Written by Recently JazzInEurope invited Ola Onabule to spend a few days during the summer workshops at Italy’s seminal and inspiring jazz institution – the Siena Jazz University. During his stay, he interviewed some of the visiting teachers, dedicated resident teachers and students.
In this first episode, Ola speaks with renowned jazz historian and author Francesco Martinelli about his work at the Siena Jazz University, his new book – The History of European Jazz and a great deal more – so, take a seat and enjoy!
Bio – Born in Pisa, Italy, in 1954, Francesco Martinelli is a popularizer of jazz culture in Italy as well as a concert promoter, journalist, author, speaker, and teacher. Between 1976 and 1982 he co-organized the International Jazz Festival in Pisa.
Francesco teaches “History of Jazz” and “Popular Music” at Siena Jazz University and is in charge of the Jazz Center Studies “Arrigo Polillo”, the most important archive and the library of its kind in Italy. Francesco has also curated a monographic volume about Claudio Fasoli (Siena Jazz, 2010) as well as the Siena Jazz Eye exhibition and catalogue dedicated to the history of jazz record covers through 500 examples from the Siena Jazz collection.
After an exhaustive 6 year period. In September 2018, the book the History of European Jazz of which Martinelli is the editor was published by Equinox under sponsorship by EJN and European Union.
Francesco Martinelli is also a well-known journalist, he has written for the Italian magazines musiche, Musica Jazz and Il Giornale della Musica.; His articles have also appeared in many other magazines and websites including All About Jazz and Point of Departure. Currently, he is a regular contributor to the English world music magazine Songlines.
Last modified: October 17, 2019
