By Michele Merenda
At the Southbank Centre the Italian jazz player Stefano Bollani, on Saturday 31st March, proved to be one of the most versatile talents of the European musical outline. This versatility, beyond his unquestionable musical skills, was especially showed in the approach to the public. Since the beginning the audience was attracted by his capacity of joking, first of all on himself. Then, between a desecrating version of For Elisa – taken from an old long playing of his grandmother, he said, which jumped at every turn! – and another one as much avant-gardistic as crazy of La Vie En Rose, Bollani also performed some piano jazz which created tension and desire in the listeners, thanks to very quickly-repeated notes and important variations to every turn of bar. His music has a very strong Fellinian taste: abstract, distant and foggy, but exquisitely Italian images.
If during the first part the concert was ruled by the cabaret brusque gestures of the very pleasant Stefano, the second saw a major thoughtful care. Memorable was the version of Let’s Move to Cleveland by Frank Zappa. If we think about that track, Bollani could have not chosen a better piece in the mare magnum of the Italian-American Maestro: in fact, it is one of those avant-gardistic sounds, very technical and irreverent at the same time, which for its particular structure has always been perfect for many different interpretations. But the best maybe was Don’t Talk by The Beach Boys. A very sweet interpretation where no words were needed, indeed.
Since not even Bollani can run away from himself, he stepped back to pure and true cabaret: in fact, he told the audience about when he was 9 years old, used to listen to the Rag Timeby Scott Joplin and play it at the same speed he heard… and then, one day, his father entered Stefano’s room and regulate the turntable pitch adjustment: for Stefano it was a nightmare to discover that the piece actually sounded slower! Among these jokes he played one of his own Rag Time compositions: La Sicilia.
During the encore, Bollani invited the audience to give to him more or less ten titles for a medley. After hearing the requests, he exclaimed: “Yo, are you all Italians? I’ve been speaking English all the time, tonight!”. Well, honestly, that night there was an imposing Italian participation. The medley was something cheering. The Italian jazz player melted Gold Finger, Satisfaction, Azzurro, Purple Haze, Summertime and other wonderful melodies in a great melange deserving a standing ovation. The show concluded with Copacabana, a song he had written for the Italian singer Paolo Conte, whose imitation was especially appreciated by the Italian people. The twisted text, with parts by Satisfaction and Purple Haze, and a mimic final worthy of the best Antonio De Curtis (aka Toto’), sanctioned an excellent soloist debut in England.
Judging by the final result, we suppose that Bollani will come back here quite soon.
The videointerview with Stefano Bollani is available on our website www.giorgiostudio.co.uk.
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