Changing paths for the love of jazz

Jun,2024 | Interview

A boundless love of jazz. Philologically correct. This is what moves Mauro Porro, one of Italy’s key artists in the field of classic jazz. At JazzAscona he is present with no less than three bands.

Mauro Porro - JazzAscona 2024-Photo credit: Gioele Pozzi

©JazzAscona – Photo credit Gioele Pozzi

Mauro for those who don’t know you, could you introduce yourself briefly as an artist and as a man?

Well I have been a professional musician for years, I was in law school and even graduated, but it didn’t last long (laughs). Age? I don’t kiss and tell. Let’s just say I’m a little further down the middle of the road. My work is my greatest passion! Music has given me so much success on a personal and human level. I’ve been playing since I was six years old. I started with piano then approached other instruments, starting with the clarinet and then moving on to saxophones, trumpet and drums. All because I was driven by a passion for music, particularly toward the music of the 1920s.

When did the love for jazz come about?

All jazz enthusiasts either had parents or grandparents who were passionate about jazz or just stumbled on it by accident. For me the fascination began around the age of 13. During the usual piano lesson, classical of course, my historical teacher Gabriele Jardini had me read a ragtime piece, which is kind of the precursor genre to jazz. And that’s when something deep within clicked, I started to listen to jazz from the very beginning, then the dixie bands and then to swing, meaning the various forms of classical jazz created between 1918 and 1945.

Your approach has always been philologically correct. Would you like to explain your intent?

I specialized in philological performance by falling in love with the original records of the orchestras of the 20s and 30s. I was inspired by the orchestras of the philological revival and in particular by some bands from Eastern Europe, starting with the bands of the great Pavel Klikar, who in the 1970s was the first, with his immense genius, to use this approach. By offering performances based on orchestrations faithfully reproduced from the records, the exclusive use of original instruments, and a look that echoed exactly the one of the orchestras of the time, he managed to be truthful to the era. And this is also my approach. The basic idea is to offer people the pleasure of a fascinating journey back in time.

Dixie Blue Blowers - JazzAscona 2024-Photo Credit: Gioele Pozzi

©JazzAscona – Photo credit Gioele Pozzi

You also transcribe music from 78 rpm records, don’t you?

Yes, of course, the orchestrations are all created by me from 78 rpm records and of course also from modern phonographic media. For the performance I rely on specialized musicians who are already part of my orchestras, experienced people to whom I add young musicians that I try to involve, bringing them towards this music that is and has been quite neglected. An important part of my work is explaining to them how this particular music should be interpreted and performed. We also do quite exhausting rehearsals: many times we rehearse two 3min pieces in the course of four hours…

In Ascona you present yourself as the leader of three groups….

The “basic group” is called the Dixie Blue Blowers, and is a quartet or sextet formation. We play the repertoire of the small instrumental groups, black and white, of the 1920s. Jazz in the style of Dixieland, New York, Chicago and New Orleans, that people like Red Nichols, Bix Beidebecke or Louis of Armstrong dominated, Louis being one of my points of reference especially on the trumpet. Then we have our “flagship lineup”, the Chicago Stompers, which is entirely revamped. It is an all-star band that includes some of the best hot jazz musicians from northern Italy and plays the repertoire of the big orchestras of the 1920s, also both black and white. Finally in Ascona you will also be able to hear the Hot Gravel Eskimos, an octet with which we just faithfully play the swing music of the 30s-40s, from both the small orchestras and the grand big bands of the time.

Chicago Stompers - JazzAscona 2024-Photo Credit: Gioele Pozzi

©JazzAscona – Photo credit Gioele Pozzi

Jazz in Italy (not only in Italy but maybe in general) is not a mainstream genre. What spaces do you manage to carve out for yourself with your music? Can you make a living from jazz? As far as jazz is concerned is there an evolution in one direction or the other (a trend) on the horizon?

I’ve been playing professionally for 23 years, and I’ve built up some pretty solid working realities over these years, such as the service agency «La Boutiquephonie» (www.boutiquephonie.it), which reaps the fruits of all my efforts. The fact remains that making a living from music alone (i.e., without even the help of music teaching in schools and privately) as I do, in Italy is a tough business. I myself, who am currently involved in numerous projects (from live music to residencies and artistic direction), clash with a state (the Italian one) dominated (practically since I was born) by governments that are incapable and even ruthlessly pretentious toward weak categories like ours. I also clash with a certain ignorance (generic, let alone specifically in the intellectual sphere…) of the Italian people of which I am a part. For years I have been repeating that the best antidote to intellectual growth is to strengthen the compulsory school system, which, even to this day, inadequately and impartially nurtures the generation of the future ruling classes.

You are very close to JazzAscona, aren’t you?

Yes I have played here many times, and in 2010 one of my ensembles, the Chicago Stompers, won the Audience Award. It is a unique festival with its own specific function. The first time in Ascona was in 2003. It was Bix’s centennial, and I wrote an article for the festival newspaper…

JazzAscona 2024 • 40th Anniversary