| Climate atmosphere is what
we say.
Soul with beautiful expression, is what they say in the modern
jazz scene in the US. It's a necessary component for good
jazz, as well as for swing.
But to achieve an organic atmosphere which is therefore vital
and alive, a relationship of intentions and views, and a congeniality
of thoughts are needed.
When Tommasi was in Rome for a few
days and had Santucci and Scoppa listen to the latest pieces
he had composed, the three musicians ideas, aspirations, and
agreement in taste appeared to exist right off the bat, and
the idea to do an album together was born almost instantly.
Now, with all things said and done, a certain climate seems
to have been achieved, with no lack of a swing enriched with
heat and energy.
The two horn players, who up until now have played and recorded
with a band from Rome, the Modern Jazz gang, have really and
fully understood the spirit of the pieces written by Tommasi,
and even if it's the first time they have met with the trio
of the pianist from Trieste, they demonstrate that they have
merged and combined into one, more than anyone had hoped for.
The album was recorded by forging ahead and overcoming various
obstacles like that of a geographical distance that they were
not used to( the horn players reside in Rome, and the others
in Turin, Bologna, and Lucca);
but now that the project has
been achieved rehashing the difficulties that they had to
get past in order to finish the piece is no longer important
(and nor is it well wished for). Amedeo Tommasi, piano player,
was born in Trieste on December 1, 1935.
After studying the
piano privately under the guidance of classical maestros,
he felt the fascination of modern jazz and so he dedicated
himself to it with serious and intense passion.
Having moved
to Bologna where he still resides today, he soon matured his
jazz in a hot and lively atmosphere of few amateurs who usually
get together in a strange yet very well supplied record shop
called the "Disclub", whose preferences range from
the trendy Bop by Bird and Diz up to the last experiences
of Coltrane and his companions.
Having a very close relationship
with this sort of climate, Tommasi finds, with his profound
reasons, his way of playing, and above all, writing, which
in this album are an exhibition of his personal character,
as the author of intense, dramatic, and original compositions,
even if they require a noteworthy commitment from the soloists
for the intrinsic harmonic and rhythmical difficulties. Tommasi's
trio, came to light after the radio transmission "La
Coppa del Jazz" (The Jazz Cup).
In this album the trio
represents itself in its best form with Tommaso and Mondini,
and it is very appreciated in Italy both as an independent
band and as a rhythm section (compare the recent albums recorded
with the Belgian alto-sax player Jaques Pelzer and with those
of Conte Candoli).
Giovanni Tommaso, bass player, was born
in Lucca in 1941, and is therefore the youngest and possibly
the most talented out of these soloists. After having studied
the piano and bass for a few years, he ended up dedicating
himself to the bass, and developing his particular jazz qualities
which have helped him in already being one of the best bass
players in Italy.
Besides being a part of the Tommasi Trio,
he is the bass player for "Quintetto di Lucca" (the
Lucca Quintet), a refined group of young musicians, with whom
he has recently been to the US, where he was able to observe
the jazz scene up close and to noticeably improve his technique
and musical knowledge.
Franco Mondini, drummer, was born in
Turin on September 14th, 1935. Despite his young age, he has
already been validly included amongst the top Italian musicians
for years.
After having graduating in theory and solfeggio,
he met Kenny Clarke in Paris who decisively impressed him
and gave him precious advice. In Holland he studied quite
a long time with Johnny Engels jr., one of the best European
drummers.
He has played with the best Italian musicians (he
played with Nunzio Rotondo for one year) and foreign musicians
(Phil Woods and Phineas Newborn appreciated him quite a bit).
Francesco "Cicci" Santucci, trumpet player, was
born in Rome on April 21st, 1939. At the age of 17 he performed
in a Jazz Festival in Rome, but his first experiences of any
real importance were had a year later in the Modern Jazz Gang
Quintet; a Roman octet which he is still a member of.
He is
forming a serious musical preparation with his trumpet studies
and composition under the guidance of private maestros.
In
an opinion survey recently done by the readers of the magazine
"Jazz di ieri e di oggi" (yesterday's and today's
Jazz) he resulted fourth among the Italian trumpet players.
Enzo Scoppa, tenor sax player, was born in Rome in 1934.
He
is also part of the Modern Jazz Gang Quintet. He has done
concerts and albums with Rotondo.
He was classified as third
in the same survey, and is one of the few Italian tenor players
who follow the most recent trends and try to create a characteristic
voice with their own instruments.
This volume is entitled
after "Zamboni 22" not because this piece is retained
to be the best or the most important, but for one reason,
emotional so to say, which is because it was the first piece
that Tommasi proposed to Santucci and Scoppa.
Therefore it
is the matrix of origin of the same album, even if on this
occasion it was preferred to utilise the performance of the
song done only by the trio.
The four pieces performed by the
quintet are marked with an asterisk. The other two are played
by the trio. The album opens with Mulatto, inspired by the
homonymous drama of Langston Hughes, especially the last part:
the black man hunted down by the white men thirsting for vengeance.
It is about a composition made up of 12 bars, which goes beyond
any descriptive expectation, demonstrated first by the rhythm
and then by the horns, which accentuate the dramatic charge
and sharp colours.
The atmosphere briskly widens into a series
of arpeggios of a restless romanticism that has gone awry,
which the trumpet and tenor solos follow with the tenor solo
being particularly complex.
After a nice piano solo, bass
solo, and a chase by the base and drums, the composition finishes
ex abrupto with a flared horn finale. Zamboni 22 in trio,
consists of two parts of 20 and 16 bars respectively, with
a very complex harmonic round, hidden by the apparent simplicity
of the melody.
Ballata in forma di Blues (Blues style Ballad),
as the title indicates, is a composition of 24 bars, and is
therefore a blues doubled in D major with some harmonic alterations.
The piano solo is the first to express this sort of blues,
then in comes the trio, and finally the muted trumpet takes
over with one of its best solos, which the sax and piano follow,
finishing off with a composition by the trio.
This piece somewhat
represents the spirit of the encounter between the two Romans
and the Tommasi trio because the trio usually plays the piece
in which the horns have their solos.
Ballad for Micheline
is dedicated to Jaques Pelzer's little daughter for the friendship
that links Tommasi and Pelzer. It is a slow and lyrical composition
in E major in two parts of 8 and 12 bars respectively.
The
horns perform this piece alternating between one another.
The solos then take over starting with Scoppa, then Santucci
with a muted trumpet, and then Tommasi.
Autostrada del sole(
the sun motorway) is Tommasi's most recent composition dedicated
to the important public work which is currently in progress
in Italy.
It is a very original composition in C, with an
AABA'A pattern, where the first two A's are each 8 bars, then
B is 16 bars in A minor and in ¾ tempo, then A' is
8 bars in D and 4/4, then A again in C.
The piece gives a
brilliant sample of the trio's qualities.
Coltrane, in homage
to the saxophonist who our five musicians unanimously retain
to be the most important personality in today's jazz, is a
composition of 12 bars in D minor, whose reasons for interest
consist of the rhythmic division where the accents are always
off beat in a such a way to violently contrast the high notes
played by the horns (a close-up effect of tension) and the
low notes played by the piano and bass in unison (a dark and
dramatic back ground effect) , in a suggestion of triple tempo,
while it's actually in 4/4.
After the composition there is
a nice solo by Tommaso on the bass, then, with a Cuban background,
Scoppa, Santucci, and Tommasi all improvise with Mondini at
the end who does a great solo that's full of energy.
Umberto
Santucci |
