A star dedicated to Maestro Amedeo Tommasi opened Sept. 14 in Bologna’s Strada del Jazz at Via degli Orefici, 6.
Bologna’s historic and central street has been the crossroads of international jazz in Italy. From the late 1950s until the mid-1970s Bologna was indeed a popular destination for jazz music lovers, thanks in part to sixteen editions of one of Europe’s first and among the most important jazz festivals, organized by Alberto Alberti.
The most significant names in the entire history of jazz have performed on the stages of city theaters. To remember them, a marble star dedicated to one of them is laid on the sidewalk of Caprarie Street and Goldsmiths Street, the so-called “Jazz Street,” every year.
Now, at No. 6 Via degli Orefici, next to that of Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Lucio Dalla, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk co., shines a star very dear to St. Louis, that of our beloved and unforgettable Maestro, Amedeo Tommasi, who passed away in 2021.
Refined pianist and composer, author of many tracks of the soundtrack of “The legend of the pianist on the ocean”, composed together with Ennio Morricone, he was a milestone of Saint Louis that he attended from the early years, when it was a jazz club, then became a Master loved and appreciated by the many students who over the course of generations have had the luck to play with him.
With an always lively and active spirit, he never stopped playing and composing.
Just from his latest compositions, “Amedeo Tommasi – Orchestration and Direction Stefano Mastruzzi,” a collection of 22 pieces, composed and performed on the piano by M° Amedeo Tommasi, orchestrated and conducted by Saint Louis conductor M° Stefano Mastruzzi and performed by Giuseppe Tortora’s B.I.M. orchestra, was born.(Jazz Collection, 2021), presented live on the House of Jazz stage in September 2021.
