Around Small Fairy Tales

Around Small Fairy Tales

Editorial Reviews
From Jazziz
The several albums by this master reed specialist and composer are probably little-known in the U.S., and with Soul Note's buff status and a project involving a local chamber orchestra from his home town of Nembro, this doesn't seem like the record to break him into wider attention. Yet this is the sunniest, most gorgeously lyrical album Trovesi has put his name to, and it is so full of surprise and inspirational playing by all hands that it demands the widest hearing.

Marcello Piras' thoughtful sleevenote insists that there's no such thing as an italian national jazz. But how else to characterize the Neapolitan melodies that twine through these exquisite charts, the way originals like "La Pazzia" sit with an anonymous 16th-century work "Sia Maledetta L'Acqua," the Mediterranean timbres that make one think of Morricone or Rosa as readily as any jazz arranger?

Bruno Tommaso's charts provide a sumptuous framework for Trovesi's solos without getting too heavingly romantic. Using a chamber orchestra grants a slimline feel to the music, which might have been merely pompous in the hands of a Johnny Mandel. To hear their lightness of foot, try "Dance for a King," where the rhythm section and the strings never get in each other's way.

Integrating jazz players - there are striking contributions from trumpet and vibes, too - with musicians from this discipline may be fraught with problems, but there's no evidence of that here. When Trovesi returns to the Dufay melody that was the defining element of his last record, Les Hommes Armes, it's like a triumphant summation of a project to which he brings a thrilling authority in his own solos, especially on clarinet. If you want a local analogy, you might think of Giuffre, or Getz with Albam - but this is a disc that couldn't have been made in American studios.

Around Small Fairy Tales,Gianluigi Trovesi,Soul Note Records,Italy,Jazz,Jazz Music,Modern Creative,Orchestral Jazz,Pop,Post-Bop

Jazz Music: Around Small Fairy Tales

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