BLUE BELLINI
Blue Bellini was born (or, better, 'reborn') between Sunday, May 2nd 2009 (when I delivered it into the masterly hands of Dr. Victor Von 'Bellini' Frankenstein) and Saturday, June 13th, when I was handed back the creature.
Who is Master Bellini? Matteo Bellini is an Italian craftsman from Mantua (a small but beautiful town in northern Italy). What he did ? More or less, he did with a didgeridoo what Dr. Victor Von Frankenstein did in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's famous novel.
On May 2nd I gave Matteo a didgeridoo that I very seldom played. I had bought it for 160 euro in Dicember 2002, at the annual Arts and Crafts Fair in Milan. It was, definitely, a poor instrument. Its sound quality was second-rate, and it had very little backpressure. Playing just the first horn tone (toot) was quite hard, and its mouthpiece was too wide and sharp-edged.
The Mantuan Master cut the instrument (an Indonesian eucalyptus didgeridoo hollowed out with a drill) lenghtwise in two halves. He then implanted in it a 'mini-didgeridoo' about 40cm long and made of 'Neapolitan alder'. Subsequently, he pyrographed and painted a motif along the entire lenght of the mini-didgeridoo. For the motif's subject, he drew inspiration from a tune of mine titled 'Three Hearts One Beat'.
As the pictures pasted below show, the motif represents three hearts run through by a single heartbeat. The heartbeat reminds of the lightning that gave life to Dr. Victor Von Frankenstein's creature.
The three hearts are three distinguished entities. One is the didgeridoo itself, one is the man playing Blue Bellini and the last one is its creator, Master Blue Bellini. Thus, he exceeded Dr. Victor Von Frankenstein himself, becoming at the same time both creator and part of his creature... then everything comes full circle, and the new singing tree, made up by different bodies, minds and hearts, is born again and resumes vibrating.
From a sonic point of view, Blue Bellini's main asset is its nice fundamental, deep and dark but at the same time also loud and clear. It has a good backpressure, and the first and second horn tones (toots) are easy to play. In all fairness, I'm not completely satisfied with the toot's sound, that I find a bit too sharp and loud. But, maybe, this is just a matter of taste. Actually, I know several didgeplayers that might appreciate this peculiarity of the instrument.
Blue Bellini's fundamental is C-sharp. Its first toot is an
F-sharp. Next are a few audio samples of Blue Bellini.
Click here to listen Blue Bellini Drone by Jack Azzarà
Click here to listen Blue Bellini Rhythm by Jack Azzarà
Blue Bellini is 170 cm (67 inches approx.) long. Its circular mouthpiece, with no beeswax, has a 3,0 cm diameter. Its irregular-shaped bell is 12,5 cm wide and 10 cm high (these measures indicate the distance between the mouthpiece's and the bell's inner walls).
In order to contact Matteo Bellini you can visit his web-site http://www.platydoos.it
In order to view the photos of BlueBellini double click on the snapshot below!
Click here to download Blue Bellini Booklet
Click here to download original didgeridoo booklet