Raphael Gualazzi and Simona Molinari

It's true that this year's Noisy line-up is making noise, or rather "the real kind of noise that grabs you and shakes you," as the poster proclaims. Last Friday's concert confirmed it once again: the Giardini Romantici at the Palazzo Reale di Napoli welcomed young and old alike for a performance that promised refinement and sophistication, but ultimately proved both thrilling and surprising at the same time — fully in keeping with what Raphael Gualazzi does on stage, here in a trio with drummer Gianluca Nanni and double bassist Anders Ulrich: he starts out enchanting you with his technique, then slowly stirs you until you find yourself dancing and singing without even realizing how it happened, glad in the end that you didn't stay glued to your seat. The concert is a musical blend rooted in jazz, soul, rhythm and blues, ragtime and reinterpretations of opera arias.

The talented pianist, a symbol of jazz's renaissance with international appeal, opens the concert with "Vedi Le fosche Notturne" from Giuseppe Verdi's "Il Trovatore," which leads into his own compositions in English: "A Simple Song" transports the audience into the warm atmosphere of New York's Cotton Club, while "Tuesday" carries a "pop" rhythm, though always filtered through Gualazzi's jazz roots.

Next comes the light blues of "Mare in luce," with its poetic tones, leading into "Reality And Fantasy" with its classic refrain and slightly gritty vocal flourishes that bring to mind Tom Waits: eleven years have passed since that album came out, and the maturity shows through completely, both in the voice and in the arrangement, to the benefit of the emotions stirred, further heightened by Gianluca Nanni's percussion, which takes centre stage on Duke Ellington's "Caravan."

The most eagerly awaited moment arrives after about twenty-five minutes. Simona Molinari walks on to the notes of "E se domani" and it's instant magic: a delicate song, a gentle piano, a crystalline voice, a love-themed lyric, and the audience can do nothing but sing along wholeheartedly. The pop-jazz singer-songwriter then performs her own song "Lettera" and duets with Gualazzi on "Sai." The concert continues, with jazz still dominating as it blends into various genres, creating a wonderful harmony of sounds and vibrations reminiscent of a jam session in an old club, where the audience claps along off-beat, dances, raises their arms to the rhythm, and the shared joy dissolves all differences, because, as Gualazzi himself put it, "jazz is above all an astonishing culture that goes beyond the music, which is merely one of its expressions; it teaches respect and freedom, essential values."

In the final part of the evening, the musicians accompanying the pianist each get their moment to shine: Anders Ulrich's performance on Petrucciani's "Charlie Brown" is superb, and on "Talk To My Hell" the relentless drumming leaves everyone awestruck. Simona Molinari returns to the stage for the finale: this time she draws the audience in with "Maruzzella" (a tribute to Naples) and Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me To The End Of Love," in a faster, more rhythmic version of the original that loses none of its intensity.

Finally (and inevitably) comes encore time. The crowd enjoys the typically swinging mood of "Follie d'amore," the song from Sanremo, but it's with "Lady O" that audience involvement reaches its peak, as everyone sings along to "nella vita puoi cambiare tutto ma l'anima no," amid jumps and finger snaps.

Long live jazz, and those who spread its spirit.

*Photo by Riccardo Piccirillo

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