In those days the concerts were held at the Accademia dei Filedoni (JCP) Perugia - "I  stopped friends and acquaintances on the street and asked for a thousand liras, I did the same with clients of my father's restaurant, the famous "Trasimeno", and I told them: you are now a member of the Hot Club Perugia".  Carlo Pagnotta, a piece of Italian jazz history, recalls the "romantic" years of the rise of Jazz in Perugia.  "At the beginning of the fifties the few jazz fans would meet at the Ceccherini shop in Piazza della Repubblica to discuss, and often to argue about,  traditional jazz or modern jazz, "hot jazz" or "cool jazz"."  The founder of Umbria Jazz recalls that at a certain point this group of friends  decided to create an organization and so the Hot Club Perugia was born with Adriano Mazzoletti as Chairman. In those days the concerts were held at the Accademia dei Filedoni, the present seat of the Umbria Regional Council.  "It wasn't easy - says Carlo - to find sponsors and this club, which possessed an excellent grand piano, gave us hospitality.  Among the many Italian musicians who played there  I like to remember the arrival of a young man of "great promise", Enrico Rava, together with a completely unknown Gato Barbieri".  That period saw the memorable concerts of Louis Armstrong at the Teatro Morlacchi in 1955 and  Chet Baker at the Sala dei Notari in 1956.  Towards the end of the fifties Adriano Mazzoletti moved to Rome and Carlo Pagnotta went to London and so the activity of the club came to a stop but  1960 saw the birth of the Jazz Club Perugia with Carlo Pagnotta as Chairman.  The club grew to about 300 members and, with the contribution of the Comune of Perugia and the Tourist Office with its legendary Director Giuseppe Agozzino, artists of the calibre of Teddy Wilson, Johnny Griffin, Dexter Gordon, Archie Shepp, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie (all at the Teatro Morlacchi) arrived. Sonny Rollins came to the Teatro Turreno.  The "Saxophone Colossus" still has the sticker of the Jazz Club Perugia on his saxophone case.  This explains why Rollins, interviewed recently on television, when asked if he knew Carlo Pagnotta, replied:  "Carlo…I have known him for years, Carlo is a legend".   Well, said by a real legend of jazz… We should remember the main collaborators of Carlo Pagnotta from  those days of jazz in "black and white":  Sauro Peducci (who was to become a pillar of Umbria Jazz) and Argentino Stortini, both no longer with us.  From the experience of the outdoor concerts (Lou Bennett) of the  Jazz Club Perugia, the step to present a project for a festival was brief.  In 1972 Carlo Pagnotta's proposal  was sent to the first President of the Region of Umbria, Pietro Conti, and the intuition of the Councillor for Tourism and Culture at that time, Alberto Provantini, was decisive:  in August 1973 Umbria Jazz was born, but that is another story… Traduzione di Susan Rawlins