Saturn Biographies:Francesco Martinelli
Saturn Biographies:
In the early seventies in my town a small group of jazz lovers was discovering the pleasures of the new thing(s) including Sun Ra's music. Stefano Arcangeli, contributor to Musica Jazz magazine, was among the first to write about Sun Ra in the Italian jazz press; Roberto Terlizzi, then contributing to Coda, ran around town on a broken-down motorbike painted red and gold with the Saturn insignia, and was one of the very few Europeans at the time able to write down at sight all the names of the Sun Ra Arkestra during a performance: see his review on the Canadian magazine of the Antibes concert. I was exposed then to the Space is the Place music, and never recovered the shock.
That very same group of people was able to start in 1975 an international "jazz" festival where the likes of Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Cecil Taylor, Leo Smith, Leroy Jenkins, Milford Graves, Steve Lacy and many more were invited to play along with the leading innovators from Europe and Italy. One of our goals was to invite the Sun, and it really happened in 1979 with two famed concerts, one in Pisa and one in Florence, in two classic gardens.
I was privileged to escort Sunny to the Leaning Tower site where he marched proudly around the monuments in full planetary headgear, feeling the spirit of the site, while Japanese tourists shot a zillion pictures. I was able to attend other performances by the Arkestra both in Italy and abroad, but the Pisa concert still has a very special place in my heart: when the musicians swarmed all over the place I saw Gilmore, who was sleeping with his saxophone band around the neck, get out of the bus and instantly begin to practice between hedges and old walls.
I contributed articles on Sun Ra for musiche and Musica Jazz magazines, and the entry I wrote about Big Bands for the Italian Black Music Encyclopedia features the Arkestra as the highest and final point of that tradition. I also found Italian material for John Szwed's book. While my contribution is acknowledged, I feel that for lack of space (pun intended) the last years of Sunny's stay on Earth were treated quite shortly and there's a lot more to be said. I'm translating that splendid book in my language anyway, hoping to find a publisher for it.
Hopefully the efforts of eminent Saturnians like RLC and Joe will further and deepen the appreciation of Sonny's music that is beginning to spread.
Complete CV on request - available for gigs as a lecturer about European Free Improvised Music, as I did at Wesleyan, NYU and Tulane in USA, and several places in Europe.
Francesco Martinelli
Lungarno Mediceo 10
56127 PISA ITALY
F.Martinelli@finsystem.it (home)
f.martinelli@comune.pisa.it (work)
fax 050 3137502
Please note: from June 19 to dial italian numbers from abroad you will have to INCLUDE the zero from the area code: then to send me a fax the number to dial will be 0039 050 313 75 02.
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