“Remind the gap” concert at the Roma Summer Jazz Festival, September 3rd, 2014
Maria Pia De Vito: voice
Claudio Filippini: piano, keyboards
Luca Bulgarelli: bass
Walter Paoli: drums
There are many gaps that the Empress of the Italian vocal jazz filled in with this precious gig at the Rome Summer Jazz Festival. Starting with being back in concert again with her band from Mind the Gap, her very refined album from 2009 that contained original compositions and covers, from Hendrix to Björk. And while we thought we had just paid the price of a concert ticket, we had instead the privilege of assisting to a reunion, and witness a vibrant joy that filled the stage with twinkling smiles, glances, gestures and playfulness.
The other gap is political, social: De Vito puts it before with her sweet force that there is a distance to fill, a gap that becomes as wide as an ocean: the one between reality and fiction, between presence and indifference, between knowing and pretending not to know, between acting and just looking at half-dead migrants on a boat. Presenting one of her original compositions, “Zoobab De Ouab”, she quotes McLuhan as he remarked that "narcissistic" and "narcosis" have the same root.
The last gap in which she is involved filling up is the one between Rome and jazz music: this festival is the result of a precise will to leave at least ONE summer jazz festival in the capital despite the financial cuts. Organizing the Rome Summer Jazz Festival was almost an act of creed by the managers, but the audience rewarded them with their constant presence, like this evening’s warm and fascinated crowd.
The set list could meet anyone’s taste; from original songs to old and new covers, sung in all possible fashions, from an intimate and classic style to her famous voice-playing and noising, also using a loop. As only Demetrio Stratos (singer of the famous Italian progressive group “Area”) was able to do in Italy, she uses and plays her voice like a polyphonic instrument, bending it to expressiveness that never fall into virtuosity for its own sake. Regardless of her stylistic choices, what she communicates − gives, in fact − is a fullness of essence, an assertive assurance, that for my very personal taste is at its best when the tracks are distant from tradition.
The band expresses great balance: the young and playful acrobatic pianist Claudio Filippini − to mention one thing − gives a quick hint of “My Favorite Things” during Hendrix's “If 6 Was 9”, just like that, making drummer Walter Paoli (currently with the Area) smile widely. His rich variety and intensity of touch carries the rhythm all along, and it reaches its zenith when he duets splendidly with Maria Pia in “Zoobab De Ouab”. Last but indeed not least, Luca Bulgarelli on bass conveys an almost meditative concentration in his beautiful playing, becoming self-hypnotic, as he is able to pull out of his bass deep and unusual pitches, especially in the beautiful “Zoobab De Ouab” solo.