Renzo Ruggeri Orchestra - Kramer Project

Una Big Band di 12 musicisti (11 band+direttore) + special guest suona gli ARRANGIAMENTI ORIGINALI (unico progetto a farlo) trovati in casa Kramer in una vecchia valigia....e questo grazie alla fondazione Rivarolo Mantovano che mettendomi in contatto con Teresa e Laura Gorni, le due figlie del maestro che mi dissero che nonostante Kramer, come sovente accade a molti artisti, ha impiegato l'ultima parte della sua vita a disfrarsi delle proprie creazioni avevano il ricordo di una valigia abbandonata nella casa di campagna della famigia. Per me ciò ha significato la scoperta del leggendario tesoro del Capitan Flint
La storica sigla L'ORCHESTRA DEL CUORE introduce il cd che si alterna tra le composizioni proprie degli inizi (Pippo Non Lo Sa, Prime Lacrime), le commedie musicali (Un Bacio a Mezzanotte, In un Vecchio Palco della Scala, etc.) e la TV (Domenica è sempre Domenica, Tomorrow Night, etc.). Per quanto riguarda la metodologia impiegata in questo lavoro ricordiamo che Renzo nonostante non sia stato in grado di reperire gli arrangiamenti delle partiture krameriane ha scelto di avvicinarsi alla musica del Maestro nella maniera piu' fedele possibile, anche laddove ciò ha significato recuperarle attraverso l'ascolto di incisioni d'epoca. Il fatto poi che prima dell'incisione del cd gli artisti abbiano avuto la possibilita' di eseguirne in piu' occasione i brani durante vari concerti ha consentito all'orchestra di raggiungere quell'affiatamento che rende la musica piu' autentica e sentita. Un lavoro da 5 stelle che speriamo l'attenta stampa specializzata italiana non manche di prendere in considerazione.

"Questo spettacolo è stato cucito così bene con queste sequenze che si succedono attraverso gli anni che io ho vissuto con questo grande maestro, grande amico. Sono toccato e felice di essere insieme a questa bellissima orchestra con gli arrangiamenti che Renzo Ruggieri ha curato e con dei solisti... “sorpresa”.
Funziona benissimo. FRANCO CERRI (Pineto Accordion Jazz Festival, 25 luglio 2008)

Renzo Ruggeri - Accordion - Conductor - Musical Adaption
Massimo Moriconi - Double Bass
Massimo Manzi - Drums
Mauro De Federicis - Guitar
Alessandro di Bonaventura, Gigi Grigioni Faggi, Samuele Garofoli - Trumpets
Sabatino Di Donatantonio, Francesco Di Giulio, Michele Ginestre - Trombones
Gianluca Caporale - Sax and Clarinet
Fabrizio Mandolini, Alessandro Di Rocco, Riccardo Maggitti, Piero Delle Monache - Saxs

Jan Garbarek - Officium Novum

The inspired bringing together of Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble has resulted in consistently inventive music making since 1993. It was the groundbreaking “Officium” album, with Garbarek’s saxophone as a free-ranging ‘fifth voice’ with the Ensemble, which gave the first indications of the musical scope and emotional power of this combination. “Mnemosyne”, 1998’s double album, took the story further, expanding the repertoire beyond ‘early music’ to embrace works both ancient and modern.

Now, after another decade of shared experiences, comes a third album from Garbarek/Hilliard, recorded, like its distinguished predecessors, in the Austrian monastery of St Gerold, with Manfred Eicher producing. Aptly titled, there is continuity in the music of “Officium Novum” and also some new departures. In ‘Occident/Orient’ spirit the album looks eastward, with Armenia as its vantage point and with the compositions and adaptations of Komitas as a central focus. The Hilliards have studied Komitas’s pieces, which draw upon both medieval sacred music and the bardic tradition of the Caucasus in the course of their visits to Armenia, and the modes of the music encourage some of Garbarek’s most impassioned playing. Works from many sources are drawn together as the musicians embark on their travels through time and over many lands. “Officium Novum” journeys from Yerevan to Byzantium, to Russia, France and Spain: all voyages embraced by the album’s dramaturgical flow, as the individual works are situated in a larger ‘compositional’ frame.

"Hays hark nviranats ukhti" and "Surb, surb" are part of the Divine Liturgy of the Holy Mass which Komitas Vardapet (1869-1935) arranged on different occasions and for different formations. The versions here derive from those made for male voices in Constantinople in 1914/1915. "Hays hark nviranats ukhti" is a hymn traditionally sung at the beginning of the mass while the priest spreads incense. "Surb, surb" (Holy, holy) corresponds to "Sanctus" in the Latin Mass.

"Ov zarmanali" is a hymn of the Baptism of Christ (Sunday after Epiphany), sung during the ceremony of blessing the water, and "Sirt im sasani" a hymn of "Votnlva" (the bathing-of-the-feet ceremony celebrated on Maundy Thursday).These Komitas pieces are from the period 1910 to 1915, but their roots reach back to antiquity. Ethnomusicologist as well as forward-looking composer-philosopher, Komitas not only showed how Armenian sacred music had developed from folk music, but used folk styles expressively, to make new art music for his era.

Other music in the “Officium Novum” programme also spans the centuries, medieval music and contemporary music unified in the concentrated approach of Garbarek/Hilliard, now definable as a specific group sound. Jan Garbarek contributes two compositions. For “Allting finns” the saxophonist sets “Den Döde” (“The dead one”), a poem by Sweden’s Pär Lagerkvist (1891-1974). “We are the stars”, meanwhile, last heard on the saxophonist’s “Rites” album, is based on a Native American poem of the Pasamaquoddy people.

Longest piece on the album is the thirteen-minute “Litany” imaginatively bringing together works of spiritual and musical affinity: “Otche Nash” from the Lipovan Old Believers tradition is preceded by a fragment of the “Litany” of Nikolai N. Kedrov.
Kedrov (1871-1940) was a student of Rimsky Korsakov, a founder of the Kedrov Quartet, a vocal group that toured under Diaghilev’s direction, and writer of many compositions and chant arrangements which have since found their way into the repertoire of Orthodox choirs.

Arvo Pärt’s “Most Holy Mother of God”, a piece written for the Hilliard Ensemble in 2003, is heard in a pristine a capella reading. If the Hilliards have proselytized persuasively for Pärt’s music they have surely also been affected by the austerity of his writing.

The Byzantine “Svete tihij” (Gladsome Light), composed in the third century, is one of the oldest Christian hymns, and once accompanied the entrance of the clergy into the church and the lighting of the evening lamp at sunset. The Spanish “Tres morillas” from the 16th century “Cancionero de Palacio” radiates a different kind of light, as its dancing rhythm underpins a tale of lost love.

Perotin’s “Alleluia. Nativitas” is a new account of a piece which the musicians had previously recorded on “Mnemosyne”: the freedom of interpretation is testimony to the way the project as a whole has grown since its introduction on ECM New Series.

As for the saxophone, from an improvisational perspective this remains an exceptionally pure context in which to experience Jan Garbarek’s creativity. Garbarek is still approaching this music freely, improvising with the soloists, creating roving counterpoint, weaving in and of the web of vocal texture, and helping to shape what England’s Evening Standard called “some of the most beautiful acoustic music ever made”.

The album concludes with actor Bruno Ganz reading Giorgos Seferis’s “Nur ein Weniges noch”, from the Greek poet’s 1935 “Mythistorema” cycle, a poem previously embraced in ECM’s album devoted to T.S. Eliot and Seferis, “Wenn Wasser wäre”.


New discoveries continue to be mined by the Hilliard/Garbarek collective. In an era in which musical alliances are often short-lived or speculative, ECM is able to present “Officium Novum” as a CD production of a ‘working band’ continuing to grow after 17 years of creative collaboration.

Dave Douglas - Spirit Moves + Spark Of Being

Spark Of Being

On April 24th, 2010, Dave Douglas and experimental filmmaker Bill Morrison unveiled their multimedia collaboration, Spark Of Being, at Stanford University. On film, it stands as a reinterpretation of that Frankenstein myth using new, archival, and distressed footage. The themes, penned by Douglas for his Grammy-nominated band Keystone, integrate electronics seamlessly into the improvised music, piecing sounds and movement together to make three strikingly different Creatures.

Part 1: SOUNDTRACK (out June 22nd)
Part 2: EXPAND (out August 24th)
Part 3: BURST (out September 21st)

Spirit Moves

Spirit Moves features Douglas alongside Vincent Chancey (French horn), Luis Bonilla (trombone), Marcus Rojas (tuba) and Nasheet Waits (drums) paying homage to the brass instrument with eight new original compositions and three arrangements of classics by such disparate artists as Otis Redding, Hank Williams and Rufus Wainwright. Over the past several years, Douglas has steadily honed his work with Brass Ecstasy with appearances at the 2008 Chicago Jazz Festival, which commissioned new music from the group, Willisau Festival, Reggio Calabria Jazz Festival, and The Festival of New Trumpet Music. Informed by the evolving spirit of brass music and by his multi-faceted career as the director of The Festival of New Trumpet Music, label head of Greenleaf Music, a renowned composer, artist, and record producer, Douglas pens an ambitious collection of lyrical songs with impressions of folk, pop and soul music.

Tracklist :

1. This Love Affair 3:25
2. Orujo 3:38
3. The View From Blue Mountain 4:53
4. Twilight of the Dogs 4:06
5. Bowie 6:27
6. Rava 5:36
7. Fats 3:48
8. The Brass Ring 7:56
9. Mister Pitiful 3:05
10. Great Awakening 6:00
11. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry 4:18
12. Prayer for Baghdad (Subscriber Bonus)
13. Hope (Subscriber Bonus)

Ralph Alessi - Cognitive Dissonance

Ralph Alessi was born in San Rafael, CA, the son of classical trumpeter Joe Alessi. But after taking degrees in jazz trumpet and bass—he studied under the legendary Charlie Haden at CalArts—he lit out for New York, where he swiftly became an ubiquitous presence on the downtown scene and a leading figure in jazz education.
Alessi's longest apprenticeship as a sideman was in various ensembles led by alto saxophonist and “M-Base” founder Steve Coleman, but he’s also been a frequent collaborator with the likes of Don Byron, Ravi Coltrane, Uri Caine, Fred Hersch, James Carney, Jason Moran, Drew Gress, Scott Colley, Dafnis Prieto and Brad Shepik—most of whom have also played and recorded in Alessi’s own groups.
As a bandleader in his own right, Alessi has recorded six ( is out just now Cognitive Dissonance ) albums of originals which draw on everything from post-bop to neo-classical, while deftly treading—and occasionally crossing—the line between “inside” and “outside” jazz. Ralph prefers simply to think of his tunes as “organic”: he uses whatever fits his needs, including expanded forms, complex rhythms, and a broad harmonic spectrum, to explore the confluence of composition and improvisation. Jazz Times called his writing “as clean and airy and sophisticated and disciplined as post-modern progressive jazz gets” and named the group's debut outing one of the ten best recordings of 2002, while All About Jazz dubbed its 2007 follow-up Look “an outstanding work of intellect and fire.”
Although Alessi is an adjunct faculty member at NYU, his most significant achievement as an educator may be founding and directing Brooklyn’s School for Improvisational Music (SIM), which is playing an influential role in the development of jazz’s next generation. Instructors at the school constitute an all-star lineup of prominent jazz progressives, but what really distinguishes SIM is what jazz writer Chinen describes as its “determined spirit of collectivity”: the school’s mission statement asserts that “Students (through their own experiences together) can learn a great deal for and from themselves and needn’t always wait passively for instructors to provide them with answers.”

Ralph Alessi - Trumpet
Jason Moran Piano
Andy Milne Piano(on "Sir", "Same Old Story"),
Drew Gress on Double Bass
Nasheet Waits Drums.

Gidon Kremer / Kremerata Baltica – Hymns And Prayers

The Hungarian composer and pianist Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer from the Serbian province of Vojvodina has written eight hymns in commemoration of the film director Andrei Tarkovsky, an artist he has called a homo moralis whose remarkable visions cast a small but significant light on the tragic world of the previous century. The Georgian composer Giya Kancheli has written a silent prayer for two dear friends: the cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and the violinist Gidon Kremer. The meditative emotionality of the hymns and the ascetic tranquility of the prayer are offset by César Franck‘s Piano Quintet in F minor like a premonition of Beethoven’s Appassionata, whose second movement, marked Lento, molto sentimento, in turn takes up the mood of the other two works. This combination does more than provide a superficial contrast: it is beholden to an intrinsic principle of the sort that the painter Paul Klee developed in his theory of harmony in the visual arts: any compositional harmony will gain character through dissonances, with the balance being restored by counterweights. (from the liner notes)

This album “Hymns and Prayers” from master violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica spans a characteristically wide range of music, from the spirited to the spiritual, all of it broached with conviction. The three featured works were recorded in 2008 at the Lockenhaus Festival, that annual event which ECM helped to put on the map a quarter-century ago, when Kremer and producer Manfred Eicher introduced the Edition Lockenhaus on ECM New Series.

Intensity and concentration, differently calibrated, are the watchwords here. At the centre of this disc is César Franck’s piano quintet, a work which ranks alongside the Brahms Quintet as one of the outstanding – and technically daunting – works of the late 19th century. It is a work that Gidon Kremer holds in special affection: it was one of the first pieces of chamber music in his own repertoire, and he performed it in Latvia when he was 16.

Kremer and Giya Kancheli have a long association that has already resulted in several recordings on ECM, including “Lament: Music of Mourning in Memory of Luigi Nono” (recorded 1998) and “Time...and Again” (1999) and “V & V” (2000) on the album “In l'istesso tempo”.

"Silent Prayer" was composed on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Mstislav Rostropovich and the 60th birthday of Gidon Kremer in 2007. After Rostropovich’s death that same year, the composer entitled the just-finished work "Silent Prayer." The world premiere took place on 7 October 2007 at the Kronberg Cello Festival which was dedicated to the memory of the late virtuoso, with Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica.

Kremerata Baltica will again be performing Kancheli’s “Silent Prayer” on their North America tour this autumn. Earlier performances have been much praised by critics. “The spare and ruminative music seems to drift off the stage with infinite slowness, like a mist. Kremer and his colleague, floating wispy lines from the highest reaches of their instruments, were compelling guides to this ethereal landscape”, wrote Jeremy Eichler in the Boston Globe.

Long a champion of original compositional voices, Kremer here presents also music of Stevan Tickmayer, born in the former Yugoslavia in 1963, and currently a resident of France. A musician of diverse background, Tickmayer has been studying with Kurtág since the mid-90s, and has had his own work played by ensembles from the Netherlands Wind Ensemble to the Moscow Soloists – but he has also collaborated with improvisers and avant-rock players including Chris Cutler, Fred Frith and Peter Kowald. On Kremer’s invitation he was composer in residence at Lockenhaus in 2003 and 2009.

Tickmayer began his “Eight Hymns” in December 1986, on learning of the death of his favourite filmmaker, Andrei Tarkovsky, and played the (unfinished) work in his solo concerts for several years. He revised it in 2003 after working with the musicians of the Kremerata, “the ideal messengers” – given their Eastern European backgrounds – for this musical mourning. The “Eight Hymns” is the first recording of Tickmayer’s music on ECM.

Gidon Kremer’s relationship with ECM dates back to Arvo Pärt’s album “Tabula Rasa”. This was followed by several volumes of live recordings from his famous Lockenhaus festival. Kremer’s second recording of the complete sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin by Bach, released in 2005 on ECM New Series, met with unanimous international acclaim. Kremerata Baltica which first appeared on ECM on the Kancheli record “In l’istesso tempo” (2005) made its official label debut in the same year with a highly original interpretation of Schubert’s G-major string quartet.

Founded in 1997 by Gidon Kremer, the Grammy-award winning chamber orchestra is one of the outstanding ensembles in Europe and beyond. Although it originally began as a "present to myself" to celebrate his 50th birthday in 1997, Gidon Kremer soon realized the potential of this ensemble of young musicians from the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as a medium with which to share artistic experiences, and, at the same time, to promote and inspire the musical and cultural life of the Baltics.

Smokin Joe Kubek And Bnois King - Have Blues Will Travel

Of all the blues legends the great state of Texas has produced, none sounds quite like Smokin’ Joe Kubek and Bnois King. The two Lone Star guitarists—one a hard-edged, hard rocking blues player and the other a jazzy, elegant rhythm player who delivers raw, spontaneous solos-—have taken their dual guitar attack from the heart of Texas to fans around the globe. Kubek and King’s twin-frontman lineup is unparalleled on the blues scene. Backed by their rock-solid rhythm section, Kubek’s fiery fretwork is perfectly matched by King’s sophisticated rhythm playing and rough-edged, down-home soloing and his soulfully conversational vocals. For more than 20 years and thousands of live shows, the duo’s scorching blues and telepathic interplay has been thrilling fans all around the world. Their new CD (their second for Alligator and the 14th of their careers), Have Blues, Will Travel, is a collection of fresh original songs played with passion, taste and a white-hot intensity. Billboard said the band plays “hard-hitting, original blues. Kubek is one of the fiercest Texas blues guitarists…his fiery leads are complemented by King’s adroit rhythm guitar and classic vocals.”
The band’s Alligator Records debut, 2008’s Blood Brothers, brought the long-time musicians to their largest audience yet and earned the band accolades all across the country. The Chicago Sun-Times declared, “Genuine houserockin’ blues…they boogie till the break of day.” Allmusic described the album as “tough, robust, soul-blues that is as hot as they’ve ever gotten in the studio. Impressive.”


With Have Blues, Will Travel, they take another giant step forward. Kubek and King wrote or co-wrote all twelve songs, and, along with their road-tested rhythm section, they ignite a blues fire with enough heat to fuel an all-night party. The chemistry between Kubek’s blistering fretwork and King’s savvy vocals and unpredictable, multifaceted guitar work creates a roadhouse blend of muscular blues-rock, hip-shaking shuffles and slow-burning blues that is simply impossible to resist. Each song is infused with deep, from-the-heart musicianship, carefully crafted, true-to-life lyrics and delivered with the occasional wry smile. King calls Have Blues, Will Travel the best record the band has ever made. “I’ve been listening to this album over and over again,” he says, “and I don’t get tired of it. In fact, I’ve become a big fan of it, and I start thinking, ‘man, I wish we had made this record.’ And then I remember we did.” Kubek agrees. “We challenged ourselves, went into new territory both musically and lyrically, and came out the other end with something we’re extremely proud of.”

On the surface, it would seem hard to imagine two of the most stylistically disparate guitarists joining forces and creating such a signature sound. Joe Kubek was born in Pennsylvania in 1956 but grew up just outside of Dallas. He was leading his own bands and gigging in clubs all around Dallas when he was only 14. Bowled over by the blues a short time after first hearing Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, Kubek soon discovered the music of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and other early blues masters including Freddie King, Johnny Copeland and Lightnin’ Hopkins. By the time he was 19, he was backing many famous blues players in the area, including legend Freddie King. In 1976, Kubek was about to head out on tour with King when King died suddenly of a heart attack. “I was in awe any time I was around him,” Kubek recalls. “I learned a lot about feeling and execution. He always came onto the stage hot. You have to entertain people from the second you start.”


Kubek next worked with R&B singer Al “TNT” Braggs and made a host of new friends, including Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan (with whom Kubek became close), B.B. King and many other blues icons. He often found himself jamming with these larger-than-life blues stars, while playing constantly around the Dallas area. He not only learned tips and techniques, but also soaked up stories and the lessons of being a professional touring musician. One night, he even had the chance to play B.B.’s guitar, Lucille. “B.B. admired my enthusiasm and he encouraged me, which really meant a lot. When times got hard, I always remembered how B.B. King had given me some encouragement.”


In 1989, Kubek met guitarist/vocalist Bnois King at a Monday night Dallas jam session. The two became fast friends, and melded their seemingly divergent styles—Kubek a rocking and fierce picker and slider, King a subtle, fat-chord rhythm player whose solos are spontaneous and unpredictable—into one of the most potent guitar combinations the Southwest had ever produced. Kubek explains the relationship succinctly: “Bnois fires me up. We are constantly pushing each other higher, complimenting each other’s solos. But it’s not planned. We never know what we’re going to do until it’s done. I pull the blues out of him, and he pulls the jazz out of me. Bnois knows so much about jazz it’s amazing.”


Bnois (pronounced Buh-noice) King was born in Delhi, LA in 1943. He was inspired to play guitar by his high school music teacher. Before long, Bnois was playing blues cover songs with a local band. On his own, he traveled through Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado, finding local bands to gig with and also performing with carnival tent show groups. King made his way to Dallas in 1979, gigging with jazz combos until he hooked up with Kubek ten years later. A master storyteller, King didn’t start writing and singing until he joined forces with Joe, when both duties fell on him. “We needed a singer so I sang,” King recalls, “and every time I did the crowds went wild. We needed songs so I wrote about things that happened to me, to people I knew. That’s what I still do today.” As for his guitar work, King is similarly modest. “Joe inspires me a lot,” King says. “When I solo, it’s a spur of the moment thing. I don’t have a plan. I react to what I hear on the bandstand.”


On the strength of their huge local following, Kubek and King signed to Bullseye Blues and released their debut CD, Stepping Out Texas Style, in 1991. After conquering the Dallas scene, the band began touring clubs, concert halls and festivals nationally and internationally. Following a successful series of eight Bullseye releases, they signed to Blind Pig Records in 2003. As their popularity continued to build on the strength of their recordings and the energy of their live shows, the band’s touring schedule grew to over 150 dates per year all across the United States, Canada and Europe (where they have toured more than a dozen times), solidifying their place in the blues world with one jaw-dropping show after another.


Kubek and King signed with Alligator in 2008 and released Blood Brothers. The fresh approach, the smoking hot playing and the original, lover’s slice-of-life lyrics all added up to a blues delight. The Dallas Observer said, “An electric blast of twelve-bar heaven…they blow the roof off.”
More than anything else, Smokin’ Joe Kubek and Bnois King love to perform live. With Have Blues, Will Travel and another massive tour planned, the band will hit the ground running as they gig from coast to coast, bringing their no-holds-barred brand of soul-charged, rockin’ Texas blues to old fans and newcomers night after night. Have Blues, Will Travel is not just the name of the new album. For Smokin’ Joe Kubek and Bnois King, it’s a way of life.

Francesco Cafiso - 4Out

A young leader who has already conquered audiences across the world focuses on the most ambitious artistic project of his career. Herplay and an excellent technique for other undisputed talent in Europe. makes this record with the contribution of the young rising star Dino Rubino on piano and one of the most exciting, strong and creative Italian jazz rhythmic section: Paolino Dalla Porta ( double bass), has a story that really says a lot about his ability to bring inspiration and creativity. Again his personality gave harmony and elegance together with Stefano Bagnoli, ( the "Brushman" as people now call him), a drummer with an inte
This record represents a change of gear, a further step forward in artistic value Cafiso. His technical skills are admirably placed at the service of a great musical and compositional maturity as perhaps had never heard before and make it really now a lighthouse and a national pride of the jazz world. Cafiso Quartet 4out is giving us an expressive intensity that few in the world can communicate.

Guarda anche

Francesco Cafiso - Angelica
Cinzia Roncelli - My Shinin Hour

Joyce - Slow Music

Jobim, João Gilberto, Joyce – Brazil has given us so many brilliant composers, instrumentalists and vocalists. It is with great pride that Stunt Records releases this new recording by the revered Brazilian singer Joyce Moreno (previously known as Joyce), recorded in Rio last year with her own trio.
Joyce Moreno is a Brazilian vocalist and songwriter as well as guitarist and arranger. She was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1948, and since her debut in the late ‘60s she has been considered one of Brazil’s great singers. Joyce has made over 20 records. Apart from her impressive solo output, she has also performed
with artists like Elis Regina, Toninho Horta, Jose de Moraes and Yoko Kanno and appeared on soundtracks and composed for film and theater.
Joyce was introduced to music by her guitar-playing older brother, and by listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, and the whole Brazilian music tradition. In her formative years the new bossa nova wave impressed the young journalist student. Fortunately, she chose the music.
SLOW MUSIC is a very special and subdued recording. It does not exclusively feature original songs, but also includes more or less well-known but extremely
appropriate Brazilian songs and a few jazz standards. The music presents itself with a sophisticated subtle sensuality that nestles up to the listener. This is the calm and presence of a vocalist who has lived a long and persistent life with her music. She knows her instrument and her skills from every angle.
Joyce calls SLOW MUSIC her dream project. The dream began more than ten years ago, but only now has it come to pass. Joyce dedicates the album to Shirley Horn, Bill Evans and João Gilberto, which gives an idea of the mood. The record is based on silence and pauses, and has to do with how they may be used. Joyce says that the pause “is an important moment in music. Without silence sound does not exist. Without light and shadow, the colors would have no nuances. Refinement begets refinement”. She also explains how she read the Italian Carlo Petrini’s Slow Food Manifesto from 2000 in which is written, “…we have become slaves to speed, and everyone is infested with the same virus: A fast life, which ruins our habits, invades our privacy and forces us to eat fast food”. She was enchanted by the concept and began to reflect on the similarities between music and food. “For years the world has exposed our ears to junk music. Music is food for the soul. It is the best conveyor of emotions we know.”
This said, we may continue to point two: The songs and Joyce. The intention was to create a long reflection on love. She did not want only to sing songs about the desperate kind of love that makes people cut their wrists. To the contrary,
she wanted songs that give life to the doubts, the irony and the questions.
Thus the choices were made mainly on a basis of the beauty of the songs, but also with due respect for the lightness and reflection with which they deal with the oldest emotion on earth. And sung with great calm. To make this possible
some time had to pass. One cannot sing this kind of song when young, Joyce explains. One needs a certain critical distance, the possibility of a tender recollection with a touch of wisdom. The voice had to age, lose its youthful brilliance and “acquire a shell of patina. A little gravel in the throat, and a firm grip on the lyrics”. And the right collaborators were necessary. Through all the years of dreaming about this project, Joyce put it different settings from minimalistic to bombastic. Finally she reached the present format.
Drummer Tutty Moreno was part of it from the first minute, and he accompanied
Joyce on every byroad chasing this dream. The album is also his. No one else could have played with such precision, sensitivity and fragility. For him, the drums are a harmony instrument. Hélio Alves was an obvious choice. A rare case of a Brazilian pianist and a jazz musician meeting in the same person with expert abilities in both languages. A brilliant soloist. Jorge Helder on bass added the solidity that was necessary for “us to fly together”.
“Foi tudo lindo. Tudo slow. It was all beautiful. All was slow.”

Musicians :

Joyce Moreno (voc, g)
Hélio Alves (p)
Jorge Helder (b)
Tutty Moreno (d)

Tracks :

Slow Music
Amor, Amor
Medo de Amar
Esta tarde vi Ilover
Convince Me (Love is Inconvenient )
Nova Ilusão
Samba do Grande Amor
O Amor é Chama
But Beautiful
Olhos Negros
Sobras da Partilha
Valsa do Pequeno Amor
Essa Mulher

Elga Paoli - Profumo Di Jazz

Elga Paoli è una raffinatissima compositrice cantante pianista che con questo nuovo lavoro "Profumo di jazz" ci regala un progetto a cavallo fra jazz e canzone d'autore dove accanto alla figura del "crooner" la Paoli reinterpreta il ruolo con sonorita' proprie del mediterraneo. La formazione è piu' che eccellente con i migliri musicisti della scena romana e italiana con Gian Piero Lo Piccolo al sax, Roberto Palermo alla fisarmonica, Stefano Nunzi al contrabbasso, Francesco Puglisi ospite al contrabbasso il molti pezzi, Alessandro Marzi e Marco Rovinelli che si alternano alla batteria. Infine, non certo per ordine di importanza, i bellissimi camei di Fabrizio Bosso.

Forse il miglior modo possibile per descrivere questo cd è quello utilizzato dalla bellissima poesia di Beppe Liguorio :
"Non ci sono i colori
Quelli soliti....
C'è il bianco.... e le sfumature....
Il grigio che...si riempie della polvere
E con quella
Si veste per la sera
In grisaglia cangiante e corposa
Sinuosa.....
Sono queste le tinte del jazz
Almeno.... qui
Le note di onde di metallo
E la voce
Autrice di un magnifico stallo
Dove la mente sposta le quinte
A suo piacere"

Si tratta di un lavoro molto intimo, di un personaggio sicuramente schivo, che fa arte per amor dell'arte dove una voce bellissima trasforma in un canto angelico un grido ora di dolore, ora di supplica, ora di sorpresa per uscire da quella solitudine che alcune volte sembrerebbe essere il prezzo della liberta'.

Mother's Hope - Never Ending Highway

I don't remember if it was at the end of the '90 or at the beginning of the new Millenium, but in a midsummer day the postman delivered an envelope from Sweden, containing one of the many demos that got to my messy desk. Since I was late, as ususal, in listening to the demos, I didn't listen to it very quickly and I put the small package together with others waiting to have some spare time. Frankly I sometimes looked at it with curiosity knowing, by previous experience with groups in the 70's, that in Scandinavia technical skills and creativity of rock groups are not inferior to those of English and American groups.
Finally I took two hours and listened to the demo which got to me together with a message full of compliments for Akarma, my label, which, at that time, was very popular all over the world offering and giving justice to those who in the 60's and 70's didn't have the chance to be heard on a large scale. The name of the band was Mouth of Clay and what they offered was a very hard rock with psychedelic tunes. I immediately complimented with them and the demo became my favourite during that summer: it always was on my cd player in my car.
So I started to talk to Hawkan, the guitarist of the band changing with him our opinions about the demos, that during the years they kept on dending me, with my deep appreciation. Later on the band changed members, name and, after a short period of silence they confirmed themselves under the name of Josh Appletree.
I think I have a total of 10 demos, and in some of them the tracks are just drafts with Hawkan playing acoustic. This band makes me shout, using the term that I often mention to define the best things I've listened to. One day mentioned them to a friend of mime who works as a music critic and he asked me with curiosity how many production they had. I answered "none" telling him that, up to that date I was the only fan, at least in our country, since in Sweden they were already used perform many concerts and consequently they're definitely popular.
We get to June 2009, and punctual as usual I received another of the numerous demos which is the one that, I hope, many of you are listening to. At the very first listening I realized that this time it couldn't simply remain music for my car but it must be published. According to me it is a masterpiece of ideas, sounds that make you thrill and, above all it's not the usual hackneyed rock, but it's a genial reading of the hard rock produced in the 70's and 80's.
The guys are great, they're all very well prepared and excellent executors, and we realize that by listening to the three covers that I strongly wnanted.
We're talking about fantastic sounds where Deep Purple, Zeppelin in some cases seem to appear, driving the guy's mind and heart deepened as if they were in trans performing these amazing 14 tracks.
The incredible thing is that the length of the cd, over 60 minutes, never sounds too long, on the contrary, the time run so fast that if makes you want to listen to it again.
Abviously, being the executive producer of the work, I' cant't do anything but talk enthusiastically about it, but those who know me throught the Akarma label, know that I've always proposed high level music never falling in commercial.
I was forgetting : the guys and I have decided to change the name from John Appletree to Mother's Hope, which will surely be of good omen.
Now put our cd player, pump up the volume and : Long Live Rock & Roll
giorgio Mangora