Perugia Italy

[ferrari]

O' Sullivan's Irish (Italian) Pub. Really good jazz, at least in July during the Umbria Jazz Festival. The Berklee faculty and their Italian musician/interpreters play every evening during the Berklee jazz clinic, which is held here every year during the festival. Before the faculty starts, the students have an open mic - jam session. Incredible fun, and those Berklee teachers are monsters, especially Bill Pierce on Tenor! WOW!

[gary]

Yup. Take a look at umbriajazz.com for a jaw-dropper.

For those with the means and inclination, Berklee has a two week course with upwards of 250 students and it runs concurrently with the Umbria Jazz Festival (in Perugia).

I was there last year and heard, among other saxophonists, Chris Potter, Joe Lovano, Wayne Shorter, George Garzone, Michael Brecker, and Dino Govoni. Incredible.

Not to mention the Piazza nightly-filled with over a thousand young Italian representatives of the fairer sex...dressed appropriately for hot summer weather. It was a dirty job being there. But somebody had to do it. ; )

[ferrari]

Ditto to everything you said Gary. I took the Berklee Clinic in 1998, when Sonny Rollins played at Umbria Jazz. I was in heaven; especially with all the gorgeous Italian women everywhere. It was also a great experience for me as as a second generation Italian American. I grew up hearing my parents and grandparents speaking Italian, but never really learned to rpeak it, even with a few semesters of Italian in college. Well I must have absorbed plenty, because between the instant Italian translations by the Berklee staff's Italian counterpatrs in the classroom, and hanging out in Perugia for three weeks, by the end of the trip I could understand about half of what I heard in Italian.

My bass player friend Tom and I were kind of an oddity, in that we were two middle aged guys from America, and the rest of the students were mostly Italian, with a few Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Brits, etc. Tom and I were immediatley intimidated by the high level of musicianship among these mostly twenty - something players. One of the better sax players was this short, skinny liitle twelve year old Italian kid. He was pretty full of himself but man this kid smoked.

For those of you in Europe intersted in getting a quick fix of jazz instruction, and hearing great jazz, Berklee's clinic and the Umbria Jazz Festival should not be missed.

If there are any members SOTW members out there who attended the Berklee clinic in 98' please say hi. Ciao

[Lowell]

For those of you touring europe, check www.raygelatn.com and schedule your trip when this band is attending the Umbria Jazz festival in Perugia. Ray Gelato is a great singer and sax player ( Conn ). This group is not to be missed. They are the headliners of the festival so book all your travel arrangements early and buy show tickets asap.
If you check the "hot news" button of the website, you will see that in the past year the group has played Paul McCartney's wedding and several parties for the royal family.

[gary]

Well, glad to see that Lowell is a fan of the "Ice Cream Man". A BIG FAN, LOL. I don't think that with Sonny Rollins and James Brown at the festival, Ray is the headliner, but he and his band are a lot of fun, for sure. Anyone familiar with the Lois Prima lounge act of the late 50's, maybe early 60's too, should enjoy Ray; Louis' act is what Ray's is patterned after.

Normally Ray plays at a huge piazza after the main concerts, so everyone can enjoy the warm Italian evenings, fellowship with a warm, receptive crowd, and do it for free, as well.

Lowell, you might be interested that, at least during last summer, Ray had changed horns to a modern Selmer. Dino Govoni was telling me that Ray was undergoing some pitch adjustments because of the horn change. He passed this along to me because someone we both knew (harumph!) was having some pitch problems on his own Conn:wink:

[Lowell]

I chatted briefly with Ray in Calgary 2 years ago and he was playing the Conn then. With the success of the band in the last year he can now afford the very best. The alto sax player was credited by Ray as being the techno-wizard who kept the saxes playable.
The regular patrons of the small club where he played still talk about that night. The Beat Niq Jazz and Social Club still gets some great acts but The Giants truly set the high water mark for great music and a rollicking good time. Those boys are more than great musicians, they are also great entertainers. They don't just copy the musical style of Louis Prima they capture the stage act of Louis and his band. There may be a few more proficient players but none are more fun. Yes, I am a biased fan. See the Giants in person and you will probably be a fan too.

[gary]

I don't recall his name, but the alto player I heard with Ray last year was an excellent bebop player, to boot.