Jazz Art
An Interview with Alessandro Curadi
Image Credits: Alessandro Curadi © Andrea Palmucci, Alessandro Curadi © Luca Vantusso
An artist who portraits with watercolors the big jazz musicians
November 13, 2017
I got to know one of the most interesting artists I’ve ever met under the stage of 2016 JAZZMI in Milan, but he is not a musician: his name is Alessandro Curadi and is an artist who portraits with watercolors the big jazz musicians and not only. I saw him portraying Ron Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater and John Scofield. I saw him painting in the dark by following the melodies and creating what he felt and observed in that precise moment, and the portraits he performed are incredible, not to mention that the artists, at the end of the concert, often sign the works because they see themselves portrayed in a unique way. Alessandro Curadi’s work is a proof of how much inspiration you can take from music and how much the Arts can coexist at different levels.
> Luca Vantusso
When and how did you start to paint live portraits?
In 1998 I went to a concert during the Arco della Pace Festival in Milan, and I had with me my “security blanket”, that is paper and watercolors. I started to paint what was happening on stage, and it was very moving to put into painting what the music spread and to get lost into a creative trance. From that moment on, it became a need, I wished to feel again those sensations which were almost “transcendental”.
In 1998 I went to a concert during the Arco della Pace Festival in Milan, and I had with me my “security blanket”, that is paper and watercolors. I started to paint what was happening on stage, and it was very moving to put into painting what the music spread and to get lost into a creative trance. From that moment on, it became a need, I wished to feel again those sensations which were almost “transcendental”.
There’s an interesting analogy with the concept of jazz, do you agree?
Yes, I think I’m jazz too… I don’t paint in an academic way, but I think, on the one side, to have a very personal way of painting, and on the other to be a portrayer, that is to have the capability of catching that particular feature going besides a person’s simple somatic traits. Watercolor is a technique that does not allow you to make any mistakes, therefore you must be fast, you must control the means, so that you can bring it under your control, a thing you can only learn by practicing it. In this, I believe the similarity to jazz is very clear. The improvisation, that is not to have preparatory drafts, and let yourself go by following the energy transmitted by the music, in that I also believe to be jazz. If you add a bit of craziness, the fact that I paint in the middle of people and in uneasy conditions (in the dark, in non-optimal positions and in a limited space), I definitely believe I’m jazz.
Yes, I think I’m jazz too… I don’t paint in an academic way, but I think, on the one side, to have a very personal way of painting, and on the other to be a portrayer, that is to have the capability of catching that particular feature going besides a person’s simple somatic traits. Watercolor is a technique that does not allow you to make any mistakes, therefore you must be fast, you must control the means, so that you can bring it under your control, a thing you can only learn by practicing it. In this, I believe the similarity to jazz is very clear. The improvisation, that is not to have preparatory drafts, and let yourself go by following the energy transmitted by the music, in that I also believe to be jazz. If you add a bit of craziness, the fact that I paint in the middle of people and in uneasy conditions (in the dark, in non-optimal positions and in a limited space), I definitely believe I’m jazz.
What kind of feedback do you get from the artists you portray, who often sign your works?
At the end of the concert I always try to show the watercolors to the protagonists: the musicians. The amazement of being portrayed is the most common reaction: Hamid Drake once told me that in the portrait he could see something of his grandfather, Freddie Hubbard gave me his address and asked me to paint a watercolor for his personal memorabilia collection, Jack De Johnette specifically asked me for his portrait I had painted, or Gary Bartz taught me the difference between an alto saxophone and a tenor saxophone, as I had wrongly painted the saxophone he was playing as it was a tenor saxophone, without watching it but according to my idea of saxophone. Les McCann signed the portrait I made of him during the concert and then he asked me to paint him a portrait in the backstage, and he posed for me.
At the end of the concert I always try to show the watercolors to the protagonists: the musicians. The amazement of being portrayed is the most common reaction: Hamid Drake once told me that in the portrait he could see something of his grandfather, Freddie Hubbard gave me his address and asked me to paint a watercolor for his personal memorabilia collection, Jack De Johnette specifically asked me for his portrait I had painted, or Gary Bartz taught me the difference between an alto saxophone and a tenor saxophone, as I had wrongly painted the saxophone he was playing as it was a tenor saxophone, without watching it but according to my idea of saxophone. Les McCann signed the portrait I made of him during the concert and then he asked me to paint him a portrait in the backstage, and he posed for me.
Is there a particular work you’re specially attached to?
I’m very attached to a portrait of the Manhattan Transfer I painted at Lugano’s Estival. This is because it is particularly difficult to keep in mind one single person only, so that to be able to stop four people moving together on stage, and to paint a fresh and dynamic watercolour was really a big challenge. I could make all of them sign it in the backstage and it was for some months the cover of the Manhattan Transfer Facebook cover.
I’m very attached to a portrait of the Manhattan Transfer I painted at Lugano’s Estival. This is because it is particularly difficult to keep in mind one single person only, so that to be able to stop four people moving together on stage, and to paint a fresh and dynamic watercolour was really a big challenge. I could make all of them sign it in the backstage and it was for some months the cover of the Manhattan Transfer Facebook cover.
If you’d have a magic wand, what wish you’d like to come true?
I definitively would have liked to meet Miles Davis, who besides was a painter himself. I was so lucky to listen to him playing in Milan at Palatrussardi but, at that time, I wasn’t painting yet.
I definitively would have liked to meet Miles Davis, who besides was a painter himself. I was so lucky to listen to him playing in Milan at Palatrussardi but, at that time, I wasn’t painting yet.
You personally met the top of the world jazz. Is there and anecdote you’d like to share with us?
During a festival in Bisceglie I personally met Esbjorn Svensson, the EST pianist; I portrayed the group during their performance and he visited my exhibition. After some months, he contacted me and bought the portraits I had taken of his group and gifted the bass player Dan Berglund with them for his wedding. I delivered them to him at Verona’s Roman theatre the day they performed with Pat Metheny. It was a very big satisfaction.
During a festival in Bisceglie I personally met Esbjorn Svensson, the EST pianist; I portrayed the group during their performance and he visited my exhibition. After some months, he contacted me and bought the portraits I had taken of his group and gifted the bass player Dan Berglund with them for his wedding. I delivered them to him at Verona’s Roman theatre the day they performed with Pat Metheny. It was a very big satisfaction.
–
Pat Metheny
Michael Brecker
Ornette Coleman
Wayne Shorter
George Benson
Jan Anderson
Images © Alessandro Curadi
Alessandro Curadi
Reservados todos los derechos – All rights reserved – 版權所有 – 版权所有;
Jazz Art, Alessandro Curadi – copyright Jazzespresso 2017.
Jazz Art, Alessandro Curadi – copyright Jazzespresso 2017.
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Alessandro Curati
