Tuba Libre

TUBA LIBRE
GianCarlo Schiaffini




GianCarlo Schiaffini
tuba

Recorded and mixed at GianCarlo Schiaffini’s home studio. March 1997.

If, as they say, variety is the spice of life, then Italian improviser Giancarlo Schiaffini's should be one tasty morsel. A physicist by education (and a gourmet cook to boot - to which this writer can personally attest), Schiaffini burst on the tiny, but active, Italian free jazz scene in the mid-1960s as a member of the infamous Gruppo Romano Free Jazz, whose seminal album, G.R.F.J. 66/67 was not even released until a decade later. It wasn't until the mid-1970s that Schiaffini left the world of science to pursue his dream of fulltime musicianship. Since then, he has appeared on more than fifty recordings (including more than a dozen as a leader or co-leader). He has performed in almost every style imaginable, from Klezmer to free jazz to modern classical, almost all on trombone. Tuba Libre is his first solo CD and the first as a leader in which he plays exclusively tuba.

Although Schiaffini's place in modern jazz history in well ensconced as a trombonist, he has also built a reputation - though not so widely known internationally - on the tuba. He began performing on it off-and-on in the 1960s, and by the 1980s, he was a regular member of ensembles of the esteemed avantgarde classical composer Luigi Nono - even recording with him. Since the 1990s, Schiaffini has recorded regularly with Italy's innovative and world-renowned conglomeration, the Italian Instabile Orchestra on tuba (in addition to trombone).

Solo albums are difficult vehicles in which to sustain the listener's interest. Even some of the best (and one thinks of the sterling contributions of Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton, and Peter Brötzmann, as examples) can be tough to absorb in one sitting. Schiaffini gets around this somewhat by adding electronics to his acoustical tuba - not by merely distorting its solitary sound, but by using the electronics as a separate, additional instrument - a partner, even a shadow, perhaps an alter ego. Of course, this is by no means the first time this technique has been used - one thinks of the works, as far back as the 1950s, of pioneers Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening, and the more recent experiments of trombonist George Lewis. But it has rarely, if ever, been heard with the tuba, and certainly not with the kind of depth of personality and vision that Schiaffini brings forward.

While the end product is dead serious, the composer toys mischievously with words. The song titles, for example, are mostly in Spanish, an oddity from a native of Rome, particularly when the music bears no relationship to anything Spanish. Schiaffini had visited Cuba in the mid-1990s, before recording this CD, and felt an affinity and sympathy for the people he met - hence what he calls the titles a 'dedication'. The titles of tunes are filled with inner meanings and double entendres: for example, 'El vuelo irresistibile del moscardon', according to Schiaffini, refers to 'the theoretical impossibility of the bumble bee flying - but because it doesn't know that, it flies anyway'. He compares this to the survival of the Cuban people after years of

embargo. 'Tuba Mirum' means 'Wonderful Tuba', alluding to the famous trombone solo in Mozart's 'Requiem'. Even the title tune, 'Cuba Libre', or 'Free Cuba' is intended caustically.

There is nothing humorous, though, about the music found on this recording. For those familiar only with Schiaffini's big band work on tuba and trombone with the highly acclaimed Italian Instabile Orchestra, or even some of his small group work on tuba, the style found here might raise some eye-brows. It is (at times) less exuberant, more introspective, and even self-effacing. But, this side of Schiaffini has been slowly emerging for years, and any review of his entire discography as a leader - especially focussing on his fascination with electronics - is forced to grapple with this classically influenced perspective.

What Schiaffini accomplishes here on the tuba is nothing short of remarkable - not only for its virtuosity, but more importantly, for the emotional depth he is able to interject. The tuba, by any description, is one of the most difficult instruments on which to express oneself - certainly more restrictive than the trombone - a fact that Schiaffini readily admits. 'The sound is actually richer and in some ways easier to articulate than the trombone', he says. 'Other than that, though, it is a less agile instrument and one in which it is more difficult to produce a variety of colors.'

You would hardly know that, though, from the rainbow effects heard on this CD. From the mournful, lush sounds of the opening title tune through the layered tubas on 'Voz Refracta' and the sort of rondo of 'El Carosel de Juana La Loca' (literally: 'The Merry-Go-Round of Crazy Jane', after whom Cuba was originally named), Schiaffini charges forward with an incredible array of colors. His muffled, distorted voice on 'Scrap' contrasts with the mystical swaying on 'Mi Mistico Minimo Mi'. Through-out, the emphasis is on silence and the single tone: the magic of the moment. This is a recording to be listened to closely; the results are in the details, in the nuances of time.

Steven A Loewy, August 1999