Luca Vitali (Bologna, 1967) writes about jazz and beyond in AllAboutJazzItalia, Il Giornale della Musica and InSound, and is a contributor to Il Sole 24 Ore’s monthly magazine IL and to Radio Città del Capo. He is one of the founding members of Europe Jazz Media – a community of jazz journalists, media professionals and broadcasters – and is the Italian representative for their monthly initiative EJM-Chart. He has organised various contemporary music and performing arts events, and since 2010 he has worked as one of the artistic curators of Bologna’s Angelica Festival. For several years he has collaborated on a regular basis with various Norwegian institutions in Italy (Royal Norwegian Embassy, Royal Norwegian Consulate in Bologna), as well as with Jazzforum, Music Norway, Listen To Norway and Jazznytt. Fiona Talkington is best known as presenter of BBC Radio 3’s award winning ‘Late Junction’ and has presented programmes on BBC radio for over 20 years. She has also contributed to many books and articles about Norwegian music, and curated festivals and series bringing together Norwegian arts with Norwegian and British artists. In 2009 she was awarde the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit for her work with the Norwegian arts scene.
There are few jazz scenes around the world that have developed so rapidly and proved so influential in recent decades as the world of Norwegian jazz. This new book by Italian writer Luca Vitali is at once a work of advocacy and enthusiasm about Norwegian jazz but also a detailed history and analysis of why this phenomenon happened in the first place. Vitali traces the evolution via the totemic figure of Jan Garbarek in the first half of the book and then transfers his attention to how contemporary jazz manifests today in the latter part. He also pinpoints the transformation back to the input of such theorists as George Russell and the impact of the ECM generation of musicians and moves on to explore the club and festival scene and the impact of accommodating folk music and even nature among a range of inspirations. The book is packed full of detail and exhibits a non-didactic but firm grasp of why and how things happened. The details of the contemporary scene are probably of most interest to newer jazz fans and there's examination of a whole spread of music across the spectrum settling on such successes as the Punkt festival but also analysing the legacy of some of the major figures such as Terje Rypdal and Arild Andersen to have made an impact on a new generation of musicians and bands. Packed full of photos and well annotated and attractively laid-out, the book is a must for anyone interested in Norwegian jazz -- Stephen Graham Marlbank
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