Looking through the photographs of these great leaders of international
jazz meant an exciting dive into the past for me. I returned to the years
of my youth in which, despite the strict control of fascism including the
cultural sphere, we secrete/y listened to the first jazz records. And those
gatherings made us feel transgressively opposed to an extremely provincial
culture which persisted for exclusively ideological motives, in ignoring
the novelties which shook the world.

My father had spoken to me about his experiences in New Orleans, about this new, extremely modern way of making music which was born in the deep roots of African-American culture. I remember that, between the fourties and the fifties I organized weekly jazz sessions at my honse in MiXan for an entire year, together with Franco
Cerri and many otherfriends who would later become part of the history of the Derby and the Santa Tecla. Then -I met Many musicians during the course of my travels in America. I remember the gatherings in the Broadway cafes with Dizzy Gillespie, LolJisArmstrong and Sarah Vaughan, and the passionate participation in those extraordinary jam-sessions. Later, daring my trips to the Carribean and Cuba, I had the opportunity to understand the origins of this musical expression by listening to the rhythm of the drHms which
accompanied a jukebox, or watching groups of children who, with tins and
cans, offered deafening and syncopated concerts in the streets.

This is why l felt such emotion in rediscovering, in these portrayals
realized by Francesco Sovilla, not only the faces of several characters
who are by now part of my consciousness, but above all that world of magical
atmospheres which lit lop my formative years. In this book France.seo
Sovil/a Offers us faces and instruments of jazz explored in highly e
xpressionist Sack and white images. With careful consideration-by now I
have seen many books and programs about jazz musicians-this erpre.ssive
solution truly seems the best suited for jazz photography. The first reason
is that the scarce fightinggenerally allows the photographer to take
advantage offlashes of light during the performance.

Secondly only strongly contrasting black and white effects can succeed in «interpreting» a
musical genre which is absolute, essential extremely direct and at the same
time intellectual. Sovilla's photography, considered from a narrative point of view, has at
its poetic core the essence not so much of the single character as of the musician. In his photographs the theme of the relationship between artist and instrument takes the lead, in an extremely Condensed and essential image, often greatly reduced and cut to exclude any unexceptional particulars.

Precisely because I deeply know this world and furthermore because I have
seen thousands of this genre of photography, I have no difficulty in
recognising Ssvilla's merit in having restored in his photos the great
intensity of the creative moment of the jazz artist, by creating strongly
dynamic images.

Lanfranco Colombo

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