President: Giampaolo Pioli    |    Editor in Chief: Stefano Vaccara
English Editor: Grace Russo Bullaro 

  • Login
VNY La Voce di New York

The First Italian English Digital Daily Newspaper in the US

  • English Edition
  • Letters
  • New York
  • U.N.
  • News
  • People
  • Arts
  • Lifestyles
  • Food & Wine
  • Travel
  • Italian Edition
No Result
View All Result
VNY
  • English Edition
  • Letters
  • New York
  • U.N.
  • News
  • People
  • Arts
  • Lifestyles
  • Food & Wine
  • Travel
  • Italian Edition
No Result
View All Result
VNY La Voce di New York
No Result
View All Result
in
Arts
December 15, 2018
in
Arts
December 15, 2018
0

Sicily: the Island of Origin of the Pioneers of Jazz Risks Losing its Cultural Heritage

In Salaparuta, Sicily, we find a study center dedicated to Nick La Rocca, who, along with musicians Prima and Roppolo, made jazz history: an under-appreciated and unique story

Valentina BarresibyValentina Barresi
Sicilia, nel paese d’origine dei pionieri del jazz c’è un patrimonio che rischia di perdersi

Secondo da sinistra, Nick La Rocca in una performance con il suo gruppo, l'Original Dixieland Jazz Band

Time: 4 mins read

Rows upon rows of hills laced with vines intermingle with the curves of the G-clef: the history that has developed in Salaparuta is one-of-a-kind. With just under two thousand inhabitants, this municipality of Trapani is the symbol of the 1968 earthquake that occurred along the river Belice and destroyed the town’s historic center; but only a few people know that this small town was also the origin of three artists who quite literally made musical history.

First and foremost, Nick La Rocca, pioneer of jazz, to whom the namesake study center for research in Salaparuta is dedicated. With its incredibly rich cultural and musical assets, this center is a gem for the aficionados of the genre, but it has never been adequately appreciated.

Giuseppe Grupposo, president of the “Nick La Rocca” study center for research

“Ours is the only accredited “Nick La Rocca” study center, founded by a group of citizens in 1992,” the president Giuseppe Gruppuso tells us. “Through the years we’ve concerned ourselves with both conducting research and valorizing music, in addition to organizing various events and inaugurating an international award named after La Rocca, to whom we owe not only the invention of the word “jazz” (originally jass), but also a revolution in the very way we understand music. It was he who recorded, alongside the Original Dixieland Jass Band, the first jazz record in New Orleans, which went on to sell an astonishing million and a half copies in 1917.”

The announcement for the Original Dixieland Jazz Band at the Orpheum Theatre in 1937

Maintained solely by the dedication of its members, the “Nick La Rocca” study center struggles to capture the attention and prestige it deserves in both the Italian and international music scenes, despite having inspired some of the leading names connected to jazz and the culture around it, from Lino Patruno to Ray Gelato, from Claudio Lo Cascio to Renzo Arbore and Paolo Belli – these last two having been raised musically through Louis Prima, another native of Salaparuta.

From the left: Lino Patruno, Renzo Arbore, Jim La Rocca, son of the famous jazz musician, and the president of the study center Giuseppe Gruppuso, during an evening celebration of the stars of jazz in Salaparuta in 2012

“Prima was an exceptional musician, orchestra director, and actor, considered king of jive and swing, to the degree that he was awarded a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame,” Gruppuso explains.

The star dedicated to Louis Prima on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in 2010

Gruppuso recalls the time he met Arbore, who today is the honorary president of the study center and with whom he collaborated on Italian TV channel Rai’s documentary From Palermo to New Orleans… and immediately jazz! (Da Palermo a New Orleans… e fu subito jazz!): “Arbore was shocked when he discovered that Prima came from Salaparuta, and he told me: ‘We must absolutely do something!’, and put himself forward to organize an event honoring him, La Rocca, and Roppolo.”

Leon Roppolo is the third talented musician from Salaparuta who became famous both as a soloist and with his band, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings.

Leon Roppolo with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings
Leon Roppolo

“He died at only 41 years old, but nonetheless had a huge impact on how we interpret jazz, leaving an inerasable trace due to his original use of the clarinet, which influenced classical and modern music as well as the blues,” the president says.

Gruppuso regrets that over the years the region has not been very receptive to the proposals of the study center: to begin with, the creation of a jazz museum in Salaparuta, which would represent an opportunity, maybe the only opportunity, to reactivate a land in which time seems to have stopped with the earthquake, and with it, any possibilities for the future.

The new Salaparuta

“We are nothing more than a non-profit, we live off donations,” Gruppuso emphasizes. “In 2011 we were lucky enough to have the participation of the hoteliers of neighboring Selinunte, who were enthusiastic of our Sicilian Festival of Traditional Jazz and Swing, for which the most appropriate setting would have been the town’s archaeological park. At this event we would have been joined by figures such as Lucio Dalla and Piero Angela, a jazz musician as well as a popular TV figure who speaks on a wide range of topics, and who, for the occasion, would have also talked about the site.

The archaeological park in Selinunte, Temple C (credit: ©Valentina Barresi)

But the fees asked of us were too exorbitant for our current resources.”

Il “pioniere del jazz” Nick La Rocca (1960)

“The politicians,” Gruppuso concludes, “did not understand that our initiatives could have provided an economic return for the whole Valle del Belice, where, through the help of the group of musicians and intellectuals that have married our cause, a music festival in the style of Umbria Jazz could have emerged, with which we could have created a kind of bridge. A festival placing culture, monumental heritage, and the routes of memory at its core.”

At the moment, however, everything remains on discs, correspondences, and scores. A treasure guarded by the few in a land deserted by the many.

 

Translated by Alyssa Erspamer

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Valentina Barresi

Valentina Barresi

Valentina Barresi è corrispondente dall'Italia per La Voce di New York. Giornalista dal 2008, s'interessa d'attualità, cultura, esteri e mafie. Vincitrice della 28esima edizione del premio "Mario Formenton", ha scritto per la Repubblica, America 24, il Giornale, la Sicilia e ha collaborato con gli uffici stampa dell'Ambasciata d'Italia a Washington DC e di Oxfam Italia. Tra le città in cui ha vissuto, ci sono Palermo, New York, Roma, Milano, Lussemburgo. Peregrina per necessità o diletto, non ha ancora trovato il suo "centro di gravità permanente", sebbene la Sicilia rimanga per lei l'ombelico del mondo.

DELLO STESSO AUTORE

Lavoro da Sud: parte da Palermo la rivoluzione South Working

Lavoro da Sud: parte da Palermo la rivoluzione South Working

byValentina Barresi
Youth on Racial Inequalities: An Italian American and Black American Discussion

Black Lives Matter. All Lives Matter. But Who, Really, Matters? Italy, capisci?

byValentina Barresi

A PROPOSITO DI...

Tags: jazzLeon RoppoloLouis PrimaNick La RoccaSalaparutaSicily
Previous Post

Antonello da Messina a Palermo: interviste a Sgarbi, Orlando, Schmidt e Villa

Next Post

Da esponente della Generazione Erasmus a convinto Euroscettico

Discussion about this post

DELLO STESSO AUTORE

Coronavirus: 2020, nuovo anno zero. Verso quale direzione torneremo a remare?

Coronavirus: 2020, nuovo anno zero. Verso quale direzione torneremo a remare?

byValentina Barresi
Roma, amore (e altri rimedi) ai tempi del Coronavirus

Roma, amore (e altri rimedi) ai tempi del Coronavirus

byValentina Barresi

Latest News

La cultura Made in Italy: imprenditoria, turismo, lingua e tradizioni

La cultura Made in Italy: imprenditoria, turismo, lingua e tradizioni

byVincenzo Odoguardi
Two “Last Generation” Climate Activists Glue Themselves to Vatican Statue

Two “Last Generation” Climate Activists Glue Themselves to Vatican Statue

byLa Voce di New York

New York

Rifiuti e ratti per sempre divisi: arrivano a New York i bidoni con il lucchetto

Rifiuti e ratti per sempre divisi: arrivano a New York i bidoni con il lucchetto

byMaria Sole Angeletti
È arrivato a New York il primo bus di migranti mandati dal Texas

New York, arrivato un altro bus di migranti dal Texas: rifugi in crisi

byPaolo Cordova

Italiany

Torna in Sardegna il festival “MusaMadre”: richiamo della cultura e delle radici

Torna in Sardegna il festival “MusaMadre”: richiamo della cultura e delle radici

byManuela Caracciolo
“Senato&Cultura”: premiati gli imprenditori che rendono grande l’Italia nel mondo

“Senato&Cultura”: premiati gli imprenditori che rendono grande l’Italia nel mondo

byNicola Corradi
Next Post
Da esponente della Generazione Erasmus a convinto Euroscettico

Da esponente della Generazione Erasmus a convinto Euroscettico

La Voce di New York

President: Giampaolo Pioli   |   Editor in Chief: Stefano Vaccara   |   English Editor: Grace Russo Bullaro

  • New York
    • Eventi
  • Onu
  • News
    • Primo Piano
    • Politica
    • Voto Estero
    • Economia
    • First Amendment
  • People
    • Expat
  • Arts
    • Arte e Design
    • Spettacolo
    • Musica
    • Libri
    • Lingua Italiana
  • Lifestyles
    • Fashion
    • Scienza e Salute
    • Sport
    • Religioni
  • Food & Wine
  • Travel
    • Italia
  • Mediterraneo
  • English
  • Search/Archive
  • About us
    • Editorial Staff
    • President
    • Administration
    • Advertising

VNY Media La Voce di New York © 2016 - 2022
Main Office: 230 Park Avenue, 21floor, New York, NY 10169 | Editorial Office/Redazione: UN Secretariat Building, International Press Corps S-301, New York, NY 10017

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • New York
  • Onu
  • News
    • Primo Piano
    • Politica
    • Economia
    • First Amendment
  • Arts
    • Arte e Design
    • Spettacolo
    • Musica
    • Libri
  • Lingua Italiana
  • Lifestyles
    • Fashion
    • Scienza e Salute
    • Sport
    • Religioni
  • Food & Wine
    • Cucina Italiana
  • Travel
    • Italia
  • English

© 2016/2022 VNY Media La Voce di New York

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In