“Music is the universal language of mankind.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

So many things in Italy require some knowledge of Italian to fully comprehend a situation. Even if you’re talking to someone who speaks English, there’s usually some vocabulary differences or difficulty understanding their accent which makes you feel like you’re being rude. Blue Note jazz club was the first place in Milan where I didn’t feel like an outsider.

Blue Note is a large music venue. Once you get your tickets and check your coat, you walk into a large room filled mostly with tables of different sizes. Immediately to your left, there’s a place to buy Blue Note merch (something I had never seen in a jazz club before) and to your right, on the very back wall, there is a large bar. At the very front, opposite the bar, is a large stage with a sign above it that reads “Blue Note Milano”. People are clustered at the tables in the front, leaving the ones further back empty. The neat tables, waiters coming to take your order, and relatively fancy outfits remind me of a jazz club I sometimes go to back in Cleveland. I immediately feel right at home.

Aside from the occasional waiter’s whisper or the rustle of someone reaching for their iPhone camera, the room goes silent when the Arrigo Cappelletti Trio begins to play. Something I love about live music is how easily you can see the joy and passion in the musicians’ eyes as they play. Likewise, the body language and intensity of the audience’s stares at the stage show just how much enjoyment they are deriving from the music. Before every song, the pianist introduces it. At least, that’s what I assume he is doing. I can’t understand the words he is speaking but from the way he glances at the sheet music and from the crowd’s occasional laughter, it seems to me that he is explaining something he is very proud of to the crowd.

Maybe it’s just because I get extremely exhausted that late at night, but it is the most at home and connected with other people that I have felt since arriving in Milan. It’s an experience that I highly recommend and would absolutely repeat in Milan or any other city.