What do Verdi, Toscanini,
Prosciutto, Parmesan cheese, Napoleon's second wife, and a Latin jazz
Internet radio have in common? They all sprouted from Parma, a city of
170,000 inhabitants, located on the north of Italy, half-way between Milan
and Bologna, at the boot's center top when looking on the map. From his home
in this city of castles and violets, Pietro Carbognani, 40, webcasts
Vinilemania's "Latin jazz and salsa without frontiers."
Four years ago, Carbognani, an accountant in a private hospital's billing
department, "just listened to Italian music, but without any passion."
Things began to change when he dated an Italian woman, a fan of Salsa mania,
a craze that has taken over Europe for the past ten years. Although he
didn't like to dance, he learned to salsa and joined her to clubs where
Italian bands played Latin music.
"Then I heard the real thing," Carbognani says, "Hector Lavoe, Cheo
Feliciano, Joe Cuba, Fania. I fell in love with that salsa, the one from
1965 to 1975. I couldn't get enough of it. I bought 150 LPs from a DJ, and
then kept on buying more."
Among those records were some by Ray
Barretto, Eddie Palmieri, Charlie Palmieri,
Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Orquesta Reve, Joe Arroyo, and Willie Colón.
"My ears got refined," Carbognani says. "I didn't want to listen to anything
else."
From salsa he moved on to Latin jazz. By then he was smitten. But he got
frustrated by the high prices of CDs in Italy, and refused to download for
free.
"I hate downloading," Carbognani says. "It's the death of the CD and the
reason why the music industry is now in crisis."
Plus, for Carbognani, part of the pleasure in listening to a record is to
spend time with its cover, read the liner notes, look at the pictures.
In June 2005, with only five CDs (The Best of
Ray Barretto, Concorde Picante's four-CD
Anniversary set, and one by each, Tito Puente, Poncho Sanchez, and Cal
Tjader) Carbognani started an adventure: building a website, learning in the
process with the sole help of Microsoft FrontPage. He came up with the idea
of requesting CDs in exchange of promotion.
At first, Carbognani would go to CD Baby and choose his favorites among the
new arrivals in Latin jazz, salsa, mambo, flamenco, and Brazilian. Then he
contacted the artists and introduced them to his website/web-radio.
Today it's the artists, promoters, and record labels who contact Carbognani.
The downside: he gets so many CDs he can't listen to each more than once or
twice. However, he does listen to every CD before he plays it on his site.
"My site is a tribute to the musicians," Carbognani says. "It doesn't matter
whether they're more or less famous. They can be sure that their CDs are in
the hands of someone who loves music."
He called his website Vinilemania, "to honor the old LP."
Thanks to a newsletter that reaches more people and places each week,
Vinilemania now plays artists from various parts of the US, Canada, Europe,
South America, South Africa and Israel. Some of Los Angeles musicians
playing on Vinilemania are Jose
Rizo's Jazz on the Latin Side All-Stars,
Sal Cracchiolo and Melanie Jackson, Brasil,
Brazil, Katia Moraes,
Francisco Aguabella,
Danilo Lozano,
The Estrada Brothers,
Robert Incelli,
AC Timba Jazz,
Henry Mora,
Mike Barone,
The Echo Park Project,
Bobby Matos,
Susie Hansen, Poncho Sanchez
and
Hector Contreras and his Latin Jazz Ensemble.
The site offers broader horizons for musicians, but also for fans and real
connoisseurs, by bringing superb music from around the globe. Some examples:
German pianist/arranger
Sebastian Schunke (his Latin-jazz
orchestra's CD Mouvement is a gem), Russian composer/conductor
Oleg Tumanov
(whose Rio-Havana features pianist Chucho Valdes and singer Leny Andrade),
and the New York-based Argentines: bassist/composer/arranger
Pedro Giraudo
(his latest Desconsuelo is a dazzling tango jazz big band fusion), and
new-kid-in-town vocalist
Sofia Koutsovitis (her debut Ojalá is worth
checking out).
On the website, one can click on any of the channels (Latin jazz, bossa-nova,
Italian jazz, salsa), or on the tiny CD images. These are linked to the
artists.. pictures and CDs. The artists.. pictures are linked to their
websites, and the CDs to CD Baby. Under the CD pictures, there are links to
the songs. There are also links to news,
reviews, interviews, and
video-clips.
Carbognani converts CD tracks into Windows Media Audio files, and loads them
onto the professional player. It takes him two hours per CD.
"The radio is non-commercial," Carbognani says. "And I do it in own time. I
give to it all the creativity I can't give to my day job."
Moved by pleasure, passion, and belief in the music, Carbognani considers
himself fortunate for having everything he needs, including a new son on the
way.
"One thing I'm certain," he says. "He will be a musician."
You may visit
www.vinilemania.net 24/7.
This article came out in the November 2006 issue
of the LA JAZZ SCENE and it's
copyright by Myrna Daniels,
editor/publisher, LA Jazz Scene.
No portion may be reproduced in whole or fragments
by any means whatsoever without her express written consent
VINILEMANIA.NET, A LATIN JAZZ HANGOUT IN THE
GLOBAL VILLAGE by Patricia Albela (PDF file)
VINILEMANIA.NET, A LATIN JAZZ HANGOUT IN THE
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