Jazz Appreciation Month, concluding JAM SESSION and painting exhibition with “The Colors of Jazz”

At the conclusion of the International Jazz Day, on Wednesday, April 30, at 8:30 PM, at the Cesare Chiti Auditorium of the “Pietro Mascagni” Conservatory in Livorno, at via Galileo Galilei, 40, the concluding Jam Session of the 12th edition of the Jazz Appreciation Month Livorno April 2025 will take place.

The Jam Session will involve the students of the Conservatory and the musicians: Piero Bittolo Bon, sax, Andrea Pellegrini, piano, Francesco Petreni, drums. Possible participation of other musicians. The scenic background will be provided by the painting exhibition ” I Colori del Jazz” by Claudio Calvetti. Admission is free.

April Jazz 2025 is organized by the Unesco Jazz Day Livorno Committee in collaboration with the state Conservatory Pietro Mascagni, the Livorno Unesco Club, the Museum of Natural History of the Mediterranean and Symphony. With the patronage of the Italian National Commission for UNESCO. The Unesco Jazz Day Livorno Committee was founded in 2012. Honorary President: Gian Franco Reverberi; Andrea Pellegrini, musician, Chiara Carboni, architect, designer, Maurizio Mini, journalist.

Piero Bittolo Bon Considered among the best new talents of the Italian jazz scene and improvised music, Piero Bittolo Bon is a fundamentally self-taught multi-instrumentalist. Despite his preferred instrument being the alto sax, with a highly personal sound but influenced by Eric Dolphy, Ornette, Tim Berne, and Henry Threadgill, he also dedicates himself to the baritone sax, bass and alto clarinet, and flute.

His intense live activity has led him to perform in some of the most important Italian and foreign jazz clubs, including the Jazz Club in Ferrara, the A-Trane and B-Flat in Berlin, the Neue Tonne in Dresden, the Velvet Lounge in Chicago, and in international festivals such as the Clusone Jazz Festival, Young Jazz, Ostinati, Englewood Jazz Festival, Cormons Jazz & Wine, Berlin Kollektiv Nights, San Servolo Jazz Meeting, Novara Jazz, Correggio Jazz, and many others.

Andrea Pellegrini Descended from a lineage of musicians (Pellegrini – Vianesi) led by his father Gianfranco (a jazz musician active in the 1950s in Livorno) in jazz and improvisation, Andrea Pellegrini started studying piano at the age of 5. He studied Percussion at the Pietro Mascagni Music Institute in Livorno with Giannino Ferrari and practiced guitar, double bass, electric bass, vibraphone, drums, and voice.

His improvisational and compositional style “versatile and eclectic” (Jazz Music), which continuously draws on different influences without shying away from Third Stream influences and the respect he believes should be nurtured for every good music, derive from his musical experiences, both precocious and varied. He has played and held Master Classes throughout Italy, in Europe and in Australia, the United States, and Canada in over 35 years of professional activity.

Francesco Petreni Drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer, he has played with various musicians including Marc Johnson, Jonny Griffin, Palle Danielsson, Mal Waldron, Eddie Henderson, Michael Blake, Claudio Roditi, Guinga, Enrico Rava, Paolo Fresu, Enrico Pieranunzi, Maurizio Giammarco, Rita Marcotulli, etc., participating in international events and festivals and concerts in Cuba and Brazil. He has a degree in Modern Literature with a musicological specialization with a thesis on Max Roach (publication S.I.S.M.A.), and in 2008 he obtained a degree in Jazz Music with a thesis entitled “Improvisation in Brazilian Music” (publication E.T.S.). He has held drum and percussion workshops and seminars in various parts of Italy, and in Ireland, Germany, Croatia, England, Turkey, Spain, Georgia. From 2001 to 2008 he was a teacher at the International Seminars of Siena Jazz and from 2012 to 2017 at Siena Jazz University. Since 2010 he has been a teacher at the Mascagni Conservatory in Livorno, where he currently holds the chair of Jazz Drums.

“Colors of Jazz” by Claudio Calvetti also includes some very recent works, with subjects related to music and in particular to Jazz.

Claudio Calvetti started painting in the late 1970s, as a self-taught artist, then, since the early 1980s, he attended, twice (Scali Rosciano and Villa Trossi), the Free Trossi Uberti Academy. He does not limit himself in the subjects to represent, nor in the style or techniques, be they purely graphic, ink, charcoal, sanguine, pastels, or watercolors, as well as etching techniques such as etchings, ceremolli, aquatints… or more painterly techniques like acrylic or oil. His favorite subjects are related to music and in particular to Afro-American music. This is why he is known by many as the painter of Jazz. He has participated in numerous solo exhibitions in Livorno and nationally. For many years, he has had the pleasure of being part of the program of the UNESCO Jazz Day Livorno Committee by exhibiting his works in annual events.