“I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light.” – Miles Davis

Charles ‘City’ Gatt, who sadly passed away last February, will always be associated with the Malta Jazz Festival and its origins in the early 90s. He has left a legacy that will be a hard act to follow. However, Gatt, besides being one of Malta’s best-ever jazz exponents, for almost a decade was also the head of the Malta School of Music, nurturing a love for the jazz music form among many of his students.

This year, the Malta Jazz Festival, in its 32nd edition, will feature a number of big names performing on the stage at Ta’ Liesse, a place that symbolises the festival itself. Organising a jazz festival in Malta had been the dream of Gatt for years, thinking of the spectacu­lar setting of the Grand Harbour and the Three Cities and the Cottonera area as its majestic backdrop. In fact, I believe it was Chick Corea, the late eminent jazz pianist, who, during one of his two performances at the Malta Jazz Festival, marvelled at the spec­tacu­lar environs and exclaimed: “I never thought I would perform in such a postcard setting.”

“My first memories of the jazz festival (I was obviously very young) are more of my mother to be honest. This was the 90s ‒ mobile phones were not a thing yet,” says Ariana, his younger daughter. Gatt has two daughters, Ariana and Carla. His wife Frances sadly passed away some years ago.

“For the best part of two months, my dad would be constantly out, chasing people, making sure the stage is prepped, the instruments undamaged, meeting sponsors, agents and so on. He didn’t have a mobile phone yet so people would call our house to try and reach him. This meant we’d stay in most days just in case someone called, and we had to then figure out where he was and pass on the message,” Ariana reminisces, adding that organising and bringing together as a cohesive whole the Malta Jazz Festival in its early years was a logistical nightmare.

Things got much easier when mobiles became easily available, and everyone could be reached in an instant. As a young girl, she experienced the chaos of those days, with both her parents in the thick of it. But the mounting success of the festival as years passed, attracting superstars of the jazz firmament, was enough to make it worthwhile for both her parents. “I could see they were both so busy and stressed but it was all worth it when we saw how proud he was during those three days of the festival,” Ariana remarks.

Sandro Zerafa, the current artistic director of the Malta Jazz Festival, was the obvious choice for the role when Gatt decided to call it a day. Zerafa, a hugely talented jazz guitarist who has made Paris his home and has nurtured his career away from these shores, was a very young man when Gatt embarked on the first edition of the festival, which contributed to the spark of his initial interest in the music genre. The drummer was to become Zerafa’s mentor and musical father figure. Gatt continuously urged on the young musi­cian, showing him the ropes to pursuing a career in the field.

“The festival was the most awaited time of the year for us. The anticipation was high,” Zerafa claims. “Nostalgia apart, there was something magical about watching those icons perform in Malta during those unjaded pre-internet times. At that time, my only contact with the international jazz scene was that odd copy of Downbeat, shows on the Italian Radio Tre or occasional TV programmes. Watching Joe Henderson, Roy Hargrove, Michael Brecker, Lee Konitz and others play at Ta’ Liesse always felt like a miracle.”

“He probably held in highest regard those that he grew up listening to ‒ the pioneers like the late Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Steve Gadd (one of his favourite drummers), the late Michel Petrucciani, Wayne Shorter, the late McCoy Tyner, the late Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett ‒ many of whom he managed to listen to live many times and also brought to Malta himself for the jazz fest,” Ariana replies, when asked to mention musical influences and the jazz musicians he held in the highest regard. “He was also very proud of the younger Maltese jazz musicians ‒ artists he saw grow up and who he was always very excited to play with.”

Zerafa mentions Jack de Johnette, Elvin Jones, Stan Getz, Keith Jarrett, Gary Burton as musicians Gatt used to look up to. “He also used to cite a lot Joe Hunt, his teacher at Berklee College of Music,” he remarks.

One should not fail to mention that Gatt was also a percussionist and a marimba player. This clearly demonstrates Gatt’s eclectic perspective as a performing artist.

He was always craving a creative outlet and as long as the flow was good, he would be satisfied and happy- Ariana Gatt

The official poster for this year’s Malta Jazz Festival is an endearing portrayal, an eloquent caricature of Charles himself, that pictorially somehow establishes the ethos of the festival and what Gatt was all about. That smile of glee and abandon that accompanied his drumming, giving his all, putting in his heart and soul while improvising or while powering forward the rhythm section of the band in which he was performing. However, this smile hardly ever left his face. He exuded friendliness and ‘openness’ in such a manner that one felt at ease even if one were to meet him for the very first time.

“Charles always exuded a contagious enthusiasm for life and art. Even in later years when he sometimes felt cynical, there were always those moments when his joie de vivre would shine through. My most cherished memories of him are his child-like euphoric outbursts at the festival,” Zerafa points out. “As long as I remain artistic director of the Malta Jazz Festival, I will always keep honouring his artistic vision.”

Abstraction as artistic expression

Gatt’s visual art for some might erroneously strike as playing second fiddle to his being a jazz musician and father of the Malta Jazz Festival. Painterly abstraction came just as natural and shared many aspects of his music – in the freedom of his paintings, the improvisation in composition, the honest, abstract self-expression. He once mentioned American abstract artist Joan Mitchell as a huge inspiration and also claimed that American artist Jasper Johns was a genius for coming up with his series about the American flag.

“I’d say my dad was very passionate in everything he did. He demanded a lot from himself and put his heart and soul into all his projects ‒ the jazz festival, his paintings, his music. I think he was always craving a creative outlet, and as long as the flow was good, he would be satisfied and happy,” Ariana reflects.

One could affirm that art and music, besides his family, were the things that made his life worthwhile, although at times life was harsh, and Ariana claims that he lost his motivation to paint or play. “The two always seemed to mirror each other,” Ariana adds. “Once he got motivated to paint or play again, his mood would instantly be elevated.” Art and music provided a lifeline for him when faced with life’s travails, a safety net of sorts.

Gatt was one of the protagonists of the Maltese art initiative START, the concept of art historian Prof. Raphael Vella. He was also a member of the international art group Frequenzen. Gatt at times integrated his two passions, music and art, through art installations that drew on elementary and rudimentary instruments such as bamboo twigs which he positioned in a way that wind would make a percussion instrument out of them; thus, nature itself, the ultimate artist, created an improvised piece of music.

An art exhibition and a jazz festival

City Lights, the exhibition of his paintings at the Phoenicia Hotel coupled with the Malta Jazz Festival itself, eloquently demonstrate these two aspects of Gatt’s creativity.

One could find many obvious parallels between Gatt’s art and his music, as remarkably shown by this collection of paintings. They have a strong jazzy improvised component to them, while at the same time, they exude a strong sense of spirituality.

“The rough periods in his life also had a claim on his art and music,” his older daughter Carla remarks. “His lack of love for the structured and purposefully designed reflected his abstract, non-figurative art and intentional use of dissonance, i.e. jazz. ‘The less clean and seedier, the better’, he would say. When travelling with him, other than the music played, a great jazz club needed to embrace the right ‘foul’ smell and sordid décor. Authenticity was key!”

His paintings casually remind people of the art of the aforementioned Joan Mitchell and that of Chinese-French artist Zao Wou-Ki. The Maltese artist, like Zao, explored the silences, the visible as the yang of the invisible, the musical harmony, rhythm, nuance and dissonance, indeed the artist’s soul itself.

“Charles used to draw a lot of parallels between music and visual art.  I think there is a strong sense of spontaneous movement in his paintings,” says Zerafa. “Some of his paintings really echo that subtle dance between the organic and the cerebral, something that is at the heart of jazz itself. Charles used to cite a lot the Catalan painter Antoni Tàpies, who I always felt to be a strong influence on his works.”

“He definitely always improvised and felt free when painting as well. I’d say his painting was definitely a strong reflection of his mood at the time,” Ariana emphasises. She poignantly describes some idiosyncrasies of his creative process: “He would commonly get an old painting from upstairs and start working on it again ‒ years later ‒ until he considered it ‘done’. Whenever I’d ask what he meant to say with a particular painting he would tend to say something like ‘It doesn’t matter. Just enjoy it. What is it saying to you?’”

This question lies at the heart of valid abstract art. Non-representational art touches on the deeply personal, reaching for the soul and evoking novel feelings and emotions, personal to the viewer. It is what this exhibition of paintings by Gatt is asking also, besides its celebratory function to honour one of Malta’s cultural icons loved by all those who were lucky enough to know him.

City Lights, curated by Charlene Vella and hosted by Phoenicia Hotel, Floriana, is on until the end of July. Consult the exhibition’s Facebook page for opening hours and other information.