This interview with Charles Marsala, who is bringing great news to the world of the Italian American community in New Orleans and throughout the South East, was done right before the coronavirus pandemic broke out in Italy, and then a couple of weeks before it also arrived in the United States. It is therefore a picture of the world before the coro...

Saturday at 11:30am in conjunction with the Italian American Sports Banquet we are dedicating the first of two Sicilian Heritage Markers. This marker celebrates Sicilian contributions to Music in Jazz, Swing, and Rock 'n Roll. It mentions Nick LaRocca, Louis Prima, and Cosimo Matassa.  It contains a QR link to  a free tour app of Sicilian Heritage...

There are many episodes in the history of the United States that have seen Italians as protagonists. Some are very well known; others deserve to be known better. The subject of this interview is of the second type: not many people know about this, but it is really very interesting and tells how much since their birth the United States - and its lea...

Tuesday, March 26, 2019 from 6:00 pm To 8:00 pm EST. Entrance: Free. Italian Cultural Institute of New York - 686 Park Avenue - New York, NY 10065. Book Now. Screening of Sicily Jass The world’s first man in Jazz by Michele Cinque, followed by Q&A with the director and author of the movie. A journey inside the Sicilian chromosome of jazz, forgotten...

Parliamo un po' di Jazz all'italiana, il libro che Anna Harwell Celenza ha scritto approfittando di un lungo soggiorno a Roma. Colpita dalla scena jazzistica nostrana la Celenza - docente di Storia della Musica e Radiogiornalismo alla Georgetown University – si è cimentata con la storia del jazz in Italia sino agli Anni Cinquanta. E dopo un meticol...

Rows upon rows of hills laced with vines intermingle with the curves of the G-clef: the history that has developed in Salaparuta is one-of-a-kind. With just under two thousand inhabitants, this municipality of Trapani is the symbol of the 1968 earthquake that occurred along the river Belice and destroyed the town’s historic center; but only a few p...

IN THE MOOD IN OUR OWN WAY: a documentary written, produced, directed and narrated by LUCA MARTERA, edited by CARLA BRANDOLINI, linguistic consultant and additional voice narration FRANK PISATURO. A Sexual Radar Production, 2018 https://vimeo.com/296585302 From the ancient Italian tradition of the Great Opera Houses to the Neapolitan melodies of 20...

Wednesday, April 19, 2017, 6pm Sicily Jass: The World's First Man in Jazz (2015), 73 min. Michele Cinque, dir. - John D. Calandra Italian American Institute - 25 West 43rd Street, 17th Floor. New York, N.Y. 10036 Sicily Jass, an intermingling of fiction and documentary, uses the Sicilian puppets and narrating voice of Mimmo Cuticchio to tell the st...

Jazz music has a long history and many influences. With Jazz Italian Style: From its Origins in New Orleans to Fascist Italy and Sinatra (available February from Cambridge University Press, $44.99), Anna Harwell Celenza examines the Italian influences on the development of American popular music. When jazz arrived in Italy at the conclusion of Worl...

This February falls the one hundred year anniversary of the recording of the first Jazz song album ever recorded "Livery Stable Blues ", in the history of music. It was an Italian, James Dominick "Nick” La Rocca, who had this honor.  To celebrate this controversial artist, whom the great Renzo Arbore told us about when we met him, we speak with Mic...