Musician Without Boundaries II

Centazzo's remarkable debut with the Quartetto Gaslini took place on the 23rd of November 1973 al the Piccolo Scala in Milan. Gaslini had chosen this concert to introduce his new concept for making music: the Total Music Concert. Gaslini explained, "Mine is a different way of conceiving music, it's more open, it takes in a whole series of experiments. It is the passing from a sectorial musical mentality to one that is completely open to the totality of possibilities available."
Centazzo was in the limelight from the start, due to the originality of his contribution to the group's music. New tone colorings and sound experimentation enriched the Gaslinian vocabulary. Two months after this debut, in reviewing their concert at the Teatro Delle Arti in Rome, one critic wrote "What is remarkable about this surprising young Centazzo is not only the variety of percussion he uses, but his completely new way of accompanying the solos of his colleagues." A chorus of approval greeted Centazzo in this first phase of his career as percussionist. "He has brought new energy and freshness to the music of the group His druniming presents remarkable characteristics, and wholly personal traits He has brought to the percussion of the quartet a variety, an opening to a new and very pertinent dimension."
Important album recordings were added to this touring activity in Italy; Concerto della Resistenza, Concerto della Libertà and Murales were released in the space of just two years.
The '70s in Italy (and Europe, in general) were times of extreme political tension charged with subversion, terrorism and bombings. In this climate of heightened emotions, fear and hope there came about an era of music of the left, dominated by the avant-garde which was associated with the cultural revolution taking place. Artists would show their commitment to the cause both by keeping up with current events in the world, and by translating these facts into their work, in an ever closer linking between thought and action: for the songwriters it was their lyrics, for instrumentalists through avant-garde composition or jazz. There were considerable opportunities for giving concerts, and in the most unlikely places too; in factories, in psychiatric hospitals, in public squares as well as the typical theatres and concert halls. From 1973 to 1977 Centazzo involved himself in these cultural politics of the left, and through new and provocative musical language demonstrated his social commitment, creating cultural debating situations on the social function of music. Political commitment was the predominant theme of the Quartetto Gaslini concerts in which Centazzo performed. Concerts such as Fabbrica Occupata (occupied factory) of 1974 declared itself a "musical offering with the intent of opening up a debate on the function of music and the arts in relation to the workers' and students' struggles."
Looking back at those times, Centazzo remarks on how demagogic it was to have played that type of music in those situations, where the public, although always numerous, was present for political motives rather than from any real desire to hear the music itself. But the very act of listening to that music was part of an identity for a certain type of public. They were almost ashamed to listen to pop songs or conventional music. To be part of a certain Politica group meant adopting a certain series of stereotypical attitudes. Musical performances were given titles which would identify their motivation; claiming the right to 'spaces', to a 'Politica price' for the entry ticket, denouncing the 'subculture of consumer industry' or offering themselves as an "anti-concert of cultural counter-information".
Driven ever onward by the manic necessity of experimenting variations of interprertive and compositional language, Centazzo concurrently increased his solo activity and created around himself a network of new and stimulating situations to play with musicians "on the same wavelength as myself". The album Fragmentos evolved from these experiences, inspired by the poetry of Pablo Neruda; the album includes with solo selections, a trio with Centazzo, bassist-Bruno Tommaso, and saxophonist-Maurizio Giammarco, a formation that also performed in concerts.
Centazzo went on to record with Giammarco Davanti e oltre la soglia (Before and beyond the threshold) where together they explored all the technical and expressive possibilities of the instruments used, charging across the "threshold" of their cultural conditioning.
Working as percussionist in the Quartetto Gaslini, although bringing Centazzo a great deal of work as well as the vast acclaim of the public and critics, was an artistic sphere too restrictive for his creative appetite, which by now was unequivocally headed for the furthest regions of total improvisation. The desire to push the boundaries became a source of conflict with Gaslini which grew in intensity until the final break in March 1976.
"Unfortunately the experience with Giorgio Gaslini came to a traumatic end, leaving me with a bitter taste in my mouth. This was truly a shame, since for me it was an exciting period musically and not simply because of the very essence of the music (which, in my opinion was the best that Gaslini has written in his long creative life). As is often the case, it wasn't the musical differences that divided us but personality conflicts. Effectively the age difference continually brought us to an unresolved father-son conflict, which went beyond the purely musical considerations to invade the everyday aspects of our lives. In final analysis, Giorgio wanted to recapture the classic values of jazz: the theme, melody, swing, four-four scansion; whereas I was going through a period of considerable cultural and political unease and wanted to get as far away from these things as possible. Giorgio was aiming to reconstruct the music and I, in turn, to disintegrate it."
"In March 1976, I took a month's leave to go to Paris to cure my right shoulder which had been giving me trouble for years, despite numerous, unsuccessful treatments. Nothing had prepared me for the sudden painful changes about to occur in my life: I recall sitting one morning in a cafe in Montparnasse with a steaming café no lait and the Italian newspaper, Corriere Della Sera. I opened to the arts page and what did I read? 'This evening the debut of the new Quartetto Gaslini'. You can imagine my reaction on reading this. It practically put me back to square one with my career, I had to create a system of survival out of nothing, to make contacts, to represent myself and my work in my own name. I began again virtually from zero, with great difficulty, but great determination. Fortunately, I was supported during this trying time with a tremendous amount of love and understanding by my first wife, Carla Lugli.
Just two months into this new regimen, everything was once again reduced to nothing by the disastrous earthquake which hit Friuli, destroying my house and nearly all my desire to make music. From both emotional and realistic perspectives, working on my music in the face of this human tragedy was impossible for nearly a year (when we moved to Pistoia). Yet it was during this terribly trying period, in 1976,that one of the most important musical meetings in my life took place - I met Steve Lacy."
The first meeting with Lacy took place in Paris during the period of treatment, and Centazzo took the opportunity to ask the saxophonist to listen to his first records. Upon his return to Italy, Centazzo was excited to have received a letter from Lacy in which Lacy said he would be willing to undertake a tour with Centazzo.
Centazzo confesses in an interview of that time, "The idea of playing in duo with Steve - with his complicated, spiky music - worried me. After his arrival my anxiety increased - this man was always thinking, but never spoke. For three concerts I couldn't figure out what he wanted from me, until finally we managed to talk things through right before the last performance. The concert was recorded and the result was the best thing I had done to date, because I was so stimulated by this exchange of views with Steve, who sees music as a mystery to be discovered every time you play, and I managed to play in a truly free and creative way." Centazzo had asked Lacy how he should intervene with the percussion behind Lacy's thematic statements and subsequent improvisations; the enigmatic Lacy replied, "Play what you feel." Since then, this has been the guiding principle behind each work of art and everyday action of the artist.
Arrigo Polillo writing in 1974, had observed that this type of music, in reaching a very wide public meant that "In Italy too, young people are discovering jazz, real jazz-jazz which is worth something. It should, however, be said that in order to get their enthusiasm there are certain prerequisites: that the music is objectively very modern and above all that it is, or pretends to be, socially and politically committed. Sometimes this commitment is strictly in the title of the piece, or in the words of he who present it."
One sector of critics never failed to zero in on the titles of the pieces, almost ignoring any possible connection with the music. There was also a lot of mystification, and in the middle of the storm in 1976 Centazzo had the courage to point out that "In Italy those who make 'committed music' often talk too much. If your album is horrible there's no use in calling it Free Chile or suchlike because it will still be what it is the title doesn’t change anything."
The recording scene of the time was fairly discouraging. Record companies were not interested in producing "committed music", and in order to be released this music found its way out through small musician - owned labels. Centazzo took another bold step and created his own label: Ictus Records, the first Italian label to solely distribute music on the cutting edge of improvisation.
Ictus was born to be a forum for music that the institutionalized market refused, and, also by design, was a hands on operation; one that encouraged the artist to express himself freely, without restrictions, and to have control over all the phases of production of the record. All this was possible due to the dedicated work of Carla Lugli, who saw to the daily operation of the record label.
The Ictus Records experiment started where all the other attempts at self management had finished on the Italian scene. "The driving need to make our music, and the fact that we were the only link with those who wanted to get to it, brought about the creation of Ictus, which was born not as a commercial but as a cultural operation." Distribution of the records was carried out through certain music magazines, and by mail order at a rigorously 'political' price. (Which meant an accessible price to allow everyone to recover their expenses, with what little profit was made being re-invested in new productions). Because of the prestige of the two artists, the entire operation caught the attention of the Italian press.
The first record on the Ictus label was Clangs, produced by Centazzo and Carla Lugli and taken from those live recordings of the concert with Centazzo and Steve Lacy. Here we witness the felicitous encounter between the richness of Centazzo's percussion language and Lacy's musical universe.
Next the Lacy Centazzo duo were joined by double - bassist Kent Carter for along tour and the Ictus album, Trio Live, which was hailed by the critics as one of the saxophonist's finest recordings, and brought Centazzo to new expressive and interpretive capabilities.
Soon the Ictus catalogue was swollen with albums by many important artists including John Zorn, Tom Corra, David Moss, Lol Coxhill, Andrew Cyrille, Evan Parker, Alvin Curran, Giancarlo Schiaffini, and overflowing into the world of contemporary classical music, John Cage, in an exceptional album which contains pieces for percussion by Cage written between 1937 and 1943, interpreted by the Percussione Ricerca ensemble from Venice. The pieces fitted in well with Ictus' character as a research label: they mark the meeting of the "noise" of the Universe with refined western music. In addition, Ictus released Centazzo's entire recording catalog from 1976 until 1984.
Centazzo explains: "Musicians joined the innovative Ictus with an enthusiasm dependent on where they came from: the Americans, who had little experience of our political style of management asked for, albeit modest, payment; the Europeans, in general, were willing to record for the pleasure of making music together; and the Italians even co-produced the albums, sharing costs and profits with us. All the activity revolved around my small but efficient recording studio, which gave us the possibility to record cheaply. Carla oversaw the distribution, production and pressing meeting the company run smoothly and, in doing so, left me the peace and freedom to concentrate my efforts on the artistic side.
We passed on simple sleeve designs at the start preferring a more refined product many of the albums featuring original artwork or photos by ourselves, or with the collaboration of designers like Ferruccio Moritanari and, chiefly, Danilo Papa who did his finest job for Ictus on the cover of the triple album, boxed set Indian Tapes. With this product we moved at last from the noisy but inexpensive record pressings of the small workshop to the pure vinyl presses of Polygram, the finest on the market at that time."