Freestyle in Italy: Milanese Jamming

By Rodney Sanchez

Back to the Summer 1998 Forum On-Line Home Page

    It's Saturday, April 4, 1998. Bethany Sanchez, Larry Imperiale, and I are at the Pensione Cantore in Milan, Italy.  Come to Italy for travel, culture and disc fun, today we are hooking up with Johnny Melfi, one of the hot local jammers.   Johnny arrives at the Pensione, "Ciao," "Ciao,""Ciao," and the four of us head out to Parco di Trenno to jam.  

   Parco di Trenno spreads over some 5 square kilometers.  Lined with stands of trees just budding out in Spring and covered with large tracts of green grass, Milanese come to play soccer, roller skate, play boci ball and cards, stroll pleasant tree-lined lanes, and jam.

    We arrive at the jam site and Lorenzo Manzani, Sebastan Rodela and Enrico Barsanti are already there to greet us.  We exchange smiles, handshakes and "Ciao" then sit down to prepare for the jam.

    We eat pizza and drink ice tea and cola.  Italian hospitality or carbo-loading, we eat modest-sized pieces of thin crust cheese and tomato pie, drink and apply our nails. (Well, Larry doesn't wear nails.)

    We jam.

    Our first impression of Milanese Jamming: "these guys can play."  We throw left spin and right spin ("giri sinistra e destra") and see Italian center work and tips, and rolls and brushing runs.  Learning from the father of Italian Disc play, Franco Figari (the "Stork of Italy"), Claudio Collera, simply known as "Clay," and videos from the States, the Milanese shred.   Johnny says "fai la Bill" and Morgan rolls the disc to a trailing-edge, barrell roll catch.  The move is named for Bill Wright's version of the catch, learned from the 1991 Santa Cruz WFDF video.

    As the day progresses, more people show up: jammers; friends come to watch; and a film man to document the day.  All in all there are 12 jammers in Milan, 10 men and 2 women.  Claudia de Luca likes giri sinistra (counter) and pumps big Z's to Bethany.  Stefano Bertola "Tistee" and Mauricio Ranieri like to play with giri destra (clock), while Morgan Fiorani is a wild (young) man who loves to crash and burn, and over the next five hours discs fly in the gray Spring sky of Milan. Italy.

    A favorite catch is the gitis (but, of course), called "forbici" in Italian, which means scissors.  Another catch named for an American jammer is the "Velasquez," named for Jens' pinwheel catch and learned from a Rose Bowl video.  We see many scarecrows as well, or "ceca," Italian for blind.

    The camaraderie amongst the locals runs deep.  We three quite fortunate to be invited to this Saturday afternoon jam. 

    "Do you know Joey Hudoklin?" Johnny asks, and we smile.