Luigi Onori
Graduated in Modern Literature in 1981 at the Sapienza University of Rome with the thesis “The birth of the third page in Italian newspapers”.
Professor of Italian, History-Citizenship and Geography in the secondary school since 1984. In 2001-2002 he followed the specialization course in Intercultural Education (University of Roma Tre – Faculty of Education Sciences).
He has been registered with the Order of Journalists (list of publicists) since 1984.
He has collaborated regularly with the Casa del Jazz of the municipality of Rome from 2005 to 2010 and in 2014-2015, with the creation of cycles of meetings with authors and musicians.
Professional activity
Music critic, publicist, essayist, historian. He deals with jazz and African American music from a journalistic, essay, conference and seminar, educational, historical and radio profile. For more than two decades he has sworn in the referendums of specialized magazines such as “Musica Jazz” and “Musica & Dischi”; since 2011 he has been part of the jury of the European Jazz Contest.
Since 2015 he is a member of the MIDJ (Italian Jazz Musicians) association and has participated in various initiatives; in January 2016 he organized a meeting between the trade press and musicians for MIDJ. Founding member and member of the board of S.I.S.M.A. (Italian Society for the Study of African American Music) from 1992 to 2000. He was registered from 2002 to 2009 to S.I.d.M.A. (Italian Society of African American Musicology, chaired by musicologist Stefano Zenni).
Journalistic non-fiction activity
Collaborator of the newspaper “il manifesto” and its supplements from November 1981 to today. On its pages it has published over 1000 articles, the collaboration is continuous.
Collaborator of the monthly magazine of information and musical culture “The newspaper of music” (edt) 2008-2013.
Collaborator of the annual magazine “The Jazz Yearbook” 2010-2011.
Collaborator of the site “About jazz” edited by Gerlando Gatto since 2011.
Collaborator of the monthly specialized magazine “Musica Jazz” from November 1985 to February 2001. On his columns he has published numerous articles, record and concert reviews, interviews, as well as monographs, inserts and essays on, among others, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Abdullah Ibrahim, Randy Weston, Geri Allen, Steve Coleman, Bruno Tommaso, jazz in the USSR and South Africa.
Collaborator of various music and cultural magazines, from “Music / Reality” (directed by Luigi Pestalozza) to “Letter from Italy” (Institute of the Treccani Encyclopedia). On the columns of these magazines he has published over two hundred articles, reviews, interviews and essays.
Heading direction
He was director of the “Bulletin of the AMJ National Association of Jazz Musicians” (quarterly) 1991-1995; director also responsible for “the Seismograph”, quarterly bulletin of S.I.S.M.A. (Italian Society for the Study of African American Music, chaired by the musicologist Marcello Piras) 1992-1997.
Publications
In addition to the production, hosted by newspapers and magazines, he has published the following volumes.
– Luigi Onori, Paolo Fresu Talkabout. Biografia a due voci, Stampa Alternativa/Nuovi Equilibri, 2006, Viterbo.
– Luigi Onori, Il jazz e l’Africa. Radici, miti, suoni, Stampa Alternativa/Nuovi Equilibri, 2004, Viterbo.
– Luigi Onori, Jazz e Africa. Griot, musicisti e fabulatori, De Rubeis, 1996, Anzio.
– Pino Ninfa/Luigi Onori, Come un racconto chiamato jazz. Fotografie di Pino Ninfa, testi di Luigi Onori, edizioni Porsche, 2002, Padova.
– Luigi Onori/Flavio Massarutto, Note di frontiera: Jazz in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Associazion culturàl Colonos, 2001, Vilecjasse di Lestisse (Udine).
– Luigi Onori/Antonio Apuzzo, Il jazz nella tradizione afroamericana, BAICR sistema cultura – Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, 1998, Roma (dispensa).
– Massimiliano Fiorucci (a cura di), Una scuola per tutti. Idee e proposte per una didattica interculturale delle discipline, FrancoAngeli, 2008, Milano (L.Onori, Per una didattica interculturale della musica).
– Paolo Fresu/Aa Vv Paolo Fresu racconta il jazz attraverso la storia dei grandi trombettisti americani, Auditorium, 2007, Milano (L.Onori, Dizzy Gillespie. La trasformazione e il conflitto).
– Aa Vv, 20 anni Onyx Jazz Club, Onyx jazz Club, 2005, Matera (L.Onori, Il viaggio sonoro di Steve Lacy).
– Massimiliano Fiorucci (a cura di), Incontri. Spazi e luoghi della mediazione culturale, Armando Editore, 2004 (L.Onori, La musica come linguaggio interculturale: il jazz; testo in adozione presso la facoltà di Scienze della Formazione dell’Università degli Studi Roma Tre).
– Aa Vv (a cura di Flavio Massarutto), Orchestre di improvvisazione, Phophonix Associazione Culturale Onlus, 2004, Udine (L.Onori, Le orchestre di improvvisazione: il problema del repertorio).
– Aa Vv (a cura di Maurizio Franco), Il jazz fra passato e futuro, Quaderni di M/R 48 – Libreria Musicale Italiana LIM, 2001, Lucca (L.Onori, L’immagine dell’Africa nel jazz).
– Aa Vv (a cura di Marcello Lorrai e Roberto Masotti), Italian Instabile Orchestra. Jazz come ricerca collettiva negli anni ’90, Auditorium Edizioni, 1997, Milano (L.Onori, Vent’anni di laboratorio orchestrale in Italia).
– Aa Vv, Peccati d’amicizia, manifestolibri SET, 1991, Roma (L.Onori, African Lady. Langston Hughes e Randy Weston).
Didactic-seminar activity
From 1983 to 1994 “History of Jazz” and “Listening Guide” courses at the schools of Musica Lab II (Rome), Saint Louis College of Music (Rome), Popular School of Music of Testaccio (Rome).
Teacher at the EEC professional training course for jazz operators and critics organized by the association Il Paese degli Specchi with the University of Bologna – DAMS Art, Music and Entertainment Department (San Lazzaro in Savena, Bologna; 1994).
Seminars / presentations of their own volume Jazz and Africa. Griots, fabricators, musicians at the School of Musical Paleography of Cremona and at the Student Art Center of the University of Padua (1996).
Speech at the Advanced Course in Intercultural Education Theory and Practice at the III University of Rome (1998).
Speaker at the National Conference of Studies African American musical culture as didactic tool integrated in higher education (Palmanova, 2002).
Autonomous Province of Bolzano-South Tyrol Italian Culture / Culture Office: Five o’clock jazz days. The history of jazz told through great American trumpeters. Five introductory jazz meetings coordinated by Paolo Fresu. 2 Dizzy Gillespie, transformation and conflict, speaker Luigi Onori (15 December 2005).
Doctoral seminar at the University of Bologna, chair of Literature and Cultures of the English speaking countries, prof. Franco Minganti (2006).
Teaching at the Academy of Critics in “History of pop, rock and music afroamericana” and for the “Music critic workshop”(2006-2007).
TorinoJazzLab-Permanent Orchestra of Piedmont three-year project of high music education in collaboration with the “G.Verdi” State Conservatory of Music in Turin and the University of Turin; lessons in history and aesthetics of jazz music, guide and listening analysis: Italians, Americans, Italian Americans: a migratory journey in jazz / folklore – real and imaginary – in Italian jazz since the 70s (teacher Luigi Onori, 2008).
Roma Tre University / Faculty of Education: 1st level distance Master in Intercultural Education – face-to-face meeting: speech by Luigi Onori (12 July 2008).
Musical Institute of Nuoro / Nuoro Jazz International Seminar: “The writing of music”, The seminar of journalistic techniques (Nuoro, 27-31 August 2008), teacher Luigi Onori.
Prato / Metastasio Jazz 2010, conference “Jazz piano in Italy today” at Monash University (2/14/2010).
Musical Institute of Nuoro / Nuoro Jazz International Seminar: “The writing of music”, II seminar of journalistic techniques (Nuoro, 27 August-2 September 2010), teacher Luigi Onori.
Musical Institute of Nuoro / Nuoro Jazz International Seminar: III seminar on journalistic techniques (coordination and direction; Nuoro, August 2011).
Conservatorio Nacional de Música Lima (Peru) / Italian Cultural Institute of Lima: Jazz Y África conference on influencia en América (April 19, 2012).
XXII Jazz en Lima Festival / ICPNA – Instituto Cultural Peruano Norte Americano / Italian Cultural Institute of Lima, African American Music Conference with Italian jazz artists (April 20, 2012).
Faculty of Sociology-Sapienza University (chair of Prof. Marlisa Merolla): seminar A Jazz Crusade the ‘sound sources’ from the Victory Disc to the Cold War (at the Faculty of Sociology, 25 March 2013).
“Licinio Refice” Frosinone Conservatory of Music: Improvisation, creative writing – Radical improvisation and links with 20th century European music “seminar-concert with the teachers Eugenio Colombo and Greg Burk and prof. Luigi Onori (June 7, 2013)
Arrigo Boito Music Conservatory Parma: IASPM Italian Conference What will remain of the 1980s? Popular music and jazz in Italy between 1980 and 2000 “. Speaker Luigi Onori: “Records, audience, mass media, publishing: new horizons for jazz in Italy in the 80s (13-14 February).
He collaborated regularly with the Casa del Jazz of the municipality of Rome from 2005 to 2010 and then in 2014-2015 with the realization of cycles of meetings with authors and musicians in the context of book presentations, listening guides, presentation of films and documentaries , events focused on Italian jazz musicians and on the activity of the main record labels in the sector. Among the events:
Organization and participation in the week of meetings A tribute to Massimo Urbani: testimonies, listening, visions (April 2006).
Jammin ’the book Special: Dean Benedetti evening (6 October 2007).
Jammin ’the book Special: presentation of the book Africa and the Blues by Gerhard Kubik in collaboration with the Ethnomusicology Laboratory of the University of Tor Vergata (November 6, 2007).
Jammin ’the book Special: books on jazz / rock in Italy. Miles, Jaco and the others (with Gianfranco Salvatore; 23 January 2008).
Italian Jazz Labels, cycle of meetings with the founders of historical jazz labels, curated by Franco Fayenz and Luigi Onori (March-May 2008).
“Jammin ‘the book special – Modern Art Trio Evening” with the musicologist Luca Bragalini and the musicians Franco D’Andrea, Franco Tonani, Bruno Tommaso of 4/12/2008.
Participation as a jazz historian and curator at the event called “V-DISC DAY”, a day of study and historical re-enactment dedicated to the recordings produced by the US War Department during the Second World War, 10 October 2009.
Jazz and Africa. Roots, Myths, Sounds four encounters at the Casa del Jazz by Luigi Onori (April 2014).
The Opera Orchestra presents Afreaka Boom, Africa imagined in the compositions of the Jazz Masters (Duke Ellington, Randy Weston, John Coltrane, Abdullah Ibrahim, McCoy Tyner, Oliver Nelson, Wayne Shorter) “, presentations by Luigi Onori (April 9, 2015).
Radio and web activity
From 1985 to 2011 he carried out cycles of radio broadcasts at RAI RadioTre, both specialized and informative-sound. On June 24, 2013 he was a guest of the broadcast-concert dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of the death of saxophonist Massimo Urbani.
In the 80s he collaborated with RAI Radiouno for the program A history of jazz (edited by Adriano Mazzoletti) with introductory texts dedicated to guitarists Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt.
From March 2000 to July 2002 he was the editor in chief on the online radio www.blackinradio.it.
Since 2011 he collaborates continuously with the site “About jazz” edited by Gerlando Gatto.