FONDAZIONE GIORGIO CINI ONLUS

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1 TONY GREEN AND GYPSY JAZZ Tony Green chitarra, Lallo Orlandi chitarra, Loris Ferret contrabbasso 21 maggio 2008 ore Gypsology Un incontro la musica di stile gypsy d ispirazione romena, magiara e balcanica introdotta da una sequenza di Emir Kusturica e conclusa dalla proiezione di un inedito film di István Gaál (Zene. Breve storia della musica ungherese) 2007

2 Nel 1931 in una celebre sua lezione Béla Bartók aveva suggerito di interpretare la musica zigana essenzialmente come un modo di farsi percepire della musica ungherese. A suo dire la musica proposta dagli Zigani al pubblico non zigano, altro non era che una forma contaminata di una diffusa musica ungherese; e aggiungeva: «Esiste, a dire il vero, un'autentica musica zigana: sono i canti in lingua zigana cantati dagli zingari dei villaggi. I loro musicisti non li suonano mai in pubblico». Non era ancora fiorita quella situazione che fece stile e portò la musica manush ad uscire dal privato tzigano e divenire un genere autonomo di musica che se alle origini contaminava la musica popolare magiara al tempo contaminò e fu contaminata dal jazz americano, ascoltato da uno zingaro belga che fece epoca.». Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt (23 gennaio maggio 1953) era un chitarrista jazz nato a Liberchies in Belgio da una famiglia rom. Dopo un lungo vagabondaggio europeo e africano, un bel giorno la sua carovana si fermò alle soglie di Parigi, città dove Reinhardt rimase residenziale per tutta la vita. Aveva solo diciotto anni quando Django, virtuoso di banjo, subì un brutto incidente: un incendio che aveva distrutto la sua roulotte e che gli lasciò l handicap di una paralisi atrofica del quarto e del quinto dito della mano sinistra. Quell incidente cambiò la storia della sua vita e quella del suo strumento: la chitarra. Avendo danneggiata la sinistra Django lasciò il banjo e cominciò a lavorare su una chitarra leggera. Nonostante la menomazione, o forse proprio grazie alle sue limitazioni, Djando sviluppò una tecnica rivoluzionaria e del tutto particolare che ancora oggi lascia stupefatti e suscita ammirazione per la

3 strapotenza virtuosistica, la vitalità e l'originalità espressiva. In breve tempo era già in attività con diverse orchestre che giravano la Francia. Nel 1935, Reinhardt e il violinista Stéphane Grappelli formarono un quintetto che divenne presto famoso, grazie anche all'appoggio dell'hot Club de France, una delle prime associazioni di promozione del jazz in Europa. Sull'onda di questo successo Reinhardt si rivelò come uno dei musicisti europei più geniali del jazz tradizionale e di consumo. Subito dopo la Seconda Guerra Mondiale, venne invitato negli Stati Uniti da Duke Ellington, che lo ebbe ospite in alcuni concerti, l'ultimo dei quali alla Carnegie Hall di New York. Con l'avvento dello stile bebop, Reinhardt diede ulteriore prova di maturità ed originalità artistica incidendo dischi memorabili con la chitarra elettrica: la poesia Manouche miscelata alle sonorità più sofisticatamente moderne fanno dei suoi assoli elettrici uno dei momenti più originali del jazz dell'epoca. Reinhardt è ricordato sia come un eccezionale virtuoso del proprio strumento, sia come compositore fertilissimo. Inoltre, numerose leggende nell'ambiente jazzistico ne descrivevano la particolarissima forma mentis, in parte derivata dalle sue origini zingaresche. A migliaia i chitarristi moderni si ispirarono direttamente a Reinhardt e formando una vera e propria scuola mondiale di chitarra gipsy jazz: Bireli Lagrene, Angelo Debarre, Stochelo Rosenberg, Dario Pinelli, Romane, Martin Taylor, ecc. ecc. ecc. Nella manifestazione odierna si cerca, riprendendo la suggestione di Bartók, grazie anche alla evocazione dei filmati, di suggerire, oltre lo standard di stile internazionale, i francesismi e gli ellengtomismi, della tradizione reinhardtiana manouche, alcune radici ungheresi e balcaniche, forse fra le più profonde dello stile.

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5 The massive upheavals of the 20th century, with its two world wars, frequently changing political regimes and boundaries, increasing urbanization and industrialization and, not least, the first stirrings of Roma movements to claim their own rights, all left their mark on Gypsy populations and on their music-making. Arguably, the most widely influential development is the Manush jazz style evolved in the 1930s by Belgian-born Django Reinhardt. This drew on several strands, particularly 19th-century musette. a dance music style that developed in Paris from the traditions of migrant workers from rural France (Auvergne) and Italy. Initially it was played on the accordion, to which the bandurria and the banjo were later added as accompanying instruments, the latter being introduced to France together with minstrel shows after World War I. Subsequently, the guitar proved better suited for performance of the fast and fluid improvisatory sections in the dialogic interactions between performers, a performance structure preferred by the Manush and by most other Gypsies to the non-gypsy (gajo) lead and accompanist structure. Thus the basic seed of the French jazz tradition had been planted by the time Reinhardt started playing; his contribution was to blend it with further traditions, such as American Swing, and to give it an eastern European Gypsy flavour in the form of Stephane Grappelli sviolin style. The western European Gypsy style of Manush jazz created by their Quintet de la Hot Club de France has continued to thrive and diversify. Some performers (e.g. the Rosenberg Trio) have stayed near to the original tradition, while others push it towards more mainstream US jazz styles (e.g. Christian Escoudé) or flamenco (e.g. Rapháel Fäyre), though most of them acknowledge their musical descent from Reinhardt by playing his compositions (e.g. Nuages or Anounman). The Manush jazz style was also taken up by the German Sinti, the Roma group most affected by the Holocaust, as a way of breaking publicly from Germany by asserting a new musical identity. This Sinti school started in the late 1960s on the initiative of the violin player Schnukenack Reinhardt. It is

6 stylistically similar to Manush jazz, but adds vocal parts, which may articulate political texts in Sinti Romani, and places more emphasis on eastern European Roma traditions. The latter dimension involves both repertory (including Hungarian nóta and csárdás) and Russian popular pieces or Gypsy romances) and additional instrumentation (accordion, harp, cimbalom and double bass). Another major trend has been the emergence of newly composed folk music (novokomponovana narodna muzika) in the territories of former Yugoslavia since the 1980s. Introduced by the Belgrade group Ju ni Vetar, ( Southern Wind ), this blended various elements associated with specific ethnic musics, such as the Serbian dvojka (2/4) metre, the Bosnian ornamented sevdalinka and flat (ravno) singing style, and Macedonian asymmetric rhythms (7/9), with Western pop-music instrumentation. The overall eastern feel of the music, together with involvement of Roma musicians such as aban Bajramovi and the appeal of its internationalism and novelty to Roma taste, led to rapid acceptance of this style by the local Roma population, to the extent that older repertory was pushed into the background, thereby diminishing divisions between the repertories of professional and nonprofessional Roma musicians. By contrast, a perceptible growth in nationalism in Bulgaria strongly favoured the propagation of pure Bulgarian culture, free from foreign (i.e. Turkish) influences. The newly emergent wedding music (svadbarska musika), which was predominantly performed by Roma (and/or Turks), came under sustained attack because of its fast tempos, and its highly improvised ornamented character and instrumentation all perceived to be opposed to the quieter, simpler values of folk music (narodna muzika). Despite official disapproval, wedding music gained wide popularity among Bulgaria's youth, both Roma and Bulgarian, precisely because its foremost performers (e.g. Ivo Papasov) amalgamated the hora, rutsenitsa and kopanitsa styles of folk dance music with a mixture of others, such as arabesque, Macedonian Roma, film music, Western pop and jazz, played on loudly amplified modern instruments. In Spain, the flamenco tradition, which already had a long history of incorporating new influences (e.g. Cuban rumba or son into flamenco rumba) continued to develop. After the death of Franco and an accelerated migration of population from the Andalusian south to the industrial cities of Madrid and Barcelona, flamenco rumba was fused with Western rock music in the Catalan rumba, which continued to use the Andalusian Phrygian cadence and Gitano techniques of voice production but took on a more consciously political stance in its song texts and emphasized its rock affiliations. Guitarist Paco de Lucia and the singer Camarón infused traditional flamenco style with jazz and pop elements, while other artists, such as Lole (Montoya) and Manuel, combined flamenco guitar playing and blues-inflected Arab singing to give new life to flamenco's (and Anadalusia's) historical connection with Arab music. The Catalan-style flamenco and rumba have gained popularity among the Southern French Roma too, many of whom are from Catalan Gitan descent, for example the (kin) members of the group Gypsy Kings, and they have developed it further by incorporating the Cuban Salsa. In Hungary, the 1970s dance house revival of folk music among Hungarian youth inspired young Vlach Gypsies working in Budapest to modernize their own hitherto unknown vocal traditions by adding harmonic accompaniments on acoustic guitar. The growing public recognition given to recordings of the pioneering group Kalyi Jag has inspired others. One of the most innovatory of these is Andro Drom, who have served Roma political goals by broadening the original Vlach Gypsy core of the music to acknowledge symbolic links not just with Hungarian Romungre (the inclusion of cimbalom) but also to other Roma traditions, both from the East (the Balkans and even India) and the West (Catalan rumba rhythms). Though Gypsies have in most places been appreciated for their musical services and their popularity is increasing widely, their marginalized social position has persisted. It is ironical that Gypsy music thrives through its willingness to conserve, adapt and experiment with the traditions of their host cultures, thereby sustaining and enriching the very cultures that for five centuries have been bent on excluding and eradicating the Gypsy presence from their midst.