Vincenzo Martorella

Jazz historian by training, music scholar of the 20th (and 21st) century, he is one of the most authoritative Italian music critics. He taught, and still teaches, History of Jazz and Analysis of the Compositional and Improvisation Processes of Jazz at the Conservatories of Venice, Sassari, Latina, Cosenza, La Spezia and Ferrara. He taught: History of Alternative Music, at the SSIS of the University of Bari; Twentieth-Century Music History, at New York University, and History of Popular Music at the Master in radio and digital media, organized by the Department of Foreign Languages ​​of the University for Foreigners of Perugia; at the Conservatory of Terni he held lectures on the history of jazz, a subject he taught for fifteen years, together with Methodology of Music Criticism, History and Aesthetics of African American music and History of Popular Music at the Accademia della Critica in Rome, where he held Critical Writing Workshops. For twenty years he has been holding conferences, guided listenings and jazz history courses throughout Italy.

He has published the books: History of Fusion. Reasoned guide to unspeakable music (Castelvecchi, 1998); MC Solaar (Gremese, 1999, only for the French market); Art Blakey. The drum and the ecstasy (Alternative Press, 2003); Bollani’s syndrome (Vanni Editore, 2009); The Blues (Einaudi, 2009); Time After Time. Twenty years of the Sardinian Jazz Orchestra (Edes, 2011); Listen / Write. Manual (improper and anthological) of music criticism (Ottotipi, 2018). In 2015 a new, much expanded and updated edition of History of Fusion was released for the Arcana types, while two years later, again for Arcana, a new, expanded edition of Art Blakey appeared.

His contributions have appeared in dozens of other volumes.

He edited and translated, for Einaudi, New history of jazz, by Alyn Shipton, for which he compiled a full-bodied Glossary, and wrote the long essay ‘Il saltarello del cannibale. Backstory of a century of Italian jazz’. He also translated ‘Funny Valentine. The life of Chet Baker’, of Matthew Ruddick, for Arcana, and ‘For the end of time. The story of the Quartet of Messiaen’, by Rebecca Rischin (Ottotipi). For the Alternative Press editor, he co-directed the Jazz People series, promoting and editing volumes on John Scofield and Ornette Coleman. For Arcana, of which he was editorial director, he founded the ArcanaJazz series. Author of hundreds of articles and essays, cover and room notes, he has written for all the most important sector and non-sector magazines: newspapers (Manifesto, Liberazione), weekly (L’Espresso), monthly (L’Uomo Vogue, Musica Jazz, Percussion, Audio Review, Guitars, Wind Instruments, Hot Jazz, and many others). For six years he directed the magazine Jazzit, and, from birth to the end, the rock magazine MUZ. Musician and teacher, for two years he held the position of Artistic Director of the International Jazz Festival of Atina.