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Andrea Centazzo - Roberto Ottaviano: In a Rainy Day

by AAJ Italy Staff
Trentacinque anni dopo il loro primo incontro e venticinque dopo la loro ultima collaborazione, Andrea Centazzo e Roberto Ottaviano tornano a suonare assieme, mettendo splendidamente a frutto le loro esperienze, nel tempo ben differenziatesi ma non per questo difficili da coniugare. In a Rainy Day è stato registrato nel giugno del 2012 a Bologna, ma è poi stato missato, con sovraincisioni, a Long Island. Gran parte del lavoro è interamente improvvisato, mentre alcuni pezzi si muovono a partire da temi ...
Continue ReadingAndrea Centazzo: Moon in Winter

by AAJ Italy Staff
Moon in Winter mette i risalto le grandi qualità di Andrea Centazzo come batterista/percussionista e come compositore. Le dieci tracce sono suddivise tra duetti, che vedono coinvolti il leader e un musicista a turno, trio, e brani a pieno organico, quelli denominati Moon in Winter," numerati progressivamente. Ma anch'essi sono organizzati come scatole cinesi che si compongono e ricompongono, frammentando l'organico in sottogruppi che si scambiano, si dividono e si riuniscono assecondando le idee e le indicazioni delle partiture del ...
Continue ReadingAndrea Centazzo: Guitars

by Elliott Simon
Live improvisation is ephemeral yet creative, a fleeting sonic moment in time that is lost as quickly as sound dissipates through space. Paradoxically, a recording of that same performance is eternally uninspired, each playing being identical to the one before it. For three decades, percussionist/electronicist Andrea Centazzo has been among the most successful at blurring that dialectic. Centazzo blurs lots of things though and in the process he has amassed a daunting archive of releases, many on ...
Continue ReadingDEPARTED ANGELS

by Jerry D'Souza
Intuition plays the dominant role in the interaction between percussionist Andrea Centazzo and seven guitar improvisers on this set of collaborations recorded over a wide span of time. Centazzo plays in duo and trio settings, occasionally adding another voice. What transpires is an explosion of processes that take the art of invention to a new high. Centazzo has been an active musician and composer for over 25 years, covering a wide and impressive range of styles including opera, ...
Continue ReadingAndrea Centazzo: West Coast Trio

by Jerry D'Souza
A man of many talents, Andrea Centazzo is a composer at home with classical, jazz and experimental music. As a musician, he plays percussion and keyboards, and is not immune to sampling to add to the impact.
Centazzo's music breathes and reverberates from the input of his band. He calls for an intuitive response to develop the theme and both Kai Kurosawa (guitar) and Motoka Honda (piano) help realize the depth and tangibility of his compositions. ...
Continue ReadingROVA Saxophone Quartet and Andrea Centazzo: The Bay

by Jerry D'Souza
Ictus Records was co-founded by percussionist Andrea Centazzo with Carla Lugli in the late 1970s. The focus was on improvised music, contemporary styling and avant-garde jazz. Centazzo and Lugli ran the label until 1984 when the financial burden became too heavy to carry on. During that time, Ictus had a strong catalog with recordings of Centazzo, Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, Gianluigi Trovesi and ROVA. Saxophone Quartet among others.
Ictus was resurrected after a hiatus of thirty years. Several ...
Continue ReadingAndrea Centazzo: The Heart of Wax

by John Barron
In 2001, Italian composer/percussionist Andrea Centazzo assembled a first-rate ensemble of strings, winds, keyboards and percussion to record his adventurous ballet suite, The Heart of Wax. The music, commissioned by the arts council of the municipality of Cento, was written for a forgotten libretto by Italian artist Alberto Martini (1876-1954). Newly edited and re-mastered for Centazzo's own Ictus Records, The Heart of Wax casts the Italian free-jazz pioneer in the role of composer/conductor, demonstrating superlative mastery of orchestration. ...
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