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Jerry Portnoy Blues from Chicago join the visual art in Italy

Preview of the "musical" Moleskine by Andrea Musso, last live portrait of Jerry Portnoy at the concert of Alessandria Blues Festival 2008 (Italy). With some performance "live" the artist has further enriched the already notebook filled with portraits of famous artists. Thursday July 10, 2008, were executed one portraits of the big musicians on stage: Jerry Portnoy. The artist will also present the next evening to continue their artistic project "Music on my Moleskine" during the remaining 6 concerts in July and August, and complete the notebook for the new exhibition. An opportunity to see these portraits during their creation and implementation, not only on display once completed, a new kind of spectacle that unites these two noble arts by creating a new mix. The programme of Palazzo Cuttica Festival sees on stage Treves Blues Band, Jerry Portnoy Guitar Ray & the Gamblers, Eric Steckel, Roy Young Band, Andy J. Forest, Sandra Hall and Gnola Blues Band, Matthew Lee and Paul Tomelleri Sextet to close on August 28. Hours: 21:00, Via Parma 1, Palazzo Cuttica, Alessandria (Italy). http://musiconmymoleskine.andreamusso.it The professional illustrator has undertaken a project artistic and personal, realized portraits of musicians at work during international concerts, festivals and musical evenings, made strictly live in Italy and throughout the world. A strange mix that marks the meeting of two limbs that merge and run, the thrill of being able to look inside the block of personal notes of an artist, studies and visual memories that lead to the ears of the viewer pieces of sound and music world . The birth of a random collection created to give vent to their passions, sketches that should not ever see the light but always remain in the jacket pocket of the artist, always ready to set new suggestions as long as there are blank pages, becomes instead, at the suggestion of a well-known organizer of Festival Echos, material to be submitted. Topics of interest to fans of music and art but also for the simple curious that can not hardly wait to put the gloves and browse the Moleskine on display inside his shrine transparent. The great return, in the era of technology and laptop computers, the use of a tool as simple as mythical. ************************************** Detour: the Moleskine Notebook City Exhibition http://detour.moleskinecity.com The illustrator professional Italian Andrea Musso has embarked on an artistic project detail and staff realized portraits of musicians at work during international concerts, festivals and events, music and implemented strictly live in Italy and throughout the world. A strange mix that marks the meeting of two limbs that merge and run, the thrill can sbirciare in the block of personal notes of an artist, studies and visual memories leading to the ears of the viewer pieces of sound and music world. The birth of a random collection created to give vent to their passions, which sketches should not ever see the light but always remain in the pocket of the jacket of the artist, always ready to set new suggestions as long as there are blank pages, becomes instead, at the suggestion of a well-known organizer of the Festival musical Echos, material present. Topics of interest to fans of music and art but also for the simple curious that can not hardly wait to put the gloves and browse the Moleskine on display inside his shrine transparent. The great return, in the era of technology and handheld computers, the use of a instrument as simple as mythical, since it was loved and used by artists and intellectuals of the last two centuries, by Vincent Van Gogh to Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin. Always this notebook combines arts and inspirations different ... and continues to do so. The first drawings in this collection were the protagonists of the exhibition "Music on my Moleskine "held in 2005, and reported by Detour: the Moleskine City Notebook Exhibition. In 2008 he was invited to the selection for the Annual Exhibit Moleskine Berlin exhibition that will follow that at this time organised in Paris. (automatic traslation) ****************************** The comment of the artist: Exhibition "Music on my Moleskine": portraits and illustrations of international musicians taken during concerts live An unusual exhibition of illustrations by Andrea Musso: portraits of international musicians taken during concerts, festivals and performances; both the drawings and the music are "live". "I've never played any instrument nor sung, I can't read a score; on the contrary, I don't know music at all, and I'm not even sure I'm able to appreciate it. I do love listening to music, particularly I love watching musicians because I'm convinced that music is in the body and in the face of people who play it: the passion, the enjoyment, the strain, this is about music but has nothing to do with scores, technique (even if, maybe, technique is a form of strain, too). Therefore I listen and watch, I let myself go to melodies I don't know, and I do the most natural thing for me: I record those faces, hands, instruments in my sketchbook so I can look at them later and re-live them, in peace and quiet. From an abbey to a smokey club, from a castle to the square of a village, from a church to a street where strolling musicians play, my Moleskine is always with me: it has travelled throughout Italy, half of Europe and a pretty big piece of the world. And it loves music, maybe more than I do." andreamusso.it Virtual gallery: http://musiconmymoleskine.andreamusso.it Exhibition: http://detour.moleskinecity.com *********************************** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Portnoy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jerry Portnoy (born 1943 in Chicago, Illinois) is a harmonica musician. Portnoy was born in Chicago in 1943 and brought up in the vicinity of the Maxwell Street market, where his father owned a rug store. There, among the haggling customers and traders, many of the original blues players who had drifted to Chicago from the south would set up and play for whatever loose change was dropped at their feet. Even so, it was only at the age of 25, and after failed attempts to master several other instruments, that Portnoy discovered his aptitude for playing the harmonica. Just five years after first picking up the instrument, he was off touring with Muddy Waters. "For a harmonica player that was the top job in the world. He was a great band leader, the Duke Ellington of the blues in the sense that he turned out a lot of stars and a lot of band leaders and people who went on to make their own mark." A supremely agile player, Portnoy has as his trademark an ability to balance passages that are light and filigreed against moments when he pushes down hard on the reed to produce a fiercely heavy tone. According to Portnoy, the popular and faintly disparaging view of the "humble" harmonica ignores the versatility of the instrument. "All musicians want to speak through their instrument which is what makes the harmonica such a valuable tool for playing the blues. Its tonal capabilities are unique, so that you can make it sing, speak, talk, moan, cry, bark, growl, beg for mercy or just about anything else." Portnoy moved to Boston in 1977, but continued working with Waters' band until 1980. It was during this period that Waters toured as support to Eric Clapton, and Portnoy first met his present employer. As he says, "there are easier ways to make a decent living than by playing blues, " but he is not surprised to find a superstar such as Clapton, at the peak of his career, going back to the basics. He made a special guest appearance on Bo Diddley's 1996 album A Man Amongst Men, playing harmonica on the track "I Can't Stand It".




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