Love is the answer

Music that generates social impact, which intervenes in the fabric of a community bringing benefits to the lives of the most fragile people. Among the most active Italian musical groups in the social sphere is the Smallable Ensemble, a quartet formed by leading artists from the blues, folk and jazz scene. Alex “Kid” Gariazzo, a talented guitarist and singer also of the Treves Blues Band as well as a sessionman for Italian and American artists (he performed at the end of 2024 with Brian Lopez of Calexico), the refined multi-instrumentalist Marco “Benz” Gentile, the bassist with a big jazz heart Michele Guaglio and the inspired accordionist Roberto Bongianino, are also volunteers of Vitamine Jazz, a project of the Fondazione Medicina a Misura di Donna onlus with the artistic direction of Raimondo Cesa that brings music into the corridors of the Sant’Anna hospital in Turin.

An experience that has lasted for more than two years and that is proving to be precious for the patients but also, in another way, for the musicians themselves who draw further impetus from the encouraging results of the initiative to engage in other social projects. The last Vitamine Jazz concert was held outside the hospital, in a theater, to raise funds for research, prevention and treatment of invisible disabilities in women, including endometriosis and headaches. The group led by Gariazzo stands out for a sophisticated reinterpretation of John Lennon's repertoire, based both on his solo period and on Beatles production. In the waiting room "Terzo Paradiso" of the Complex Structure with University Management of Gynecology and Obstetrics 1 of Sant'Anna, the notes of the musicians of the Smallable Ensemble will return in the new year, who with other involved groups donate their art among the rooms of the hospital to light up lights of hope in the maternity wards, accompanying oncological treatments during chemotherapy or waiting times in the waiting rooms. As Lennon sang in 1973's Mind Games, «Love is the answer»


Guido Andruetto
NP January '25