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viewing 1 To 10 of 10 items
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AU 9080CD
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Three years after his previous work (Flow, Home, 2015), Italian guitarist and composer Francesco Diodati releases Never The Same, his latest and long-awaited album as a leader. He's back with the same band, Yellow Squeeds with Enrico Zanisi (piano, synth), Francesco Lento (trumpet), Glauco Benedetti (tuba, valve trombone), and Enrico Morello (drums), and the same label, Auand Records. His name has become one of the most renowned ones in the Italian and European music scene: working and touring extensively with Enrico Rava, he has also proved his personality and innovative attitude on his works as a leader. At the core of Never The Same is a deep reflection on individual perceptions and team work and on the countless transformations these two elements can generate even on the most basic melody. What dominates the composing side is "several layers of sounds overlapping," Diodati says, "intertwining lines becoming mutually essential, albeit maintaining their own independence. This way of building music ensures, for example, that the same tune can be perceived in a different way by each listener. It's like looking at the same 3D object from different perspectives, in your hands or suspended in space." This approach generates the apparently alienating effect that can be heard on "Entanglement", with its constantly changing rhythm. Diodati states, "On our previous album, Zanisi played the piano, while he's doubling on Fender Rhodes, modular synth and bass synth now. I gave Morello a ton of Burmese gongs, which I collected along my trips and live shows in Myanmar, and we played those in the intro of 'Simple Lights'. Glauco Benedetti turned out so surprisingly well on the valve trombone that I rewrote some parts to add it. Francesco Lento brings so many different sounds out of his trumpet, making the timber possibilities endless. He can be truly lyric as well as angular and harsh. We often converse very fast, and this became more and more intense over the years. They are all impressive musicians. I chose them because they break boundaries, and go beyond what's common." As the likes of "River" show, sometimes their interplay is the starting point of an enchanting sound flow, built on the melody and ending in a dense collective improvisation. And while they're playing with an out-of-tune instrument, focusing on timber or exchanging roles in the lineup, the album cover also catches the eye, embracing the whole idea of the album.
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AU 4001CD
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Trrmà, an instrumental duo formed by Giovanni Todisco (percussion) and Giuseppe Candiano (synths), present a self-titled record. The record is composed of five movements that mix acoustic percussion with synthesis. Symphonic and Mediterranean percussion built polyrhythmic structures to create primitive and ancient imagery connected to synthesizers, which draw dystopic and sci-fi soundscapes. Recorded at Reh Offcine di Strada in Terlizzi by Dario Tatoli and Fabio Gesmundo. Mastered by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin.
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AU 3010CD
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Italian jazz pianist Mirko Signorile's listeners are used to his elegant, somehow minimalist expressiveness, to his recognizable pianism, and to his dancelike tunes, both winding or frenzied. His trio album Waiting for You is a mirror that reflects Signorile's current image, with classic jazz in the background, ranging from "Moon River" to "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You." "After years of works based on original compositions, I just wanted to dive in the pure pleasure of playing," says Signorile. "Standards are this to me: a land I can feel at ease when wandering in." This feeling of enjoyable loosening appears in the first track, a lively rendition of "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" that immediately presents a musical conversation with Marco Bardoscia (double bass) and Fabio Accardi (drums) while walking in the past. A brilliant, passionate, swing-driven approach leads the trio's interpretations, as well as the original compositions (the persistent "In the Secret", the mellow "Waiting for You," and the amber-shaded "Wind of Sand") inspired by the golden years of jazz. The essential arrangements guarantee a more effective result, allowing the band members all the freedom they need to follow their own musical paths without restrictions. Starting from the laid-back title-track -- a tribute to the happiest sense of expectation, making it a dreamy moment of hope -- which also holds the melodic strength of the album. This is where the musicians' ability to tell their stories arises. They are both key element in Signorile's intentions, as he explains: "Marco Bardoscia and Fabio Accardi are two musicians I love for their open-minded approach while playing their instrument. I think they both have heart, emotion and cleverness. I knew I could achieve something fresh and surprising by having them in a mainstream project."
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AU 3011CD
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Italian pianist Andrea Calì's trio, featuring Christian Pepe on double bass and Simone Sferruzza on drums, was not formed with the idea of playing standards, but Take the Line follows a route that catches glimpses of past and present, mixing originals and three standards penned by some of the most influential pianists of all time -- Lennie Tristano ("Lennie's Pennies"), Bill Evans ("Five"), and Chick Corea ("Matrix") -- three piano gods who were able to break any rules. The original compositions have a vintage feeling as well; as Calì puts it, "Take the Line is halfway between past and present -- traditional jazz and new tracks blend to create a personal path: the album follows a line somehow, both in its performing approach and in the tracklist, and it sticks to it through both standards and originals." Take the Line is Calì's first project as a leader, and follows his work on Enter by Bologna-based group Bad Uok (Auand, 2012).
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AU 3008CD
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Can one describe everyday life in the third millennium through traditional jazz? That's what Sicily-born pianist Seby Burgio asks with Bounce, released as part of Auand Records' Piano Series. On his contemporary canvas, the 25-year old musician shows mainstream colors made of swing and bop. The result is a fresh, enjoyable music, grounded in the top-notch technique he achieved in his classical studies. The average day on Bounce starts with an invitation: "Follow Me." Burgio drives the listener on a frantic race through traffic, among countless accidents, detours, and quick leaps ahead. Then it's time for a cheerful "Coffee Break," with an infectious beat from Luca Bulgarelli (double bass) and Marco Valeri (drums). A daydream of a "Day Off" ensues, away from office deadlines and traffic jams; the calm of this track unleashes the trio's expressivity, making room for a dreamy, graceful mood surrounded by a soft interplay. Time's almost up, and there's just a quick moment for a playful provocation on "Brush the Cat," highlighting Burgio's sonic clarity and his bandmates' rhythmic precision. Past and present mirror effects dot this album -- with swing, Afro beats, and three-four time outlining the world of today. One can also catch a glimpse of a landscape in bright colors; "Etnia" sounds like a festive dance with origins that cannot be traced back. Of course, this experiment couldn't come without a tribute to some masters, including Thelonious Monk ("Bright Mississippi") and Italian vocal talent Gegè Telesforo, whom Burgio has joined on tour. The uplifting, contagious, and elegant funk beats in "Gege's Groove" echo Telesforo's unique style.
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AU 9056CD
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Italian guitarist Francesco Diodati's third album as a leader, Flow, Home, is conceptually grounded in the exploration of emotional focal points. It's also the debut of Diodati's Yellow Squeeds quintet, featuring Enrico Zanisi on piano, Enrico Morello on drums, Glauco Benedetti on tuba, and Francesco Lento on trumpet. Diodati is also a member of the Enrico Rava Quartet, and has an ongoing duo project with the Italian trumpet player. The band formed around the union of many approaches and styles, thus enriching Diodati's originals with a timbric range and countless expressive possibilities. The opening track, "Split," is all about the moment one feels split in two -- a division here translated in music through both Lento's anxious trumpet and Benedetti's nervous tuba. The long ostinato in the ballad "Ale" holds the immanence of a feeling that mixes up strength and tenderness. And then "Lost" comes, and Diodati's subtle guitar-swarms express a sense of confusion and loss, sealed by an intensely acoustic final moment. "Believe" starts as a game, with the piano playfully disturbed by Burmese gongs and ping-pong balls and helped by Morello's clean drumming, and then opens up to fascinating harmonic choices and a sudden elegance. "Folk Song," "Flow," and "Home" are three compositions that seem linked by a stream of consciousness. "Folk Song" is the ideal introduction, with a minimal melody focused on an easy guitar line and strengthened by a no-frills approach. In "Flow," this turmoil finds its final shape, turning into an imaginary dialogue between trumpet and tuba underlined by Morello's nervous drumming. "Home" is the perfect union of lyricism and technique, highlighting Diodati's inner melodic taste and, at the same time, the intention of defying the six-string boundaries. There is also a tribute to Thelonious Monk, Diodati's musician of choice, here celebrated with a daring reinterpretation of "Played Twice," which shows the interplay skills of this young yet wise quintet. Pensive closer "Casa do Amor" is the happy landing of a restless path, magnificently reflected in Benedetti's euphonium solo.
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AU 9052CD
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Two years after his 2013 debut album, and marking his comeback to his home country, Italian double bass player and composer Matteo Bortone presents his second album as a leader, Time Images. The Otranto-born, Paris-raised, and Rome-based musician leads his French-Italian quartet Travelers (Antonin-Tri Hoang, Francesco Diodati, and Ariel Tessier), who also appeared on his debut album. Following the critical success that welcomed his first album (awarded "Révélation Jazzman" and "Jazz Découverte" in France, and named one of "2013 Best Records" by Italian magazine Jazzit), Bortone confirms the musical direction he showed in his previous work, exploring all the connections between improvisation and avant-garde rock with electro-acoustic moments and rarefied atmospheres, always emphasizing the collective sound over the individual. The album title hints at Bortone's love for film (the idea of "image-temps" in neorealistic cinema was first introduced by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze). The album's energetic and well-structured pieces ("Sunday Supermarket," "Just Play," "Broskar") and introspective ballads ("Crackle", "Olvidao") are enriched with more instruments, such as electric bass, synth, and clarinet (in addition to alto sax and bass clarinet), adding new shades to improvisations ("Intro Crackle" was written for four voices with double bass, synth, clarinet, and bass clarinet). The synth has a co-leading role in some improvisations ("Sunday Supermarket" and "Locked Room") and it also acts as a main voice in "Tourne" and "Olvidao #1." With the exception of Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy," these pieces are all Bortone's compositions.
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AU 9053CD
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Italian pianist and composer Simone Graziano's third album, Trentacinque ("thirty-five") marks his second recording as a leader of his quintet, Frontal, featuring Gabriele Evangelista on double bass, Stefano Tamborrino on drums, and David Binney on alto sax, with the addition of Dan Kinzelman on tenor sax. The album's title refers to the number of years Graziano has spent around Florence, his native city, which is one of the main inspirations for this work; it also refers to the number of recordings he's made (three), the number of members in Frontal (five), and the meter of most compositions (five). Graziano's tracks are made up of elaborate structures and improvisation, with his ensemble looking back at traditional jazz while working on a signature collective sound. The improvised "B-Polar" analyzes bipolarity in music and expresses the wish to reconnect distant ends. "White Piano" is a cold ballad highlighting Graziano's classy approach. Unlike his previous album, Frontal (2013), the Italian jazz pianist -- who studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston -- now adds rhythmic allusions to electronic music, as in "Falk the Bow," with upbeats and downbeats mixed up again and again. A short divertissement on a groove, "Give Me Some Options" is pure improvisation, while the counterpoint on "Window on a Better World" underlines a polyphonic dialogue. As additional proof of his powerful narrative writing, "Blu Piano" and "Killcoal" take different approaches to descriptive music. "Intro K.B." unveils a taste for an unpredictable use of electronics, while "Kamennaya Baba" faces hip hop.
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AU 9040CD
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Auand Records presents Singular Curves, a collaboration between bassist Steve Swallow, saxophonist Ohad Talmor, and drummer Adam Nussbaum. In an August 2014 review of Singular Curves, New York Times jazz critic Nate Chinen lauded the three for their "easy chemistry... that gives 'Singular Curves' its claim to singularity." Chinen described the record's merits both on its own terms and as a continuation of the tradition of saxophone-bass-drums trios, dating back to Sonny Rollins' A Night At The "Village Vanguard" (1958). Chinen notes that "Within those parameters, even a tweak can feel like a push against established precedent," and cites Swallow's idiosyncratic electric bass stylings as a main force behind the group's unique sound and approach, also mentioning that "trios usually call up triangular metaphors, so the suggestion of curvature in this album's title feels like a subtle subversion." Steve Swallow: electric bass; Ohad Talmor: tenor saxophone; Adam Nussbaum: drums. Recorded by Jay Anderson at Mountain Rest Studios, New Paltz, New York; produced by Swallow, Talmor, and Nussbaum with Marco Valente as executive producer; cover art by Jeff Preiss.
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AU 9041CD
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Auand Records presents Italian drummer and composer Ananda Gari's T-Duality, a collaboration with Tim Berne (alto sax), Rez Abbasi (guitar), and Michael Formanek (double bass). T-duality is an equivalence of two physical theories, such as quantum field theories and string theories, which can allow an erasure of the differences between small and large distances and compress the multiple dimensions posited by string theories. Gari's album takes this concept as its title and looks for a balance between composition and free improvisation, with every tune providing an opportunity to create a strong and deep interaction between musicians, notes, sounds, and thoughts. From a very early age, Gari understood the importance of writing his own music and exploring new ways to express his personality. His progression as a composer is highlighted on two 2011 recordings released as a co-leader: Incipit by Govinda + Ananda Gari with American saxophonist Mark Turner and Moving Thoughts by Fool Circle with Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia. T-Duality represents the result of all of Gari's skill a student and performer, developed through collaborations with Aruan Ortiz, Miles Okazaki, Mike Melillo, Gianni Lenoci, and Fabio Zeppetella, and clearly displays his deep interest in free improvisation, avant-garde music, and complex rhythmic approaches. Recorded by Michael Brorby at Acoustic Recording Studio, Brooklyn, New York; produced by Gari with Marco Valente as executive producer; cover art by Dino Musci.
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