Skip to main content

Jimmy Smith - See See Rider

The story of jazz in Italy begins, interestingly enough, with a description of the American music industry penned by an Italian diplomat named Chevalier Bruno Zuculin. Italian readers wanted to know more about the origins of jazz, and in August 1919 Zuculin published a somewhat glib, yet telling, description of the New Orleans jazz scene in La Lettura, a monthly illustrated supplement to Corriere della Sera, Italy’s most widely read newspaper at the time.

There are two categories of jazz bands, those that are mostly black, which perform in the hotels, restaurants, dance halls and social clubs, and those, often Italian, that play in the cinemas, in variety shows and in those numerous theaters where the most genuine theatrical product of North America flourishes, namely the entertaining productions called Musical Comedies or Girls and Music Shows, wherein the plot, if it exists at all, is of little importance to anyone, and the success of the performance is based primarily on the quality of the music and the beauty of the girls.

Zuculin was reporting directly from New Orleans, where he had been serving as Italy’s consul general for just over a year. He was the first to state, quite emphatically, that Italian immigrants played a role in the genesis of jazz in the United States, and it was this belief, perhaps more than anything else, that later drove many Italians to embrace the music as a native art form.


Jimmy Smith - See See Rider
  • Composer by: Ma Rainey
  • Released on: Home Cookin' LP album
  • Recorded in: 1958, 1959

"Jimmy Smith was honored as a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2004. His sound and style made him a top instrumentalist in the 1950s and '60s. Smith coaxed a rich, grooving tone from the Hammond B3."

See previous Song of the Day

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau - Long Before

Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau - Long Before Recorded in: December, 2005 Recorded in: New York, NY Genre: Jazz "Pat Metheny has participated in the academic arena as a music educator. At 18, he was the youngest teacher ever at the University of Miami. At 19, he became the youngest teacher ever at the Berklee College of Music, where he also received an honorary doctorate." See Previous Song of the Day  

David Sylvian - The First Day

When the story of Blues is told to the world, the small town Holly Springs, Mississippi and the North Mississippi region as a whole, is often left out. But, those who know, know that this region is the Hill Country, and it is the home of a style of blues unlike others and continuing to shape popular music culture. Mississippi Hill Country Blues, like all forms of the blues, is deeply rooted in the cultural memories and experiences of those who first performed it. It builds upon the African and diasporic emphasis upon rhythm as not just beats and timing, but giving syncopation and polyrhythm both rhythmic elements, an elevated role in music much like that of the melody. The driving rhythm and aggressive groove, established primarily by sitting on one chord for long phrases, set Hill Country Blues apart from other forms like Delta Blues. Hill Country Blues is the soundscape of the region that includes several counties and towns around Holly Spring, Senatobia, and Como, Mississippi. The r...

Dusty Springfield - Something In Your Eyes

Dusty Springfield - Something In Your Eyes Released in: September 1987 Genre:bPop Backing Vocals: Richard Carpenter "Dusty Springfield presented many episodes of the popular 1963 - 66 British TV series and between 1966 and 1969, hosted her own series on the BBC and ITV. She has been inducted into the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the UK Music Hall of Fame." See Previous Song of the Day