In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

arrigo cappelletti 6 / ACROSS EUROPE IMPROVISATION AS A REAL AND METAPHORICAL JOURNEY ‘‘March of the pilgrims singing their evening prayer’’ The long line of those who want to see Travels around the world Little ants looking for beauty. Eyes like coins that shine To support this overflowing Economy of the visible. It looks like an ex voto, instead it is a pay per view, The ‘‘pay and see’’ of new pilgrims that are looking for the sanctuaries of di√erence and that while looking for them erase them Cruel paradox of love for traveling: Midas and Tantalus su√ering from the same torture! valerio magrelli Sad word, tourists valery larbaud European Jazz and the Myth of the Journey S ince its beginning in the thirties of the last century, jazz has been experienced in Europe as a turning point, the ultimate exile, the conquest of a new ‘‘citizenship of the world,’’ as something searching for the instinct, spontaneity, and energy that are free at last and that stand as the symbol for Africa, black America, and to an extent also for white America. You cannot play jazz remaining European. Just like our emigrants traveled to America a few decades ago, jazz music gives the myth of ‘‘the American dream’’ a cultural meaning, and it does it in a moment when Europe is trying to turn over a new leaf during and after fascism. Gianni Coscia, the accordionist, told me a joke they used to make in Italy in the fifties. When you heard someone play good jazz in Milan they said: ‘‘It feels like we’re over there,’’ where the mythic ‘‘over there’’ was represented by America at the time. This is a revealing joke. 124 a r r i g o c a p p e l l e t t i In those years jazz fans felt like outcasts, distant from their own communities. You wanted to be part of a bigger, cosmopolitan community, the ‘‘jazz community ,’’ as it was and is still called by many jazzmen. This feeling of non-belonging was doomed to create problems especially during fascism; that is the reason why fascism always looked on jazz music with distrust and even tried to stop its di√usion. Nowadays things have changed. Traveling abroad has now become an ordinary thing for Europeans; traveling abroad no longer is a turning point in one’s life, as it was in the fifties. In many cases it is American jazz (and African and Asian jazz) that looks on Europe as a potential source of renewal and not only because of the higher fees it o√ers. The Europe they are looking on is not only that of classical music, which has been an inspiration for American jazz since the thirties. It was so inspiring that it led to the birth of the Third Stream jazz in the fifties; the Third Stream jazz is a no-man’s-land between jazz and classical music. One of the examples of this kind of music is represented by Uri Caine, who successfully combined Mahler and the klezmer sound, but who wasn’t as successful with Mozart’s or Beethoven ’s music. Nowadays many American jazzmen look on Europe as the home of a freer and more unconventional jazz, which leads at times to a funny exchange between European jazzmen who look on an America that no longer exists and American jazzmen who look on a Europe that does not exist yet. This is evidence that European jazz, even if it no longer feels inferior to American jazz, is still deeply influenced by the concept of journey. European Jazz simply transformed the journey from a life-changing experience and turning point to a kaleidoscope of events and experiences. Europe still considers itself as the starting point but not as the final destination. If we want to understand ourselves and the world we live in, we have to free ourselves from the idea that ‘‘old Europe matters.’’ You have to travel, see and experience many things, despite what an ‘‘old Europe’’ member, Robert Musil, maintained: ‘‘Having too many experiences is a prerogative of fools.’’ But since actual traveling is now underrated, you travel with your imagination, and not just in one country like Emilio Salgari did, but you easily and freely go from one place to the other re-creating, revisiting, and remaking things. America is no longer the myth. The myth is the world, which is only partly globalized. Jazz...

Share