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Michael Dease's new album and a focus on Paolo Fresu

By Bob Osborne

This week the exceptional new record from Michael Dease is the featured album, plus we focus on trumpeter Paolo Fresu, and spin a selection of high quality jazz music. Playlist Michael Dease “Pearls" from Bonafide (Posi-tone) 00:00 Daniel Bennett Group “Loose Fitting Spare Tire" from We Are the Orchestra (Manhatten Daylight Media) 06:08 Florian Weber “From Cousteau's Point of View" from Lucent Waters (ECM) 11:57 Giovanni Di Domenico & Abschattungen “Tugkanon & Lekton" from The Ear Cannot Be Filled WIth ...

Paolo Fresu: Carpe Diem

By Don Phipps

If you were somehow able to interject Miles Davis in his cool period into today's contemporary European jazz scene, you'd have to think he'd sound a lot like Paolo Fresu. But while Miles concerned himself with the sound of “urban" cool, Fresu offers a romance-infused cool. Think balcony on Mediterranean bluffs at sunset, a glass of Chianti in hand, staring deeply into the eyes of your partner, enjoying the salt air breeze wafting across your skin. This is the magic ...

Paolo Fresu & Daniele Di Bonaventura at Borgo Marconi Auditorium

By Andrea Rotili

Paolo Fresu at the Magister Giotto in Venice

By Daniele Franchi

Paolo Fresu Devil Quartet: Desertico

By Dan Bilawsky

Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu has always been more angel than devil, though he's fronted quartets that name check both of those respectively heavenly and hellish entities. His horn work is coolly lyrical and spellbinding, regardless of the setting it's found in, but Fresu also has an impish side to his personality that takes over at certain times; he taps into that deviousness in a few places on Desertico, but the majority of the music is gorgeous, reflective and peaceful.

Paolo Fresu: Songlines / Night & Blue

By Greg Simmons

Paolo Fresu's Songlines/Night & Blue is a beautiful performance by a musician who does not feel compelled to prove himself with pyrotechnics. Instead, on this two-disc set, the Italian trumpeter prefers speaking his piece with lush melodies and a rich full horn sound, supported by an exceptional quartet. Being an Italian album, it seems appropriate to use a few musical terms. The entire affair, around 140 minutes in length, is taken sostenuto (smoothly), with a pace that slides ...

Paolo Fresu / A Filetta Corsican Voices / Daniele di Bonaventura: Mistico Mediterraneo

By John Kelman

At a time when cross-pollination has become the new musical evolution, ECM Records remains at the vanguard. Whether blending music of Tunisian origins with European impressionistic concerns and hints of New World groove on oudist Anouar Brahem's The Astounding Eyes of Rita (2009), or marrying Persian percussion with Baroque instrumentation and Fourth World improvisation on keyboardist Jon Balke's Siwan (2009), few labels (if any) can boast such an impressive catalogue of constant innovation, where unfailing respect for tradition is matched ...

Paolo Fresu/Richard Galliano/Jan Lundgren: Mare Nostrum

By Fred Bouchard

This magical debonair international trio reminds us once again of the porosity of walls between nations and fluidity of musical styles, as it flits through an enticing shadow world that recaptures Paris in the 1950s. Swedish Jan Lundgren's pointillist piano blends dreamily with Richard Galliano's poignant squeezebox and Sardinian Paolo Fresu's acerbic, haunted trumpet to raise the shades of Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Miles Davis, Charles Trenet, Maurice Ravel and Josephine Baker. Waltzes, of course, are numerous, ...

Paolo Fresu: Mare Nostrum

By Chris Mosey

Italy's Paolo Fresu (trumpet), Frenchman Richard Galliano (accordion) and Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren get together to form what may well be the first Eurojazz supergroup. All have established their credentials playing with big names: Fresu with Carla Bley, Gerry Mulligan, David Liebman, Dave Holland, John Abercrombie, Jim Hall and Toots Thielemans; Galliano with George Mraz, Al Foster, Ron Carter, Chet Baker and Jan Garbarek, in addition to being a member of Claude Nougaro's band for several years; and Lundgren with ...