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Rating: A double bass string plucked, brushes gently touching a snare drum and hi-hat, nimble fingers on a baritone sax and a trumpet wielded like a blade. Judging jazz technically requires years of study, judging it emotionally requires sensitivity.
If an acoustic vibration is capable of producing an inner vibration, it means we’re there.
This is the case that led me to see Paolo Fresu perform at dokkhuset in Trondheim. A coincidence that brought two fellow countrymen, who had traveled totally different paths, to meet in front of a glass of wine to exchange opinions and share laughs with Norwegians about the famous casu martzu (the cheese with worms). Casu martzu, which, under the pseudonym of "the jumping cheese," gave the title to the performance of the subtrio and Paolo Fresu.
An hour and a half of "pulling," interrupted only by occasional breaks. Despite the little time available for rehearsals (10 minutes between beers, according to the trumpeter himself) Fresu's trumpet seamlessly integrated into the weave woven by the Norwegian trio, dueting with John Pål Inderberg's sax and gifting the audience with moments of high-class jazz.
The succession of themes dictated by the trio and Fresu’s effortless playing gave the concert that slightly naive air that made everything seem extremely simple, fluid as water, refined in its inherently complex nature.
Halfway through the concert Paolo went up on stage alone. A man and his trumpet, as if stripped of the musical garment previously woven by the Scandinavian trio. Fifteen uninterrupted minutes of pure feeling modulated with three fingers, alternating between shrill and cold, then solid and warm tones in a sinuously decorated progression; ten minutes of eros between a man and his instrument in an emotional crescendo that warmed the hearts of the audience, culminating in a liberating applause that tasted like a thank you, a desire to return at least part of the vibrations received.
And only now do I understand the words spent on Fresu by far more renowned journalists, who described him now leaning back with his trumpet as if searching for the sky, now gathered in an almost fetal position as if communicating with the stage through sound vibrations. Only now do I understand.
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