Jazz breaking news: Ambrose Akinmusire and Miguel Zenón fire up Siena Jazz Foundation Summer Workshop

The Siena Jazz Foundation was instrumental in launching jazz schooling in Italy

Well before jazz departments in Italian conservatories existed, the Siena Jazz Foundation was providing progressive combo-class workshops where students could rub shoulders with top practicing musicians. When asked what inspired him to set up the academy in 1977, director Franco Caroni said: “At the time, there was nowhere around here where we, a group of musicians from Siena, could learn about jazz. We were playing prog-rock and getting into more complex forms of improvisation but we didn’t have anyone to learn from. We had to break ground at the time. So we invited advanced practising musicians from Milan and Rome to Siena to teach us.” During the first summer course of 1977, 36 students enrolled; that winter 47 had. “From there, I started to do research and realised there was no jazz school, no teaching, no single masterclasses for instruments, nothing organic. There was a need to be addressed; that was the inspiration.

Ex-Weather Report tour mates Perigeo collaborated with Caroni to initiate Siena Jazz Foundation

Members of legendary fusion outfit Perigeo, whose albums include 1972’s Azimut and 1974’s Genealogia, helped stage the first ever workshop classes. During the summer, saxophonist Claudio Fasoli, keyboardist Franco D’Andrea and drummer Bruno Biriaco taught listening technique, harmony, theory and ear training, and bassist Giovanni Tommaso also joined the faculty that winter. Fasoli writes in Siena Jazz history book ‘Siena, i luoghi del jazz:’ “...it was at S. Quirico d’Orcia, in the province of Siena, that I had the chance to meet Franco Caroni in the late-70s: after a concert in which he had performed with his group, and after the performance of the group Perigeo of which I was a member.

“We met some time later at the top of a hill on the outskirts of Siena: there was a little house there where Franco’s group rehearsed. The creation of a repertoire gave us the possibility to speak about improvisation, scales, chords, timings etc.; this repertoire was then used in a concert which was performed a couple of days later in Siena in a beautiful room full of people and enthusiasm. This was the start of Siena Jazz.”

From its humble inception, the foundation gradually developed into a degree-granting university and leading-edge research centre

Since its early summer/winter combo classes in 1977, the foundation has generated over 700 courses catering for a range of musical ability, and, as of last year, became a degree-level institution. Led by the three-pronged approach of “didactics, production and research,” the foundation offers a workshop in September for less advanced musicians, musical formation classes, jazz diplomas and the Arigo Polillo, a leading-edge research centre which has access to more than 30,000 sound archives (many of which cannot be found elsewhere), 5000 books and thousands of magazines. Says Francesco Martinelli, head of the research centre: “The important point is that Siena Jazz is not just a festival, not just a school, and not just a research centre...it is these three things at once. The plan, the ideal is to have them continually in conversation in the same building.”

Some of jazz’s finest practitioners are also the most inspired educators

Not all great musicians make the best teachers, but, nevertheless, the master performers that led the workshops are also genuinely high-class tutors. Says Martinelli: ”We select the teachers based on two factors: one is that they’re making interesting music; the other is that they play together with the students. We also select the teachers that have patience for teaching. I have to say 100% of the musicians we invite are independent of nationality, race, colour, type of music.” Naturally, each one adopted their own unique style: New York bassist Ben Street appointed the ‘tough love’ approach, whereby some students are commanded to turn their back on their associates so they can focus solely on their own playing; trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire pontificates on the importance of “hitting the centre of the note;” powerhouse Italian drummer Roberto Gatto prefers to be free-flowing, allowing his students space to develop their own individual voices; and American guitarist Nir Felder drums into his students that “...preparation is everything. Know every note you’re playing and what function it has, because the chef won’t create a masterpiece without prep work.”

Beautiful locations bring out the best in musicians

Siena is undoubtedly one of the most stunning cities in Europe. Left virtually untouched since the 12th Century, the pedestrianised city is replete with peaky gothic architecture, gorgeously splayed piazzas, and terracotta townhouses and packed, shaded trattorias. Needless to say, its aura of good health and history makes for an inspiring place to conjure jazz - especially when your quarters are a 500-year-old, red-brick fortress, a relic of the time when nearby Florence held Siena under armed occupation.

Meanwhile, evening open-air concerts take on a heightened sense of drama thanks to the surrounding architecture, whether pitched near the the dazzlingly sculpted Roman Catholic cathedral, Il Duomo, or the fading grandeur of the Fonte d’Orvile (mediveal fountain). Fasoli Four’s taut, chiming, highly detailed fusion seems well suited against Il Duomo’s finely carved, polychrome marble facade, while Miguel Zenón and Ambrose Akinmusire’s exhilarating call-response riffing more or less peals brighter and more vigorously than the adjacent cathedral’s bell.

You’re going to hear a lot from Brooklyn-based guitarist Nir Felder in the future

Although he hasn’t released solo material, young guitarist Nir Felder has created somewhat of a stir as a hired gun, notably as sideman to legendary altoist Greg Osby. The 2005 graduate of Berklee College of Music, who won the Jimi Hendrix Award from the college’s guitar department, has also wowed audiences around the world with his sophisticated, voice-like streams and lightly processed textures. Ensconced in the courtyard of Siena University’s office, backed up by saxophonist Michael Blake, double-bassist Ben Street and drummer Roberto Gatto, Felder plays with soulful simplicity. His compositions, like the moody rock ballad Code, verge on post-rock-like meditativeness. Clearly a player influenced by pop as well jazz, soul as well as blues, Felder is versatile, and unlike many guitarists currently doing the rounds, has emerged with a fully-formed, idiosyncratic voice.

Spotlighting the next generation, even among the professional musicians, is the unbilled theme of the workshops

It goes without saying, the focus of this two-week course is to nurture tomorrow’s stars. And among the 120 international students, there are some outstanding players. At the ’Fonte d’ Ovile, Israel’s Tal Yalhalom, clearly a disciple of John Scofield’s back catalogue, plays cleanly, lightly and fluently. Meanwhile, a young quintet led by three alto saxophonists (London-based Joe Stout, Wales-born Alice Leggett and Germany’s Niko Seibold), run down head-turning versions of Cole Porter’s Everything I Love and Sam Rivers’ ballad Beatrice.

– Jamie Skey

For more info on future courses in Sienna go to www.sienajazz.it/en