[Dixielandjazz] Italians in Jazz

[Fred Spencer]

Dear Steve,
There is a list of 87 "Italian Jazz Musicians in the Early Period in New 
Orleans" in "Wait Until Dark.. Jazz and the Underworld, 1880-1940" ..."None 
was born after 1914, most were reared in the French Quarter/Storyville 
district, and each played either before or during Prohibition." Sam Wooding 
led a band all over Europe, including Italy. The forty-three page Chapter 6 
\in Frank Driggs and Lewin Williams's  "Black Beauty, White Heat" 
(WilliamMorrow, 1982), is "Crow Jim Europe: Hangin' Around Montmartre and 
Shanghai Gestures. 1919-1950," with 150 pictures of artists, bands, sheet 
music, and record labels supported by a liberal, but small type, text. A lot 
of it is about Paris, which has at least seven books of its own.* The whole 
topic of jazz abroad awaits to be told, preferably by authors who know the 
languages of the countries concerned.
*Two of these are: Jackson, Jeffrey H. Making Jazz French. Music and Modern 
Life In Interwar Paris. Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 2003. xxi, 266 
pp., illus., index. A distinct aura of academia suggests that this book was 
written for a professional, as well as a public audience. That eccentric, 
perennial Parisian, the American, Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow, became a close 
friend of Hugues Panassie, the French jazz writer and record producer. 
Panassie was almost alone in praising Mezz's musicianship. (See WHO? 
Panassie and Gautier). The consistently small print in this volume provides 
a lot of information to be digested. The author is an Assistant Professor of 
History at Rhodes College.
Miner, Luke. Paris Jazz. A Guide. From the Jazz Age to the Present. New 
York, The Little Bookroom, 2005. 150 pp. illus. This small, thin book ("6 
1/4" x "5 1/4" 1/2" ) summarizes, in photographs, maps, and an adequate 
text, the exclusive story of jazz, past and present, in the "City of Light". 
There is no index, but '"Recommended Listening", "Contemporary Venues", and 
a "Selected Bibliography" complete this entertaining, if limited, volume.
Cheers.
Fred
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 12:23 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Italians in Jazz


> Even Dick Sudhalter's Book gives a quick reference to Italians in the
> early
> jazz forms of New Orleans. He opines on page 60, "Lost Chords" that:
>
> "The sheer quantity of Sicilian names in the ranks of early New Orleans
> Jazzmen - LaRocca, Rappolo, Veca, Almerico, Giardino, Bonano, Capraro,
> Prima, Lala, Coltraro, Davilla, Loycano, Manone, Gallodoro, Federico,
> Papalia, Mello, Palmisano, Pecora, Provenzano, Sbarbaro - attests to the
> role Italo-Americans played in the music's first years. It is a field ripe
> for further research."
>
> Back then there was a style of clarinet playing called the "Sicilian
> School". Very flowery, very adaptable to jazz. Many of the early
> clarinetists in N.O. were products of, or influenced by this style.
>
> Guys like Nunzio Scaglione, Charlie Cordilla and others are some that come
> to mind.
>
> So look out, Bill Haesler, Guido is ever jealous of his contention that:
>
> Italians invented jazz.:-) VBG.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
>
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