JAZZ AT DUENDE

Featuring CITTA DI VITTI

Duende will be hosting CITTA DI VITTI for a jazz concert in our Mezzanine!

monday june 17th

at 7:30 PM

TICKETS $25

To celebrate the imminent departure of one of the bay area's most active performer/composers, Duende presents Citta di Vitti - Phillip Greenlief's labor of love to a trilogy of films by Michelangelo Antonioni. This one night only show will feature the trio playing some of the 38 compositions composed by Greenlief along with a screening of segments from the films that inspired the music.

The trio is also celebrating the long-awaited release of several tracks from the roster of compositions, released on Evander Music and CDs will be available at the show.

Citta di Vitti features Phillip Greenlief on alto saxophone, Lisa Mezzacappa bass, and Jason Levis drums. The trio has performed along the west coast, from the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, to concert venues and galleries in Astoria, Portland, and Salem Oregon, Humboldt County, Sacramento and the SF Bay Area.

HISTORY

“several years ago (2007, if i am not mistaken), i wrote nearly 40 fragments while watching michelangelo antonioni's trilogy: L'AVVENTURA, LA NOTTE, L'ECLISSE, featuring the great italian actor monica vitti. the music was inspired by the films in a big way, and in particular i was interested in the way antonioni uses setting as a character, or how the environments might reflect or influence the narrative. 

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once i developed the fragments into compositions, i contacted lisa and jason ... for many years they had worked as DUO B, and so it was irresistible to chose a bass and drum unit that had already established a deep report and a creative approach to composition.

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a few years went by, and jason moved to berlin. a few more years went by and he returned to the bay area, and now (2022) we have once again set out to make this music come alive. the compositions are as wildly divergent as antonioni's themes, settings, and moods. the connective tissue is vitti herself, and again, the way environment influences action. the trilogy explores the difficulty of maintaining lasting relationships, and - i hope - this ephemeral quality is embedded into the music.” -PG