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Roberto Magris: Lovely Day (s)
by Dan McClenaghan
Italian pianist Roberto Magris began his journey to the United States--specifically, Kansas City--in 2007, although his recording career began in 1990, in Europe. He expresses himself, for the most part, in the bebop mode--good old-fashioned bop. His inspirations: Lee Morgan, Elmo Hope, Cannonball Adderley and more. Magris found a home at Kansas City's JMood Records, where he has released more than a score of classic albums. But never a solo piano outing. Magris is so adept ...
Continue ReadingRoberto Magris: Lovely Day (s)
by Edward Blanco
Veteran Italian jazz pianist Roberto Magris has enjoyed a four-decade career with the accumulation of over thirty albums as leader, in addition to appearing as a sideman on another 10 recordings. Yet, this highly versatile, creative and talented musician has never recorded a solo performance project until now. With Lovely Day(s), Magris finally keeps his promise to do so after so many solo tracks throughout his vast discography and the many times he has expressed to producers that he would ...
Continue ReadingRoberto Magris Europlane for Jazz: Freedom Is Peace
by Jack Bowers
After twenty years making beautiful music elsewhere, the members of Italian-born pianist and composer Roberto Magris' stellar sextet, Europlane, have reunited to record a second album, Freedom Is Peace, a sequel to the ensemble's impressive debut, Check-In (Soul Note, 2005). As before, snugly swinging bop-centered jazz is the order of the day; and as before, Magris heads an all- star lineup of world-class musicians from half a dozen European countries. To enhance its impetus and immediacy, Freedom ...
Continue ReadingRoberto Magris: Freedom Is Peace
by Edward Blanco
In 1998 international recording artist Roberto Magris formed a quintet of talented European musicians and called them his Europlane band which performed actively throughout Europe until 2003. More than twenty years later, the pianist assembles a new Europlane group and presents their first recording with Freedom is Peace, a powerful and captivating session of jazz with a soul-searching social conscious message reflective of the turbulent times we live in today and affirming that jazz can be a political statement which ...
Continue ReadingRoberto Magris: Love Is Passing Thru
by Edward Blanco
Long recognized as one of the finest jazz pianists around, Roberto Magris has an extensive discography documenting his talents as a composer and his skills as a virtuoso pianist. In 2005, Magris and his all-Italian quartet of saxophonist Ettore Martin, bassist Danilo Gallo and drummer and percussionist Enzo Carpentieri toured the Far East and upon their return the group recorded Love is Passing Thru. However, it was not released until 2024 through JMood Records. The passing of drummer Carpentieri and ...
Continue ReadingRoberto Magris: Love Is Passing Thru
by Jack Bowers
Love Is Passing Thru, by Italian pianist Roberto Magris and his quartet, was actually recorded almost two decades ago, in January and February 2005, shortly after a concert tour in the Far East, and was to be released on the Black Saint/Soul Note label before it was sold and went under. Fast forward to 2024, and Magris, now with Kansas City's JMood label, decided that in light of the passing a year ago of drummer and percussionist Enzo Carpentieri, the ...
Continue ReadingRoberto Magris: Love Is Passing Thru
by Dan McClenaghan
Italian pianist Roberto Magris started his jazz journey on his home turf, notably with a trio of albums on the Soul Note label: Check-In (2005), Il Bello del Jazz (2006) and Current Views (2009). But his profile rose substantially when he got involved with JMood Records, beginning with Kansas City Outbound (2008). He offered his masterpiece on the label in 2020 with Suite! , a sumptuous double CD showcasing an artist who adheres very much to the tradition but who ...
Continue ReadingRoberto Magris & The JM Horns: High Quote
by Jack Bowers
Italian-born pianist/composer Roberto Magris, a paradigm of kinetic energy, records so many albums they can't seem to release 'em fast enough. Although High Quote, on which Magris leads the JM Horns (for JMood Records), was recorded more than a decade ago--in November 2012--its release date was for purposes unknown delayed until 2023. Whatever the reasons, it would be hard to believe they had anything to do with the quality of the music, which is by and large ...
Continue ReadingRoberto Magris: Duo & Trio
by Jack Bowers
Italian-born pianist Roberto Magris is a musician to whom the phrase “he could play the phone book and make it sound interesting" definitely applies--as it does to the late great Chicago-based saxophone maestro Mark Colby who met Magris in 2016, formed an instant bond and recorded one-half of this superlative album three years later, one year before Colby's untimely death from cancer. Magris and Colby recorded seven tracks in a Chicago studio and planned to record more--enough ...
Continue ReadingRoberto Magris: Shuffling Ivories
by Edward Blanco
Pianist Roberto Magris follows up his critically-acclaimed album Suite! (JMood Records, 2018) with a duet recording with Chicago-based bassist Eric Hochberg, whom he met while recoding Suite! . Returning to the windy city in November 2019 to promote the release of Suite! , Magris and Hochberg decided to make an album of their own while enduring one of the heaviest winter storms in the history of the city. Over his thirty-plus albums, Magris has often drawn inspiration from ...
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