The professional listener, especially if seasoned, develops personal preferences with time: styles, composers, performers (and composer-performers when the music is improvised). But he must try to keep them in the shadows, as much as possible, in the silence of the critical conscience. The author of these notes is a journalist who has been writing about music, and jazz in particular, for almost half a century. Let's put aside the great music of Europe, which is not discussed here. Instead, let's stop and consider the vortical path traveled by jazz in the past fifty years, the sudden changes of tack, the revivals, the flights forward. He who was very young at the end of the 50s, after having, with some difficulty, approached the explosion of modern jazz, had to read up on the past of jazz and its origins, especially after having resolved to choose this music among the fundamental elements of his work. He had to attempt to be neither traditionalist nor modernist, but rather observe day after day what was happening to Afro-American music in the United States, Europe and Italy.
In Italy modern jazz had difficulty catching on but managed to with many sacrifices by the musicians who gave preference to these expressions (they did it, let's be honest, because unlike others they had the option). Two of them are amazing seventy-year-olds, Gianni Basso and Dino Piana, who are the characterizing protagonists of Idea6. In those days, they acknowledged the supremacy and mastery of the American virtuosos (some had already stopped). However, they soon realized that they were able to compete with them and, in any case, provide a personal touch. Without their contribution, who knows when, or even if Italian modern jazz would have taken off. Here they are, now. None of their good old shine has been lost, but actually enhanced by maturity and experience: Basso, capable of extreme sweetness, aggressive episodes and seductive phrasing; Piana, who thrills the listener with the solemn sound acquired by the jazz trombone in the 50s and 60s and still going strong.
The other four are younger (or much younger). They drew near the music coming from across the Atlantic in different contexts, but perfectly fit into the atmosphere suggested by the two illustrious soloists and actively contribute to it, offering in turn sequences of superb effectiveness. I'm especially thinking of the input given to compositions (and improvisations) which belong to previous generations, such as Metropoli by Gianni Ferrio, listening to which this aging reporter must be careful and not to give way to nostalgia, or Pittura by Enrico Intra, Train Up by Sandro Brugnolini, Autumn in Milano by Gianni Basso. The result is an excellent CD.
I fear, at this point, that I have given myself away. However mine is neither a preference for the type of music that was the background of youth; nor (but perhaps a little) for the clear and immediate sounds which, though at times complex, never pass through the suffering of the listener. It is the preference for beauty.
1) Metropoli (G.Ferrio) 4.23
2) New born (F.Piana) 8.10
3) Minor Mood (F.Piana) 5.44
4) Pittura (intra) 5.09
5) Train up (Brugnolini ) 5.04
6) Windly Coast ( R.Pistocchi) 4.20
7) Vivacità (F.Piana E. Valdambrini) 5.56
8) Marmaris (R.Pistocchi) 7.19
9) Autumn in Milano (Gianni Basso) 6.15
10) Tokyo Lullaby (R.Pistocchi) 5.25
Franco Fayenz
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