Giovanni Tomaso: Third Step

Ernesto De Pascale

Recent articles (8 total)

Published: November 1, 1998

Third Step , the latest release by composer and esteemed acoustic bassist Giovanni Tommaso, celebrates the bassist's 40th anniversary in the jazz world. A wide range of rhythmic patterns - from Waltz, Tarantella and Calypso to Minuetto, Tango and Twist - form Third Step ’s main inspiration. Tommaso and his partners, the best of Italian Jazz musicians, offer a sixty-minute emotional set based on eleven original compositions by Giovanni.

Most notably, "Tangoing," by Grammy-nominated composer Louis Bacalov (of "The Postman" fame) and the Joe Lovano collaboration, "Tracce," a calypso-infected number, show a synthesis-like ability. These traits permeate Giovanni Tommaso’s talents, first explored in his collaborations with Don Cherry, Gato Barbieri and Ornette Coleman (in the sixties), then in his development of the Italian jazz-rock scene with his seminal band, "Perigeo," in the early seventies.

Third Step offers an interesting look at the contemporary Italian Jazz Scene and includes appearances by Enrico Rava, Paolo Fresu, Maurizio Gianmarco, Danilo Rea and many others. It offers the right balance between the important melodic Italian tradition and the harmonic complexity of today’s Jazz. Third Step also shows the uniqueness of bassist Giovanni Tommaso’s approach to composing and arranging, an art often forgetten by the younger jazz generation.

Record Label: Ricordi
Style: Straight-ahead/Mainstream