and this is bad.
Unfortunately some people get too excited
about devices, whereas others think it’s only about stuff: they both lack the
consideration that the Hi-Fi system is a means, the same as a book, a record, a
movie can be, just to discover an inner pleasure, a particular soul in things
we read, we see, we listen to …
I have a regret, that of not being able to (up to now)
to add another track by Coltrane to introduce this idea, that is the basic idea
of the project …
*
|
 |
5.Equinox (John Coltrane)
(8:33)
|
Equinox: when day and night are equal in length … half
white and half black… perfectly the same… a track written and played by a black
man in a critical historical moment (1964), when America was still strongly
racist … it would be perfect to symbolize the right distance from things, in
such a way that you can see the soul of it …
I put it here just as a note, … and then who knows …
maybe this is a hint for someone to start a new imaginary trip through the notes…
“In your eyes” (Andrea in Paola’s eye)
photo by Andrea Marsetti
Ciao
Luca
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