Roscoe Mitchell and John Zorn, these two names would be enough to disturb the sleep of many timid local artistic directors, who are more concerned about the theater they need to fill than the artistic depth of their proposals.
In Turin demonstrated that it is possible to sell out with names that do not caress or please but stimulate and attack, no music for aperitifs but food for the mind and spirit.
And if the fascination for the torrential and hyper-prolific Zorn was predictable, the public response to the Chicago jazz legend Roscoe Mitchell was not at all obvious, nor was his musical proposal, rigorous and not at all inclined to easy listening.
The saxophonist, now aged 84, appears on the stage of Sala 500 with a double bass saxophone, an alto and a set of small percussions, well assisted and prodded by the impressionist imagination of Michele Rabbia on drums and countless instruments. The result is an intense and tense set, with Mitchell mainly playing the double bass saxophone, with admirable skill and an impressive ability to breathe circularly on the instrument.
At the end Mitchell appeared visibly moved by the thunderous tribute of applause from the entire room, but he has represented a piece of the history of our music for at least sixty years, never compromised and always lucid in his direction, and the audience on their feet was perfectly happy with this. aware.
The evening features Zorn’s New Masada quartet, a renewed but always stimulating version of a mix of music that ranges from free jazz to Middle Eastern atmospheres and timbres.
Told like this it would seem simple, but the continuous stop and go, the crazy collective accelerations and the sense of blues that innervates Julian Lage’s guitar compose an ever-changing picture, in constant evolution, under the iron direction of a more inspired Zorn than ever before.
The rhythm section made up of Kenny Wollesen on drums and Jorge Roeder on double bass is formidable in terms of power, flexibility and timing, above this pounding carpet the sax and guitar rage with raids at supersonic speed.
Full of energy that involves and overwhelms, the Auditorium explodes in a hurricane of applause but after an hour the four switch off and leave an audience in delirium.
Great day of music. But then is it possible to fill a theater even without the usual suspects? It seems so, courage artistic directors!
