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Listening to Mario Gabola’s performance at the Cross Cities festival in Sant’ Agata de’ Goti was a reminder of how peripheral communities of the art world, far from canonical commercial centers, can be where we experience the most imaginative, and personal artistic practices, responding directly to the conditions of the artist's local reality as opposed to strictly following global trends.

In Mario's performance titled "Jitter Bug Sax solo" held in the beautiful open air patio of Cantine Storiche Mustilli, he played the alto saxophone, tin cans, guitar strings, assorted props, and feedback. His saxophone produced a procession of muted notes and multiphonics, which added an exquisite palette of timbral color. While Mario played the saxophone's mouthpiece in the traditional fashion, he covered the instrument's bell with tin cans and then proceeded to bow strings connecting multiple cans. All the while, Mario introduced gentle amounts of feedback, which took on a vocal-like quality as he moved cans and other objects over the saxophone's bell to modulate the feedback.

The concert was a mesmerizing, low-tech performance that showcased playfulness, virtuosity, and at times a comic approach, not unlike that of a master street musician performing as a "one-man band." At times, his performance felt like it was in conversation with the readymade sound sculptures of Brazilian sound artist Walter Smetak. At other times, his performance seemed to sonically extend the work of the conceptual Arte Povera movement, with its roots in the nearby city of Naples. In short, Mario's solo saxophone performance in Sant’ Agatha de’ Goti elegantly synthesized sound, performance, and sculpture in a way that is unlike anything I have ever heard.

Neil Leonard, November 2023

The Linear Notes are by Neil Leonard. Friend, saxophonist, sound artist, researcher about global marketing impacts on our listening, real music lover and artistic director of the Interdisciplinary Arts Institute at Berklee College of Music

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