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Gabriele Mitelli Three Tsuru Origami: Colapesce
by Mark Corroto
The second release from Gabriele Mitelli's Three Tsuru Origami ensemble shifts from the literal to the symbolic, expanding both in concept and personnel. Their debut, Three Tsuru Origami (We Insist!, 2022), was a meditation on birds and migration. This follow-up, Colapesce, draws inspiration from the 12th-century Sicilian legend of a half-man, half-fish who sacrifices himself to save his island. The tale, a fixture of Mediterranean folklore, resurfaced in pop culture through the 1964 film The Incredible Mr. Limpet, in which ...
Continue ReadingGiancarlo Nino Locatelli: TILIETULUM solo version
by Mark Corroto
The best poems are the ones we write for ourselves. Like poetry, the music a talented artist creates for him or herself is the deepest, most personal expression possible. Like Joe McPhee's Tenor (Hat Hut, 1977) recorded is a farmhouse in Switzerland, Giancarlo Nino Locatelli's Tilietulum recreates the countryside in his solo recording from Area Sismica, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Mention of the countryside comes up because Locatelli incorporated the sounds of his familial lands in ...
Continue ReadingAndrea Grossi Blend 3 + Jim Black: Axes
by Mark Corroto
When Sonny Rollins recorded “A Night At The Village Vanguard" (Blue Note, 1957) and later toured Europe in 1959, he was frequently asked about performing without a pianist. His saxophone, bass, and drums lineup was unconventional at the time, but it gave him the added freedom to explore his creative powers. Similarly, bassist Andrea Grossi's trio, Blend 3, which includes alto saxophonist Manuel Caliumi and electric guitarist Michele Bonifati, has taken a similar approach. On their previous releases Lцbok (We ...
Continue ReadingFrancesco Aroni Vigone: Orbita
by Mark Corroto
Believer or nonbeliever, either way it is simply impossible to deny the doxological nature of saxophonist Francesco Aroni Vigone's Orbita. His solo recording has a paradisiacal, even divine, sense about the sounds captured in this 32-minute disc. The Italian Vigone might be best known for his work in groups led by clarinetist Giancarlo Locatelli and bassist Enrico Fazio. Here, his alto saxophone is captured solo, but not in a studio. The recording was made in the Church of San Giuliano, ...
Continue ReadingGabriele Mitelli / John Edwards / Mark Sanders: Three Tsuru Origami
by Mark Corroto
Birds of a feather, as they say, flock together. Proof positive is the trio of Italian trumpeter Gabriele Mitelli (who also doubles on soprano saxophone and electronics), and the Englishmen, bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders. Three Tsuru Origami (tsuru is the Japanese word for crane) continues the avian theme with the bulk of the material dedicated to our feathered friends. Sanders and Edwards are familiar names in free jazz and improvisation circles, being the first call ...
Continue ReadingAndrea Grossi Blend 3 + Beatrice Arrigoni: Songs And Poems
by Mark Corroto
Sometimes a great athlete's performance is described as “poetry in motion." If we apply that phrase to this Andrea Grossi Blend 3 release, we might say it is poetry in emotion. The bassist composed a musical score to accompany three poems by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), another four from E.E. Cummings (1894-1962), and one by himself. The remaining three tracks are wordless poetry. Grossi's Blend 3 includes alto saxophonist Manuel Caliumi and electric guitarist Michele Bonifati. The trio has ...
Continue ReadingSebi Tramontana: Unfolding To Be You
by Mark Corroto
This solo trombone recording by Sebi Tramontana could be called a master class if it wasn't such an intimate and personal experience. The Sicilian-born trombonist known for his work in the Italian Instabile Orchestra, the Georg Graewe Quintet, Pipeline 8, and free improvised duos with everyone from Frank Gratkowski to Giovanni Maier, Jeb Bishop and Joëlle Léandre, has a long history performing solo. For more than 30 years now, Tramontana has applied his idiosyncratic solo sound to performances much like ...
Continue ReadingAlberto Braida: Cats In The Kitchen
by Mark Corroto
Cats In The Kitchen by the trio of Alberto Braida, Silvia Bolognesi, and Cristiano Calcagnile is the embodiment of la sprezzatura, an Italian expression that has no equivalent in English but roughly translates as doing something extremely well without showing that it took any effort. The nine compositions penned by Braida, an accomplished pianist whose recent releases include From Here From There (We Insist! Records, 2021), a bewitching duo with Giancarlo Nino Locatelli, were inspired by a drawing his young ...
Continue ReadingTrio Pipeline: Kakuan Suite
by Mark Corroto
The concept is simple enough; sandwiched in between two group improvisations is the Kakuan Suite, a series of seven anagram parts (a couple repeated) that make up the ten tracks heard here. Giancarlo Nino Locatelli (Bb and alto clarinet) composed the pieces, based on the movement of his fingers on his instruments' keys, in effect creating dances. His Trio Pipeline ensemble, part of a stable of “Pipeline bands" (Pipeline 3, Pipeline 5, and Pipeline 8), includes bassist Andrea Grossi and ...
Continue ReadingKORR: Tombé de la voûte
by Mark Corroto
Let's face the truth of free improvisation. It is a hit-and-miss endeavor. Three musicians starting from naught and trying to create something, something from nothing. If the musicians are seasoned, maybe they fall back on clichés and stock phrasings, that approach being the banal equivalent of nothing. When improvisers hit upon something fresh it reinvigorates our faith in free improvisation. Such is the situation with the trio KORR, comprising the French saxophonist Michel Doneda, and the Italians, bassist ...
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