Recently, I did a ZOOM presentation sponsored by I AM Books in Boston on my 2015 book, Bebop, Swing and Bella Musica: Jazz and the Italian American Experience.  The book, to which local Chicago writer David Anthony Witter also contributed, documents the amazing, untold story of how Americans of Italian descent blended their specific musical talents  ̶  via folk, classical, and opera – to this uniquely American art form, which sprang from African American genius.

That said, please note these two quotes: 1) “No other European country has produced such a significant number of American jazz musicians as Italy.” Joachim Ernst-Berendt, jazz scholar. 2) “Jazz has a specific root  ̶  the African American experience – but it’s also about the branches of the tree.” Grammy-winning saxophonist t Joe Lovano.