Enzo Pietropaoli Wire Trio - Woodstock Reloaded

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles is very fortunate to be the recipient of preview copies of lots of great, new music and we thought we’d share a few brief reviews about some of the more enjoyable ones.

These postings will be descriptive rather than critical, in another words, they do not express or involve an analysis of the merits and faults of a certain recording.

Whenever possible an example track in the form of a video or audio-only track will be included to give you a sampling of the music on the CD.

Let’s start with the Jando Music - Via Veneto Jazz March 2018 release of bassist Enzo Pietropaoli's latest album Woodstock Reloaded  [VVJ 123 – 8013358201236].

Like Enzo Pietropaoli’s previous CD for Jando/Via Veneto Jazz The Princess [VVJ117] in which he reimagined a number of songs that peaked his musical interests during the formative years of his career - from John Lennon to Bob Dylan, Cole Porter to Peter Gabriel, from Neil Young to Pearl Jam, to the Beach Boys - Enzo has once again brought together songs that intrigue him, this time using some of the songs that were performed at the August 1969 Woodstock Music Festival. In each case, all are combined with Pietropaoli's original compositions.

According to the media release that accompanies the CD, “Woodstock Reloaded is an attempt to put into a contemporary musical perspective, some of the the pivotal and epic moments of the peaking of hippie culture which took place in Woodstock, NY in August 1969.

Woodstock Reloaded wasn't conceived to be a "cover" but an original re-reading, an "update" of the reverberating impact of the festival and a reminder of those emotions, animating memories and encompassing milestones that flowed from the festival over the past 50 years.

The iconic artists represented in the Pietropaoli Wire trio’s musical homage include Santana, The Who, Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly And The Family Stone, and Jimi Hendrix.

Here’s a listing of the TRACKS:

1 SOUL SACRIFICE (C.Santana)

2 WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS (Lennon – McCartney)

3 SEE ME FEEL ME/LISTENING TO YOU (P.Townshend)

4 SUMMERTIME (G. Gershwin)

5 HEY JOE (B.Roberts)

6 PROUD MARY (J.Fogerty)

7 SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT (W.Willis)

8 I WANT TO TAKE YOU HIGHER (S.Stone)

9 BACK HOME (E.Pietropaoli)

For the Jazz musicians who came of age after WWII and who lived through the period of the late 1960s, it seemed a cruel irony that the vast majority of Americans had turned away from their sophisticated approach to music in favor of the more simplistic even, if you will, amateurist music on display at Woodstock.

The simple melodies, scaled down chord progressions, and incessant, locked in drum beats were like a come-down for bebop-hard bop and/or cool jazz-modern Jazz musicians who came of age before the “Rock Revolution”

But for younger musicians who matured with Rock ‘N Roll, this was the music of their youth and the later discovery of Jazz was a step-up in musical complexity which, in some cases, meant bringing the music of their youth into a Jazz environment.

While older Jazz musicians rejected Rock, the younger musicians incorporated it into their musical development to create a continuum of sorts. As their musical skills became more sophisticated melodically, harmonically and rhythmically, they applied this experience and knowledge to the familiar themes of their youth.

The same dichotomy represented itself with acoustic “versus” electronic instruments: the older Jazz musicians were purists arguing that the electronic instruments compromised the true sound of an instrument while the younger musicians simply saw them as another form of the instrument to be explored, applied and mastered.

You can hear all of these dynamics at work in the following audio version of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Proud Mary that was arranged by Enzo and features him on electric bass along with Enrico Zanisi on keyboards and drummer Alessandro Paternesi.

And you can order the recording on Forced Exposure by going here.

Elisabetta Serio and Enzo Pietropaoli: "Sedici" and "The Princess"

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

For whatever reason, you don’t hear much instrumental Jazz today that’s played quietly, reflectively and introspectively.

It takes a certain orientation to conceive of the music played in a laid back fashion; this approach usually requires the music to be expressed with a great deal of control and at slower tempos.

Slow tempos can be dangerous - when moody become murky, lyrical becomes lazy, and sensitive becomes stagnant.

On the other hand, the quieter, slower pace allows the music to breathe, gives the artist time to think and allows the audience the opportunity to absorb what the music is trying to convey.

I remember the late tenor saxophonist Bill Perkins, whose brooding solo on Bill Holman’s arrangement of Jerome Kern’s Yesterdays for the Kenton band is one of the all-time great Jazz balladic performances, sharing the following comment with me a few years before his death in 2003: “These days, when we play a slow tune, I expect a bottle to come flying over my head.”

Personally, because there’s very little for a drummer to do on slow tunes [except stay out of the way, i.e., not overplay], I’ve never been a big fan of playing Jazz slowly, but as a listener, I’ve always enjoyed the music when it is played at a slower pace.

Imagine my delight then when Matteo Pagano at Via Veneto Jazz and his associates at Jando music sent me preview copies of their two latest releases: Elisabetta Serio’s Sedici [VVJ 116] and Enzo Pietropaoli;s The Princess [VVJ 117] as the music on each of them is the epitome of what Duke Ellington once labelled: “Sultry serenades.”

Botch CDs are available for order and preorder via Amazon and www.forcedexposure.com

Sensitive, discreet, reflective, keyboard artist and vocalist Elisabetta Serio instills in her music a measured balance, a haunting lyricism and a light rhythmic feel that evokes subtle moods. Perhaps a better term for her style of Jazz would indeed be Mood Music.

Sedici ("16") the CD’s title is a lucky numerology to the Naples based pianist on which Elisabetta is joined by Marco de Tilla on bass and Lorenzo de Lorenzo on drums to form a trio that produces an almost dream-like quality during the course of its nine originals.

Additionally, Sarah Jane Morris's voice is featured on "Afrika", Fulvio Sigurtà's trumpet playing a delicate melody in "Il Cielo Sotto Di Me", and Jerry Popolo's tenor saxophone playing in a funky mode "Rumors,” enhances the musical palette of moods featured on the album.

Of all the beautiful music on Sedici, I found “Mr. P,” dedicated to her mentor and friend Pino Daniele, to be particularly poignant. Pino Daniele was an Italian singer-songwriter, and guitarist, whose influences covered a wide number of genres, including pop, blues, jazz, and Italian and Middle Eastern music. He died in 2015 at the age of 59.

Whereas, Elisabetta emphasizes originals, bassist Enzo Pietropaoli presents his new album The Princess as a platform to use the piano-bass-drums Jazz trio to reimagine a series of Pop and Rock ‘n Roll standards: from John Lennon [Jealous Guy] to Bob Dylan [A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall], Cole Porter [Night and Day] to Peter Gabriel [Father Son], from Neil Young [Philadelphia] to Pearl Jam [The End], topped off with the Beach Boys [God Only Knows]- all brought together by Pietropaoli's original arrangements.

“The Princess,” one of the three originals contributed by Enzo is meant to denote “ ...a metaphor for a dream pursued with determination and fully realized.”

Joining Enzo on this superbly crafted outing of relaxed and expressive trio Jazz is Julian Oliver Mazzariello on piano and Alessandro Paternesi on drums.

You can experience the music from each of these excellent new recordings by sampling the following audio only, Soundcloud files.

Cinema Italia

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Matteo Pagano at Via Veneto Jazz and his associates at Jando Music are releasing Cinema Italia [VVJ 110] on October 28, 2016, It will be available as an audio CD through Forced Exposure via this link and from Amazon as a pre-order.

Cinema Italia features Rosario Giuliani | alto & soprano sax, Luciano Biondini | accordion, Enzo Pietropaoli | doublebass, Michele Rabbia drums on drums, percussions, and electronics.

While themes from movies are quite common as platforms for Jazz recordings, groups fronted by woodwinds and accordion are an unusual combination in the music.

I think this may be due to the fact that the sound of the accordion has never caught on with Jazz fans, although some marvelous musicians have played the instrument over the years including Art van Damme, Mat Mathews, Ernie Felice, Angelo DiPippo, Frank Marocco, Leon Sash, Joe Mooney, Russ Messina, among many others. Of course, today, Richard Galliano and Gary Versace are two masterful players on an instrument that I think deserves a greater appreciation.

For a full listing with annotations of Jazz accordionist please use this link.

Aside from Art van Damme whom I first heard fronting his George Shearing-like quintet on NBC radio in the 1950’s, the Jazz accordionist who made the greatest impression on me was Tommy Gumina.

My first introduction to Tommy’s imposing accordion playing was while watching an episode of The Stars of Jazz television which was syndicated on the ABC network in the late 1950’s.

Actually, I tuned in to view clarinetist “Buddy DeFranco’s Quartet” not realizing at the time that he was sharing a co-billing as “The Buddy DeFranco Tommy Gumina” Quartet.” The artistry of DeFranco in combination with Tommy Gumina just knocked me out and I became an instant fan of both the group and of Gumina’s work on the accordion. Tommy gave the instrument sonorities that were rarely heard in Jazz until much later with the development and use of synthesizers in the music.

From 1961-1964, my good friend, the late Jack Tracy, produced four LP’s for Mercury Records featuring Buddy and Tommy’s group and they have remained among my favorite recordings through the years, especially when I wish to listen to the rarely heard musical textures produced by a combination of [Buddy’s] clarinet and [Tommy’s] accordion.

Imagine my surprise then when Matteo Pagano sent me a preview copy of Cinema Italia [VVJ 110] featuring a woodwind player, in this instance, soprano and alto saxophone player Rosario Giuliani and accordionist Luciano Biondini exquisitely linked through their beautiful renditions of some of the most famous musical themes in Italian Cinema.

Put another way, the music of Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone has never been so sensitively rendered in a Jazz environment. While we were not fortunate to hear DeFranco and Gumina perform Hank Mancini and Carmine Coppola, we can listen to Giuliani and Biondini interpret Morricone’s Nuovo Cinema Paradiso Rota’s haunting Theme from La Dolce Vita along with seven other tracks ably supported by Enzo Pietropaoli on bass and Michele Rabbia on drums, percussion and special effects.

Here’s more about the forthcoming CD from the press release that accompanied the preview copy of Cinema Italia [VVJ 110].

“What would film be without music?

Music conveys all that which images cannot.

The importance of a soundtrack can sometimes even transcend that of images and stories, and great directors often build the entire structure of their masterpiece around a score - the themes in this Cinema Italia are evidence of the viability of this approach.

There have been numerous masterpieces in Italian cinema that have influenced filmmakers around the world and Italy continues to distinguish itself in this art.

The Cinema Italia project is a tribute to the greatness of Italian cinema and its tradition of excellence has contributed to raising global awareness of Italy’s culture.

Equally distinct is the cast of musicians in this album: Rosario Giuliani on sax, Luciano Biondini on the accordion, Enzo Pietropaoli on the double bass and Michele Rabbia on acoustic and electronic drums.

This quartet employs a contemporary music point-of-view in rendering these cinematic refrains, but one which never betrays the melodies of these unforgettable themes.

Giuliani, Biondini, Pietropaoli and Rabbia strive to give these cinematic themes a new force and vitality, demonstrating their immortality while constantly surprising the listener with fresh, innovative versions.

Unforgettable themes from unforgettable movies, as well as, two original tracks by Rosario Giuliani and Luciano Biondini (Bianco e Nero and What is there what is, all combine to confirm the narrative force of these two, incredible composers and four, masterful musicians.

Tracklist:

01 - La Strada (Nino Rota)          

02 – Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Ennio Morricone)

03 - 8 e 1/2 (Nino Rota)

04 - Deborah's Theme (Ennio Morricone)

05 - Bianco e Nero (Rosario Giuliani)

06 - Impro-Romeo e Giulietta (L.Biondini – R.Giuliani/N. Rota)  

07 - What is There What is Not (Luciano Biondini)

08 - La Dolce Vita (Nino Rota)

09 - C'era una Volta il West (Ennio Morricone)     

You can sample the music on this forthcoming CD through the following audio-only version of Maestro Morricone’s theme from Nuovo Cinema Paradiso [Cinema Italia VVJ 110].