Domenico Caliri at Barga Jazz Club

Just yesterday there was one of those wonderful discussions which erupt out of nowhere in Aristo's bar concerning creativity. What started the ball rolling was a person who works backstage in the theatre and who feels a strong dividing line between actors, front of stage – "the creatives" and those who work backstage – "the technicians" He even managed to draw a fine line between those who design the sets (tainted in his view by creativity) and those people who actually build the sets. A well known jazz musician who was drawn into the argument was then verbally savaged when he attempted to add his own view point. It was pointed out that as a jazz musician his creativity was limited anyway. To his incredulous disbelief he was told that jazz music is so well defined, it has so many rules of what is jazz and what is not jazz, that creativity is heavily limited inside a set boundary. We all know jazz music when we hear it and we all recognise when it steps outside of the jazz format. There was more talk to back up this theory involving the use of "jazz standards" variations on a theme and jazz improvisation. Needless to say he argued his case for creativity inside the jazz genre with force and feeling. In fact all he had to do was wait a day, listen and watch the reaction to the regulars in the Barga Jazz Club for the riveting set by Domenico Caliri on guitar, Giovanni Maier on double bass and Zeno De Rossi on the drums. They pushed the envelope of what is understood as jazz as far as they could without tearing it aside. The set was not liked by all who listened but the pulsating creativity and energy inside their music could not be denied. A performance to be remembered woI_yDXxmE4