# Blue Note Club in Milan: High-quality dates that have also always been rewarded by a full room … Videos, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2024/11/20/blue-note-club-in-milan-high-quality-dates-that-have-also-always-been-rewarded-by-a-full-room-videos-photos/
- Published: 2024-11-20T00:03:45+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Blue Note Club in Milan. This venue has been involved in the Jazz Blues EU program
since the beginning; during the pandemic it changed management, with a new setup
of the service in the room and above all of the artistic programming.**

In this last regard, I must say that the change was definitely for the better. Alongside
highly popular events that serve to support a private initiative with considerable
structural costs (it has 300 seats, and its size and comfort often amazes many American
jazzmen), dates with high-level international jazz groups appear more and more frequently:
just mention the concert of Vijay Iyer’s trio on October 9th.

High-quality dates that have also always been rewarded by a full room: we hope that
repeated successes will encourage us to dare even more.

The ‘new’ Blue Note has therefore become the second pillar of the Festival, alongside
Jazz Blues EU in the most demanding proposals from an economic and organizational
point of view, essential to provide a complete picture of the heart of the contemporary
scene, especially American.

![](https://i0.wp.com/traccedijazz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/01-2-600x4101399011119899980519-
1.jpg?resize=640%2C438&ssl=1)

Christian McBride with Benny Green and Gregory Hutchinson

The most fitting example is that of the evening of November 1st with Christian McBride,
an absolute champion of the acoustic bass, but who in recent years has increasingly
emerged as a leader of original and well-established groups.

The evening was also marked by a pilgrimage to one’s roots: in this case the great
bassist Ray Brown, mentor to McBride, and ultimately leader of pianist Benny Green
and drummer Gregory Hutchinson. The tone was lighter than the previous occasions
with Ottaviano and Frisell, the joy of playing and recalling prevailed: it was a
sort of concert-conversation, in which each of the three musicians brought his own
contribution of knowledge, both on the person and on Brown’s music.

One of the most beautiful things about Ray, is 1976, note the partners

And so we learned that in addition to being a veteran of many seasons of modern 
jazz, Ray was also a profound connoisseur of the music industry (in view of the 
opening of the first Blue Note in New York, the managers asked for his advice, McBride
firmly emphasizes).

Even less obvious was the evocation of Brown’s talents as an arranger, who had so
much skill and creativity to get his hands on the scores of a true genius of the‘
charts’ like Neal Hefti. And with this common thread it was possible to give continuity
and homogeneity to a setlist full of modern standards revised by Ray’s pen, and 
re-proposed with verve and brilliance by the trio. On this side, Green’s incisive
and dynamic piano playing stood out; Hutchinson’s drumming was so exuberant that
it overshadowed McBride’s full-bodied bass a little.

An instrument that I would have liked to hear a little more in evidence for the 
beauty of its sound and the loose ductility of its phrasing, but evidently the great
McBride is a democratic leader and not very jealous of his indisputable supremacy.
In any case, time flies and you leave with a smile on your lips, which doesn’t happen
that often.

![](https://i0.wp.com/traccedijazz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/2685-joe-lovano-
trio-tapestry_pf21928870773502468930.jpg?resize=640%2C443&ssl=1)

The tribute to Ray Brown, in an edition that sees Karriem Riggins in place of Hutchinson
on drums. Here too, Rollins appears, evidently one of McBride’s ‘crushes’

The atmosphere of the appointment with Joe Lovano’s Tapestry trio is different. 
Unlike McBride’s somewhat occasional one, this combo is cemented by a long common
militia and by three studio sessions for ECM starting in 2019. Lovano is now a familiar
figure for the Italian public, and will become even more so thanks to his current
artistic direction of Bergamo Jazz.

Tapestry is a delicate creature whose rarefied and airy music requires total understanding
and telepathic dialogue between three musicians who each give a different face to
the trio. Compared to the last album ‘Our Daily Bread’, I had two main curiosities:
that for Marylin Crispell’s piano, and to verify the trio’s ability to shake off
a certain cold atmosphere of the recording (we are still in the ECM house after 
all…).

The Tapestry in a beautiful shot by Bart Babinsky, which recalls Lovano’s curious
passion for an assorted set of small percussions, which compete in subtlety with
Castaldi’s elusive drumming

The entire trio together is rare, more frequent dialogues between the members, and
also windows of solo expression. The underlying key to the group’s music is the 
space that inhabits it, and which at the same time enhances its subtle and precious
voices.

![](https://i0.wp.com/traccedijazz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/blue-note-milano.
jpg?resize=640%2C429&ssl=1)

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