CHAMPIONS IN NEW YORK

... we were here, with all our hearts ...

IT'S OURS

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME

Be patient and navigate the whole gallery, it's worth it... Hope they don't kill the link too soon!

when in Italy...

A few priceless moments I brought back from Italy:

1. The perfect silence descending on Milan (and the rest of the country) when a world cup game begins. You think absolute silence is that hiatus in sound preceding a storm? Think again: think my team, on a field, as the first notes of our national anthem are played (and on another note: to all German fans in the stadium who booed it, well, see the finger?)

2. Umbria, for Terni jazz.
The music: check out bassist Michel Benita's latest cd, "Drastic" > when jazz meets electronica and they actually shake hands. I asked him what were his sources of inspiration, he replied: Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Amon Tobin, DJ Krush, Matthew Herbert, Massive Attack, Autechre, Murcof (absolutely great minimalistic house/ambient check it out if you haven't yet), Telefon Tel Aviv, Talvin Singh... His performance at the Terni amphitheater was absolutely stunning. What is also stunning is the fact that he only started dabbing in electronica one year ago.


The music #2: Maria Joao > her performances are like exorcisms, her voice ranges from child-like whimsical blabbers to guttural shrieks, with moments of intense, poetic, lyrical, stunningly beautiful phrasing. She puts on a show, dances, gestures, very dramatic diva is she. This time, though, she was aided by a very special effect: the "Marmore" waterfall, first started by the Romans, now commanded by a switch, it started pouring water as soon as she hit the last note. The stage was just a few meters from it, we were handed raincoats and watched mist and music dissolve in the night...


The people: went to Collescipoli, a small town near Terni, built atop a hill in Umbria, fortified, with a few hundred souls. That's where the jazz magazine I write for has its headquarters, believe it or not. That's where my editor-in-chief rents a whole turret for 600 Euros a month and gets to enjoy a view like this:



The people #2: it was like building a new family in 4 days. Such great people, so welcoming and generous and fun! And so in love with jazz! Operating hours where 9am-4am. All the time, we'd be listening to a concert, a cd preview, a conference or workshop, eating, drinking, laughing out loud. Really, what more could I possibly want? Well, maybe... Rome...>>>

3. Rome: I can't wait to go back. And to eat more of that coffee granita with vanilla gelato E. made me try. I owe him one. Well actually more than one: what did I just say about very interesting encounters, hehe?

4. Liguria: freshly baked focaccia at 8am on the way back from my run, fritto misto, more gelato, pesto. Watching Italy's game with Croatia in a bar on a caruggio (Liguria's typical alleys), sun sun sun (I'm the color of burnt caramel, in some areas at least), THE SEA.

The only place where you can enjoy a private moment in your hotel room, with your camera, oblivious to the world only to look out of the window and see a nun, wearing white and staring at you (she was washing the banister of a balcony: the minute after she gave this sly wicked smile, winked, looked left and right and swwwwwosh! she emptied her bucket of dirty water on the street! Was it a code message for me?).


The day after, another nun, dressed in black, was hanging her laundry in the sun, while chanting "Hail Mary".


The only place where people can afford to be terribly blase' about their Ferraris, parking them next to trash bins. After all, we make Ferraris.



Since I opened with silence, let me close with it as well. Here's where I ate on my last night there, the so- called "bay of silence", "baia del silenzio".

Ain't it somethig? Enjoy the silence.

G+G

No matter what happens on Sunday, last night was memorable.

Team Italia can make you miserable one minute and ecstatic the minute after and then miserable all over again but right now I got 2Gs for my boys. "G" as in "grazie" and "grandi".

No matter what happens on Sunday, they proved they still got game. We got game. VAI ITALIA (and "go" also to my American and British and South African friends who are rooting for us: honorary Italians, so damn cool!)

fresh

Nas is back and he's out for presidents to reperesent him... sort of... anyway from "Hip Hop Is Dead" his first solo disc for Def Jam comes a pretty damm tight new track Where Y'All At . Download it here

Carnegie Hall last night

CARNEGIE HALL - June, 19th
Sweet Lorraine: A Jazz Celebration For The Village Vanguard

The Bad Plus
Roy Hargrove Quintet
with Guest Soloist Bobby Hutcherson
Paul Motian Trio 2000 + One
with Chris Potter, Larry Grenadier & Rebecca Martin
Vanguard Jazz Orchestra
with Guest Soloist Joe Lovano
Dr. Michael White's Original Liberty Jazz Band

Highlights from last night:
*Dr. Michael White's clarinet, olympic champion of glissando and control, and a gipsy rendition of a Second line (never realized how close it sounds, the neworleanian benjo and the sounds of the nomads from Eastern Europe).

*Paul Motian, the most senior of the Vanguard's alumni, always reminding me (don't know why) of Larry David from "Curb your enthusiasm" with stunner Chris Potter (incredible tenor sax). Their set, two flights of free jazz over the cuckoo's nest enclosing a few standards, as in brackets.

*Roy Hargrove Quintet - white sneakers, a flugehorn that for once didn't irritate me, fiery solos on a ritmo caliente latino and ***Bobby Hutcherson and WJ3*** (and myself playing checkers with empty seats to get even closer to the stage and YumYum, who was waving to me from across the hall)

*The Bad Plus. Normally not strictly my favourite. When to many people tell me I have to HAVE TO like something I tend to do the opposite. But I did love "Giant", the way they introduced their first song (This song is called "Mint" and it's in "Perfect condition". Come on, it's funny) and the way the closed the set, a dedication to the Vanguard's Lorraine ("A lot of people say, oh The Bad Plus, it's not real jazz. Well, Lorraine gave us our first break and I guess if it's good enough for Lorraine then... IT'S JAZZ")

40 10 and 9

The only good thing about the game (Italy-Usa 1-1, World Cup 2006, last Saturday) was the company. I formally apologize to all my American pals who sat watching, graciously avoiding to tell us to go the fuck off, us and our team's fould play. What is wrong with team Italia? We have a damn good game in our feet, technique and a tradition in soccer that goes back to before Romolus and Remus but we don't have humility and the spirit of sacrifice anymore. We win one game, we already feel the Cup in our hands. And once we realize it ain't so, that our braggadocio has made us lose focus, we react elbowing people in the face and pulling a Robert De Niro: "Who me? ME??? (hands thrown in the air, disbelief on our faces). I canNOT believe he actually thinks I deliberately broke his nose... "

Pookalu, way into second half: "Is that another Italian being carried out on a stretcher? ANOTHER one?". Yup. Don't we just love drama. Come ON guys, we could be kings of the world(cup) if we wanted to.

'Nuff said. So, to a 4-days long b/day celebration: two nights of jazz (I have two words for you: GUILLERMO KLEIN, oh man!), one night of Indian razzmatazz and one long hot day of Summer soccer. Thank you all for coming out!

(memorable quotes: "So you're turning 40 minus what?". "10 Italians=9 Americans")

this day one year ago

Yesterday I went down to the Foreign Press Center to have my badge renewed. It got me thinking about time: the FPC badge expires every 3 years. My hair was blonde and short in that picture. And only today, after showing the FPC officials a pile of articles (my work!) published in the past few months and seeing their pride (after all, they're the ones who started us all, we rookie foreign journalists, f.o.b.s who couldn't even tell Congress from White House and now look at us we cover THE UN - ok, it's social issues and MUSIC in my case, but you get the gyst), well only then did it really hit me: I've come a long way since I got here.

I also had a highly insipring exchange with one of the FPC officials: me "you look fantastic! You actually look younger than the last time I saw you and certainly younger than I do" (he's one year older). him "sweetie, that's cause I don't let stress get to me".

So here's to myself. (And to all the friends who helped me along the way)


This very same day, one year ago. I like to think I still defy gravity.

(Today I'm 31)

The things you find

Ah, New York City, eternal source of wonder, good-eats and random finds.

Here's to a few nights of discoveries:

* APT's restroom: 1 hotel room key

* APT (el Colombiano found it, where I don't know): compact blue Nautica umbrella with a nice faux walnut root handle
* That song I like from The 25th hour, whose title I always ignored, is "Bra" by Cymande (thank you Duane)
* Prince and Apollonia recorded the demo for "Manic Monday". Wow! I-want-that.
* Two slices at Two Boots are great. Two slices + 3 vodka tonics + Florent's goat cheese omelette with home fries at 5:30am are a recipe for disaster. And why do I always schedule phonecalls with my parents on week-end mornings?
* I can listen forever to a man who knows his music. That how far I'm willing to go for now and who knows how long. Listening.
* Freaky guy from two years ago (is he a drug dealer, is he a gigolo, is he really a Columbia university student and why is he fixated with my manicure?) is alive and well and showing up at APT!
* Nina Simone's all-time fav: Sinnerman, Mississippi Goddamn, See-Line woman.
* Two nights at the Village Vanguard, two sets each night: too much? Not enough! Gospel is a nice place for jazz to be rooted in. And you "Don't knock the swing" (WJ3).
* The fourth item from the top listed in the window of the beauty salon next door to the Vanguard is an 18$ hair CUT. The second letter is a "U", not an "L-I" but it sure looks like it. So if the "U" looks like "L-I" the "18$ hair cut" actually reads like... that. Too funny.
* If 4 aussies, fresh out of music school, decide to pulverize who-knows-how-much money on a two months "field trip" in the New York of jazz and systematically go see two gigs per night, plus the occasional jam, while practicing during the day and occasionally scoring a lesson with one of the musicans, the morale for us is simple: waste energy on what moves you. Find it first. Then let it consume you. Oh, and jazz is amazing food for body and soul.

Stay tuned for my personal recommendations for a month of can't miss jazz. JVC Jazz Fest is upon us.

brother in arts

Open studio day @ Crane studios
46-23 Crane St., LIC New York
(7 train to 45Rd.)

Studio artists on five floors from all over New York City & the world
Classical practices to the most cutting edge expressions
Painting, sculpture, mixed media, multimedia, installation, textile arts, fine jewelry, prints and much more
Building exteriors and stairwells by the aerosol artists of 5Pointz

... My friends in the Arts (Dad in the first place) would have loved this place.

Amazing how in a city that seems to resemble more and more a crochet of solitudes - a matrix with holes - places like this can thrive. Crane studios are a big commune, only apparently a beehive of isolated units this is in fact a place where artists create in a continuum, exchanging ideas, biorythyms (two female artists on the top floor are friends and expecting at the same time: they both have morning sickness and therefore rearranged their schedule in order to work in the afternoon only) and free time (Marissa, 3 floor, got everybody together for a Met game).
Five minutes in one of the 5th floor studios, where 3 friends from Art school regrouped to create, years after graduating (and you can tell, there's more than a similarity in their works) and already I had been invited to a dinner-party in BK by a couple, wife and husband (his craft is cuisine, he tells me, strictly Italian). Wife is German, she's a late addition to the trio of friends from Art school; her style is completely different: at first the three didn't get it, eventually they came to find it oddly inspiring...
I don't want to sound naive: I'm sure there is competition and not everybody dances in circles holding hands but let's keep it romantic and let's assume the majority does, ok?

Art inside out: the walls and stairwells are triumph of graffiti. A group of kids were scraping a huge mural to make space for new work.

string bikinis and wolfheads

"This is blabla for blabla radio, broadcasting live from New York city and very honored to have here in the studio with us... *famous gliz glam electro pop high brow brit duo*"

thundering applause

Live audience in the house. I was there, the tip of my nose brushing the partition glass. I mean, I LOVE *fam gliz glam elec pop high brow brit 2* lady singer.

Even after the neverending soundcheck and the vetos - strictly no pictures, "she can fase out the flashes when playing live in big spaces but in studio you never know, they may set something off..." (translation "the engulfing shades can't do zip if you've played Irving plaza the night before and are not wearing any make up") - yes even so I LOVE her.

Then the interview begins (it's a 2 songs/break/2 songs broadcast) and it goes something like this:

sweet martyr interviewer: so blablabla last night's concert blablabla set started as a slow burner then built it up and set the audience on fire blablabla do you deliberately tease the audience I mean what is your m.o. when deciding the tracklist for your live acts?

diva: mutters something.. silence... giggles... "yeah!"

smi: ok (faking chippertude, but struggling instead) long question short answer. let's move on, blablabla your coreography on stage blablabla animal references blablabla dancers wearing string bikinis and wolfheads

diva: yeah, we like ourselves a dancer in a string bikini and wolfhead, nothing better than that (and this was about the longest sentence she ever spoke)... giggles... coughs, clears her throat (still sexy in a "smoky too many gauloises and glasses of Pernot last week in Paris" way)

smi: blablablabla your sound blablabla can you describe ... creative process?

diva: ... uh... I really don't know... yeah!

smi: blablabla

diva: ... silence .. yeah

smi: OK (forcing enthusiasm in her voice like a turkey in an asshole) another long question short answer.

and so on and so forth

I felt bad for sweet martyr interviewer. I may be biased since I too am a music journalist and I find it extremely frustrating when subjects don't cooperate for no apparent reason (of course, I'll understand completely if you're shy/sick/deaf/enjoying the silence). but diva seemed to have no apparent reason other than her "persona" to act like that, flaky in a very intellectual way, you know? bad girl, too busy for that, creative-process-just-comes-natural-I-can-t-explain-can-you-people-just-let-me-sing?

Now, it helps if as an interviewer you avoid long winding questions which basically already contain the answers to themselves. That is just an accident waiting to happen. try and know your subject first, get his/her style, if you just so smell divadom (or boredom) make your questions short-snappy.

Wear a bikini string and a wolfhead. Ride a white horse.

That said, gliz glam etc. brit duo makes some awesome music. and lady singer - despite divadom, lack of makeup and conspicuous structural collapse of epidermis on her neck (my Dad, gentleman and fashion designer would call it "plisse'") - is still hot.

I think I Ooh la la luv her

I know you got soul

In the back-room (they call it "the cave") of Table50, last night, the light of white candles, bodies weaved in an energy-coil pulsating to the beats&breaks of:

Afrika Bambaataa | Kool DJ Herc | Jazzy Jay
DJ Spinna | Rich Medina | Ge-ology
Eli Escobar | DJ Center

At the light of white candles, pictures of one smiling face, a profile, groups of people, shiny happy people, scenes from a night-life I don't recognize. L.A.?

A girl leans over and points to that face on the pictures, "It's him" she say. She's glowing with pride and has a touching dignity in the way she holds herself up and the tears back.

"Yes, that's it, that's the picture of him I knew" I say. "Did you know him?"
She says something, it gets lost in the notes of "I know you got soul"
"He was your brother?" that's what I think I heard.
"He was my boyfriend" she says.
"How old was he?"
"31" she says.

And funny how one takes for granted the premature cause of death for a 31 years old dj can only be a bullet (Proof) or a disease (Dilla).
DJ Dusk died after being hit by a car. The driver was drunk.

"I just wanted to tell you me and my friend here are from Italy. And we had heard of him even back home. That's how far he's reached. I'm so sorry".
She takes one step forward and hugs me tight. I wish I could have told her something better, something more.

(from an Internet message board) A long-standing member of the world famous Rootdown Sound System and Descarga Familia, Dusk swiftly shifted gears from soul to disco to reggae to latin to hip hop and house. As a student of the late Rob One (RIP), Dusk spent his early years diggin' in the crates with some of LA's finest, including Cut Chemist and Marvelous Marvski... The soul controller and host with the most. Tarek, you are missed

More benefits to come:
LA benefit * Fri 5.12
w/ Afrika Bambaataa | Kool DJ Herc | Jazzy Jay
Cut Chemist | Haul and Mason | Blu Jemz
Pablo Like Picasso & Expo
@ club So-Ho

SF benefit * saturday 13th
w/ Shortcut | Sake 1
The Gaslamp Killer | Fran Boogie
@ Club 6

* more shiny happy people in the house last night (at least the ones I recognized):
Dj Duane
Miss Donielle
DJ Lindsey
Dj Myles
Dj Saucey



www.myspace.com/captanfamily

Coachella 2006

Best male artist
Common because he stages a 4 elements classic hip-hop show (breakdancing included, his own ass on the stage, thus I forgive him for once again serenading the random hottie from the audience) and is just too gorgeous to be true. Kudos to his styilist: rumor has it he used to wear crochet pants.



Cee Lo (1/2 of Gnarls Barkley) because he could move a crowd of zombies and has one of the best voices under pressure. Pure soul voice. This is the difference between a real artist and a spoiled instant-fame golden kid who can't sing and dance at the same time.


Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan and I don't need to explain why.


Best female artist
Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O. Best frontwoman, frontman, everything! Dramatic, intense, crazy, flamboyant. The body arched backwards, mic's head in her mouth, screaming with all the air in her lungs. A fake teardrop on her cheek, punk mime in torn fishnets.


Worst female artist
Lady Sovereign. Goes onstage drunk and stoned, is bored and tired and hot, we feel the same after 5 minutes. No energy, no connection, too bad for an artist known to be a mean-ass tireless rap tornado.

Best act overall, for artistic and strictly personal reasons
DEPECHE MODE. Oh my God Dave Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahann.

Best goosebumps
1-Sun setting while Sigur Ros's Hoppipolla's piano intro fills the air from the Jupiter-sized speakers of the main stage.
2-Cocteau Twins's Liz Frazer on Massive Attack's Teardrop. Unfinished sympathy when I had just finished saying "How I wish they played Unfinished sympathy".
3-Depeche Mode's Home and Enjoy the silence. Time stops when thousands of voices sing in unison "All I ever wanted all I ever needed is here in my arms"
4-Daft Punk's "One more time" under the midnight's moon, people dancing like it was some sort of pagan ritual... "Music got me feeling so free" ...
5-Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Maps". I swear you could hear everybody's heart long for that great love that never was.

Best space-act
Daft Punk, atop a silver pyramid, in robot costumes, with a psychedelic blur of light effects. Danger Mouse (other 1/2 of Gnarls Barkley) as Wiz of Oz's Tin Man.


Best (personal) discovery
Platinum Piped Pipers.


Best impromptu
Interviewing Bloc Party's Kele, in my bathing suit (to my defence: we had just arrived, after a 15 minutes's walk in 100+ degrees).


Best ink and needle tattoos
Moses parting the waters of the Red Sea. An inked spine, following the outline of an actual spine.


Best magic marker tattoo
Random girl, front, back on bare skin, as follows: "I need a miracle" - "That means an extra ticket"

Best button
"Dior not war"

Best audience in the world (according to Karen O)
Coachella's (To be honest, Coachellians are natural born rock-techno cognoscenti. They make, on the other hand, a barely lukewarm hip-hop audience, but that's cool - what counts is loving music, and speaking up for what you like).



Quite a trip, to the desert and back.