At Casa del Jazz, on May 27, the Summertime Concert Series, Eugenio Colombo's "Amazing Changes" piece was performed by a 37-piece orchestra outdoors.

The concert was great and so is the story of how this home for jazz which includes book/music store, recording studio, theater, school and restaurant came about.

The current mayor of Rome is a music lover, so when he seized this large piece of land and home from a former Mafia boss he created the Case del Jazz.

But there's more to this story: The stones that were used to build the original casa came from the ancient Music Hall of Rome, the one that covered the mausoleum of Agustus and peace monument; the same one that Mussolini tore down to build a cultural center, yet never built anything.

Subsequently, Richard Meier was comissioned to create the housing for the Ara Pacis (peace monument) and the music hall Auditorium Parco della Musica was built by Renzo Piano in another location.

More here: "http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/03/style/03iht-zwer4.html":http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/03/style/03iht-zwer4.html