Mappa del Jazz.

Description

In an exuberant display of pictorial cartography, this large-format Italian map depicts the United States as Jazzland, covered in vignette portraits of America’s greatest jazz icons.

Among the notable icons, we find Paul Desmond, Dave Brubeck, Jimmy Giuffre, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Gerry Mulligan, Bessie Smith, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Kenton, Lester Young, Woody Herman, John Coltrane, Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Billie Holiday, Lennie Tristano, Stan Getz, Ornette Coleman, Jerry Roll Morton, Eric Dolphy, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Charles Mingus, Gil Evans. Along with the portraits, the map labels the most famous jazz cities in the country.

The map was compiled in 1984 by Vladimiro Lupi, whose initials are found along with the date on the bass drum depicted just right of St. Louis. In the lower-left corner of the map is an infographic titled jazz-schema. This matrix allows the viewer to follow the development of American jazz from its roots in 19th-century spirituals and gospel music through various variations and styles to modern branches (1960s) such as Hard Bop, Thirdstream, and Jazz Samba.

Other elements outside the United States proper include an elegant compass rose off the Florida coast and an inset vignette of a classic Mississippi paddle wheel boat in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the early venues where jazz orchestras played.

Census

We have been unable to determine where, or indeed if, this map was formally published and distributed. The maker, Vladimir Lupi, used the illustration of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross (in Nevada on the map) for the cover of his book Vocal groups in modern jazz vocalese – storia discografia – biografie (Ferrara, 1986). We have been unable to locate other examples of this map in institutional collections or on the market.