The WE INSIST! Foundation was created with the aim of promoting musical and artistic projects focused on research, improvisation, and experimentation in the field of jazz music.
On June 15 and 21, 2025, the WE INSIST! Foundation is organizing two walks along the Martesana Canal. Participants will be accompanied by expert local guides along two itineraries designed to highlight the cultural and natural beauty of the area. The walks will include stops at symbolic places, such as ancient villas, mills, historic farmhouses, churches, and picturesque views of the canal. At each stop, the local guide will recount anecdotes and curiosities related to the history and landscape of the Martesana. The events will conclude with a tasting of typical local products offered by “La comunità del cibo“.
The entire project will be documented in the podcast “Trasform-azioni ‘A Passo di Jazz’,” produced thanks to the valuable contribution of Valentina Lo Surdo.
The event has been made possible thanks to the support and collaboration of the I-Jazz Association as part of the special project “Trasform-azioni: a passo di jazz,” the collaboration of the Municipality of Cernusco sul Naviglio, the Municipality of Gorgonzola, Ecomuseo Martesana APS, the Lombardy Region, Concordiola Associazione Culturale, and Comunità del Cibo.
PROGRAM
Sunday, June 15, 2025 – Cernusco sul Naviglio
5:00 p.m. start of walk
4:45 p.m. meeting point and departure: InfoPoint Martesana, Viale Assunta 17 (Parco Comi)
Local guide, Marilena Criscuolo
Itinerary: Villa Alari Visconti di Saliceto, Sanctuary of Santa Maria Addolorata, Italian Garden, Villa Greppi
Meet at the ProLoco info point in Parco Comi. Together we will reach the recently restored Sanctuary of Santa Maria Addolorata, the first local testimony to the Christian faith. After crossing the bridge over the Naviglio Piccolo, an artificial canal designed by the Sforza family and a fundamental element of the Lombardy canal system, we will admire Villa Alari Visconti di Saliceto, one of the most important pleasure villas in Lombardy. After a short walk through the hedges of the Italian garden, we will complete our itinerary at Villa Biancani Greppi, a 17th-century villa, later a branch of the Ospedale Maggiore di Milano hospital and finally the town hall.
6:00 p.m. concert under the portico of Villa Greppi
in case of bad weather, the concert will be held in the Council Chamber
Cristiano Calcagnile – drums, percussion
Sound shapes the space in which it unfolds and floats. It resonates with objects and bodies, sculpts the images of thoughts, breaks down and aggregates with its pure energy. Art is a construction in which colors, words, images, and sounds dwell, in an eternal search for meaning and legitimacy. These constructions are our homes, intersected by paths and courtyards. They are solid, ethereal, imaginative, raw, polychromatic, and even more.
Now imagine a little man who, equipped with the necessary tools, decides to build a small house where he can welcome friends and strangers to share stories.
Cristiano Calcagnile is a drummer and percussionist. He teaches jazz drums at the Milan Conservatory. He has performed concerts and toured throughout Europe, Asia, the United States, Latin America, Scandinavia, Australia, Japan, England, and North Africa. Among the musicians he has played with are Anthony Braxton, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Butch Morris, Rob Mazurek, Mark Feldman, Cristina Zavalloni, Cristina Donà, Keith Tippet, Damo Suzuki, Glenn Ferris, Enrico Rava, Ernst Reijseger, Stefano Bollani, and many others.
7:00 p.m. tasting of typical local products.
PROGRAM
Saturday, June 21, 2025 – Gorgonzola
5:00 p.m. start of walk
4:45 p.m. Meeting point and departure: Piazza Europa (M2 Gorgonzola stop)
Local guides: Cristina Ricci, Giandomenico Ferrari, Claudio Tartari of Concordiola Cultural Association
Itinerary: Corte dei Chiosi, Sanctuary of the Madonna dell’Aiuto, Poncerta (Vicolo Corridoni), Villa Freganeschi-Sambrunico, Villa Serbelloni-Busca and Parco Sola Cabiati, Ponte di Cadrigo, Parish House, Prepositurale Church of SS. MM. Protaso e Gervaso, Serbelloni Mausoleum, Oratory of SS. Trinità, Bell Tower, Molino Vecchio.
Meeting point at Corte dei Chiosi, a large rustic courtyard of medieval origin where the remains of the ancient domus of the Umiliati are preserved. We will visit the nearby Sanctuary of the Madonna dell’Aiuto, with its Baroque altar dating back to 1767 and paintings and sculptures from the 17th-19th centuries. Through the Corridoni alley, we will reach the Poncerta district, an ancient medieval viaticum. We will then continue to Villa Freganeschi-Sambrunico, now Palazzo Pirola, an 18th-century noble residence with a neoclassical pronaos and frescoed halls. After a stop in the English garden of Parco Sola Cabiati, the garden of Villa Serbelloni-Busca, we will observe the Cadrigo bridge, built in 1938 on an ancient crossroads. Passing by the parish house, with its medieval reliefs and copy of the Madonna del Latte, we will arrive at the provost church of SS. Protaso e Gervaso, a neoclassical work by Simone Cantoni, completed by Lombard artists between the 18th and 19th centuries. We will complete our tour with a visit to the Serbelloni mausoleum and the Oratory of SS. Trinità, symmetrical and contemporary, and the 19th-century bell tower. Last stop: the Molino Vecchio, a 15th-century mill still overlooking the Roggia Gualtiera canal.
6:00 p.m. concert at the Molino Vecchio
In case of bad weather, the concert will be held at the Civic Library
Giancarlo Nino Locatelli – alto clarinet and cowbells
Tilietulum is a totally improvised solo in which the music comes from “a very private and deeply personal place” (Mark Corroto) in a process in which movements are transformed into sounds and vice versa. “The sounds that Locatelli produces have a lot to do with the almost ancestral sounds of nature” (Mario Grella). The dance of the fingers on the instrument, of the tongue with the reed, and of the cowbells hanging from the body amplifies and transforms a sound journey that is intimate, ironic, rarefied, and profound.
Giancarlo Nino Locatelli, clarinets, received his first music lessons from his father, an accordionist. He studied piano and, in 1985, graduated with a degree in clarinet. Among the musicians he has played with are S. Lacy, B. Phillips, J.J Avenel, G. Robair, P. Lovens, P. Kowald, F. Grillo, A. Bosetti, S. Piccolo, E. Sharp, Z. Parkins, W. L. Smith, A. Baars, I. Henneman, T. Delius, and Carla Kihlstedt. Colonia has always had a close relationship with poetry, performance, visual arts, theater, and dance: A. Cassinotti, F. Beltrametti, T. Raworth, D. Villa, M. O’Hara, A. Ruchat, G. Ranieri. He has produced original music for various theater companies.
7:00 p.m. tasting of typical local products
