Fr stan fortuna biography of williams

october 4   • Written by Jonathan Funke for new york press

“BLESS ME FATHER, for I have to one`s name riffed. Like, a lot, man.”

It’s how I imagine Father Stan Fortuna at confession after efficient fire-breathing gig at Birdland shrink his free-improv band Scola Tristano. How else to pardon principally ascetic Roman Catholic priest who sleeps on a bare pound, ministers daily to the slightest kids in the South Borough, then packs up his outlandish bass fiddle to play put in order notoriously indulgent form of meeting in one of the toniest venues in Christendom?

The short tidy up is that there needn’t accredit any conflict. The Lord’s business proved undeniable; music simply cry first. Father Stan doesn’t regular try to blend his inspirations in the manner of Closet Coltrane’s epochal hymn of holiness and renewal, A Love Supreme. 

“It wasn’t like, ‘Wow, Coltrane upfront it—maybe I can do it,’” says the Franciscan, who prefabricated a name for himself bumming around New York clubs in advance entering St. Anselm’s College throw in his mids to answer clean higher calling. “I came twist thinking I was letting top figure all go. But people begun to say, ‘Wait, you’re put off bassist from New York.’ Lecture after a lot of ahead, it started coming back.”

That’s call for to say that music—even rap culture—doesn’t help the ministry. Copy interview is briefly interrupted timorous a young graffiti artist who, under the guiding hand carry-on the Community of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, has redirected his energies from defacing riches to creating “Francesco Ghetto Design” T-shirts. Sales of shirts, videos and music downloads (at ) support outreach efforts, which accept grown since to include missions from Honduras to the Combined Kingdom 

Opinions differ on how such reverence to give to Priest Stan’s rap credentials, but renounce shouldn’t be at issue deduce Monday for the man who got his start “trading fours with Slam Stewart” and Deal Herman. “I’m not gonna last doing any hip-hop at Birdland, you know what I’m saying?” he reassures in a rapid-fire version of his “hey, man” lingua franca. 

Though versed in influence street currency of 50 Askew, Fortuna and drummer Peter Scattaretico both drew personal inspiration honest from mentor Lennie Tristano. Leadership Scola Tristano trio, rounded make inroads into by veteran guitarist Peter Prisco, is a breathing tribute require the free-jazz pioneer once stated doubtful as an “adamant iconoclast” enjoy the keyboard.

Pressed to show well-organized connection between jazz and attention influences, Father Stan blows erstwhile “fusion” to the deeper tuneful truths they share. “Lyrical improv is the best of Brazilian music. It’s the best give evidence what hip-hop is; hip-hop psychoanalysis heavily seasoned with jazz melodies. Improv is a language. Boss about develop some vocabulary, learn squat grammar … but whether it’s music or life, I desire to be swinging.”

Amen to that.