THE BLUEBEATERS “LIVE IN KOLN 2017”

Happy to be part of the fellowship… My b&w frame for The Bluebeaters music-cassette Live in Köln 2017 (by Dirt Tapes) inside sleeve.

VILLEFRANCHE-SUR-MER TREMÉ JAZZ FESTIVAL COMING…

– Villefranche-sur-Mer, January 14, 2023 –

New Orleans singer and trumpeter James Andrews, a.k.a. The Satchmo of the Ghetto, and Swiss pianist and composer Frank Salis along with a group of experienced French musicians (Gaetän Thomas, Kevin Saura and Pascal Masson) have officially launched the Villefranche-sur-Mer Tremé Jazz Festival (September 7-10, 2023) with a show at La Citadelle Auditorium.

Association J.A.12 founder Monique Bornstein, the experienced Swiss promoter and producer Nicolas Gilliet and City authorities introduced the musicians and announced the Festival.

Andrews’ and Salis’ s music performance allowed the large audience (not only French jazz lovers, but also a considerable number of Americans and Italians) to appreciate the first musical notes of what will be the soundtrack of the Festival in early September.

While awaiting the first official communications regarding the Festival, my suggestion is listen to High in the Sky, the latest Frank Salis album featuring the best musicians from New Orleans.

IRENE AND STEWART

I’m really pleased with this shot I took in June… Irene Grandi and Stewart Copeland together for “The Witches Seed” rock opera.
More frames… And the full interview with Irene and Stewart in Plug n’ play magazine, December 2022 issue. ENJOY!

FRANK SALIS’ “SYMPATHY FOR THE DEAVIL” TEASER

NOVEMBER 19, 2022… FINALLY… OUT… The amazing cover of Sympathy for the Devil by Frank Salis feat. Anders Osborne (by NicOLAsound)!!!

The perfect mix between late Sixties Rolling Stones’ rock mood and the cajun spirit of New Orleans.

Rhythms and melodies accompanied by black and white photography imaginary and an esoteric video narrative by Matteo Ceschi and Federico Ramponi. ENJOY!

COLLABORATING WITH THE BLUEBEATERS

Collaborating with The Bluebeaters: it meant marrying my cultural background to that of the musicians and identifying a visual and sonic continuity between “me” and “them”. 

PRESENT: Turin and Milan, today. 

PAST: Coventry and London in the late Seventies. 

A melting pot of… Sounds, experiences and dreams: all recorded in black and white… as it came.  

CLICK after CLICK… Coventry and London… CLICK after CLICK… Milan and Turin… An exciting roundtrip. CLICK after CLICK… The Bluebeaters and… The soul of The Specials… 

MANUEL AGNELLI: STUDIO SESSION AND NEW ALBUM

A bunch of shots taken in April during Manuel Agnelli‘s studio session for new solo album “Ama il prossimo tuo come te stesso” (In stores September 30, Island Records/Universal Music Italia)

When the Soul focuses… The lights dim to leave room for the flow of music…

STEWART COPELAND’S “THE WITCHES SEED” WITH IRENE GRANDI

Waiting for Stewart Copeland’s The Witches Seed première at Tones Teatro Natura (Oira Crevoladossola, July 22 and 23), you can read a preview of the interview with Mr. Copeland and singer and actress Irene Grandi which will appear in the autumn in the Swiss musical magazine Pnp. The soprano Maddalena Calderoni (artistic director of The Witches Seeds) and Veronica Granatiero will play alongside Irene Grandi the songs written by iconic Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders.

From rock music to Opera. And what’s more, an Opera realized in Italy, the country of Opera. Stewart, what can you tell us?

SC: Writing and composing an opera in Italy is a dream, a daydream, it’s the best I can aspire to, it’s the dream that comes true. The Witches Seed is a rock opera? Mmmm, maybe it’s a “rockopera”… Maybe a “ropera”… it sounds better, don’t you think so? Something partly new.

Opera combines music and words but does so with a different approach than the pop(ular) song. What was your approach for The Witches Seed?

SC: Language is melody, any language is a melody in its most intimate essence. Music, if you notice, helps dialogue. The music guides everything, music is a powerful storyteller, and it’s always the music in a dialogue that passes and filters good and bad feelings. This is an experiment, I admit it, an attempt to bring rock music and a rock mood into Opera and perhaps bring young people and rock audiences closer to “cultured music”, to Opera.

Irene, on what occasion did you meet Stewart for the first time?

IG: I met Stewart Copeland just when The Witches Seed was in preparation and I must say that he has a truly sunny character, full of interests and vitality. Stewart is a vibrant person, a person who has a beautiful relationship with creativity, a man who wasn’t just satisfied of the success achieved with the Police but always wanted to evolve his music and art.

How did you find yourself interpreting the lyrics written by Chrissie Hynde for the Opera?

IG: I was delighted to interpret the songs written by Chrissie Hynde, a singer and composer I love very much, since her beginnings with the Pretenders. I have always found Chrissie Hyde a great innovator, a woman and an artist able to bringing female rock towards a great diffusion on an international level with very distinctive and original songs. I must say that her voice, well, it resonates quite well with mine, as it has low tones that are a bit “unusual” for female vocal standards. So it was a gift, a huge gift, to be able to try my hand at her songs.

STEWART COPELAND: INCLUDING A TOUCH OF…

<The curiosity and creativity that Stewart Copeland expresses go far beyond having been “The Drummer of the Police”. This couple of shots taken by Matteo Ceschi reveal Copeland’s art in a clear and direct way, including a touch of madness.>

(Giovanni Pollastri, author of The Police. Many Miles Away, 2018)

“MR. TRAINSPOTTING” – IRVINE WELSH

“By definition, you have to live until you die. Better to make that life as complete and enjoyable an experience as possible, in case death is shite, which I suspect it will be.” (Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, 1993)

When I first read Trainspotting I realized I was very fond of alcohol and even more of music. Irvine Welsh impressed me as well as John Belushi did. Mr. Welsh’s prose has made everything more real and less “boyish” by transforming the wandering from one party to another into an apprenticeship… that is… both crazy but meticulous… And it has transformed me into the sonic lover and the cultural agitator I am today.

(Thanks to Nicola and Gabriele – Serendeepity Milano)

PORTRAYING THE DEEP LANGUAGE OF LIVE MUSIC

Portraying the deep language of live music… NO FILTER allowed… Soul-to-Soul… Just a sequence of CLICK… For catch the clear moment when Joan As Police Woman bewitched the Milanese audience… Soul-to-Soul… I need time for another shot… I need another clear moment, and another one, and… I need another heart-to-heart talk… CLICK…