No. 13

My work wants to show through the form of illustration some characteristics of jazz. Jazz is a musical genre full of history, culture, meanings, interpretations and feelings. It is considered immortal for his capacity to preserve itself through time and for being able to branch out in other genres. Jazz is deeply rooted into Afroamerican history, it was created by the slaves in the plantation and slowly has become one the most fine and complicated genres of music. Jazz is improvisation, it’s challenging, a really refined type of music. For these reasons it provides the connection between instruments, musicians and the listener, which let themselves be carried away by swings and blue notes, almost ascending to another dimension. Just as a musician let himself be carried away by music, even the audience follows the rhythm listening one by one the musicians in the improvisation. In my work I tried to elaborate these concepts, showing an undefined musician, who let an instrument or music in general, direct him towards something, like if he was floating. The subject results naked, with just a pair of suspenders on; its mouth is full of piano keys and is floating with just a trumpet to save him. All of this is helpful to focus on different points: first of all the value that an instrument can assume for a musician, second of all the metaphorical vision of music as food and last the musical dimension through elements like the illustrated arrangement on the forehead, eyes and knuckles.