Little Blue Byrd: Part 1

The editorial staff at Jazzprofiles has long been a great fan of the efforts of Kenny Mathieson to chronicle stylistic developments in post World War II Jazz. He began his narrative with Giant Steps: Bebop and The Creators of Modern Jazz 1945-1965 [1999].

The following chapter is contained in the second work in the series: Cookin’: Hard Bop and Soul Jazz 1954 -1965 [2002]. Both books are published in Edinburgh by Canongate Press Ltd.

While certainly not as trend setting as the work of Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown or Miles Davis, over the years spanned by Mr. Mathieson’s second book, a number of enjoyable recordings were produced that featured the work of the journeyman trumpeters discussed in this piece.

Mr. Mathieson’s overview of the work of Donald Byrd, Blue Mitchell and Booker Little is a comprehensive remembrance of their music. And it will also provide those readers who are new to their work with a helpful retrospective of it. The chapter will be presented on Jazzprofiles in three parts. [C] Copyright protected; all rights reserved.
“Donald Byrd won his biggest following long after the hard bop era, when he formed The Blackbyrds and capitalized on the jazz-funk fusion movement of the 1970s. Two decades before, however, he had emerged as one of the most prolific of the new young hard bop players emerging in the mid-1950s. He cut his first recording sessions as a leader in 1955, and already sounded like the finished article, although he would go on to find a more individual sound beyond his early Clifford Brown influence as the decade progressed. The ensuing two years brought him a plethora of sideman dates, and he appeared in that role on over fifty albums in that period.

The qualities which made him such an automatic first call are clear from the outset. He had a solid musical education, was a good reader, and had excellent technical command of his instrument. He had thoroughly assimilated the musical implications of the bop idiom, and while his playing was never really innovative or strikingly original, he was able to deliver consistently fluent, imaginative and well-rounded improvisations within that idiom. His reliability (and the not entirely coincidental fact that he was not a drug user) also counted in his favors, and he was unlikely to upstage the leader with too generous a flow of spectacular original ideas or virtuosity.


In short, he was the ideal sideman, especially for a pick-up style of session, and these qualities quickly brought him recognition, and regular visits to the studio. In the process, he forged an impeccable hard bop pedigree with most of the major leaders of the time, including Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Max Roach, Jimmy Smith, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, as well as the less readily classified Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus.


Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd 11 was born in Detroit on 9 December, 1932. His father, a Methodist minister and amateur musician, named him after Toussaint L'Ouverture, the freed slave who became a revolutionary leader in Haiti in the late 18th century (the same revolutionary period commemorated by Charles Mingus in his 'Haitian Fight Song'), and Byrd retained a passionate interest in the broader field of Afro-American history, anthropology and culture. He earned several academic honors, including a Bachelor in Music degree from Wayne State University in 1954, an MA from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Ph.D. from the Columbia University School of Education in 1971, and developed a deserved reputation as a scholar and teacher of Afro-American music.


Back in the autumn of 1955, though, he was a hot young trumpet star in the making, freshly arrived in New York from the jazz hot spot of Detroit. He made his mark immediately. He had already recorded a live date for Transition in August, 1955, alongside another young Detroit hopeful, Yusef Lateef, who comes across as the more advanced player (these sides were later acquired and reissued by Delmark). He made his studio debut as a leader for Savoy in September, with saxophonist Frank Foster, a session which has appeared under various titles, including Long Green and Byrd Lore.
He cut sides for Prestige in 1956, including the unusual Two Trumpets date with Art Farmer and one of his most regular collaborators of the period, alto saxophonist Jackie McLean. Byrd had worked with McLean in the trumpeter's first important gig in New York with pianist George Wallington's band in 1955, and he also appeared on the saxophonist's sessions like New Soil and Jackie's Bag for Blue Note.
Byrd also recorded for Savoy again in 1957 on Star Eyes, with the seldom recorded alto saxophonist John Jenkins, a Chicagoan who made a brief but positive contribution to hard bop before disappearing from the jazz scene (although Jenkins was seldom heard from after the mid-'60s, the vibes player Joe Locke told me that he was sure he had come across him busking in New York in the mid-'90s).
Byrd's principal associations of the late 1950s, though, came in two groups: the Jazz Lab Quintet he co-led with alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce, and the bands he shared with baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams. The Jazz Lab Quintet was formed in 1957 to explore a more structured approach to hard bop than was generally evident in the blowing session dates of the day. They made several albums, the best known of which are on the Riverside and Columbia labels, provided the trumpeter with one of his most productive settings. In order to avoid undue repetition, I have discussed their work together in the Gigi Gryce section of this book (see Chapter 15; their recordings are also listed there), and will concentrate here on the second of these associations, with Pepper Adams.
The baritone saxophonist was born in Highland Park, Michigan, on 8 October, 1930, and raised in Rochester, New York. At the age of sixteen, he moved to Detroit, where he broke into the local jazz scene in the late '40s, working with saxophonists Lucky Thomson and Wardell Gray, among others. Adams began playing clarinet and tenor saxophone before adopting the bigger horn, inspired by the example of Duke Ellington's great baritone specialist, Harry Carney. Adams was only twelve when he first met Carney, but said later that his adoption of the instrument several years later was more down to having an unexpected opportunity to acquire one cheaply.


A stint in the army took him away from the jazz scene from 1951-3 (Byrd was in another branch of the service at the same time), but he resumed his activities on his return. Inevitably, Byrd was one of the local musicians with whom he worked, and the two formed a close alliance. It was a natural step to get together in a band in New York, which they duly did when Adams returned to the city after a spell on the west coast in 1958, a residence which inevitably created mistaken expectations that he would sound like Gerry Mulligan, a perception encouraged by the release of his debut solo album with the distinctly west coast-sounding title of The Cool Sound of Pepper Adams on Savoy in 1957.
Byrd's crisp, richly brassy, increasingly lyrical trumpet work and the fleet, sinewy, driving approach which Adams had developed on baritone were combined with their notably complementary approach to phrasing and rhythmic placement to form a highly effective front line, either with the two horns or an additional alto or tenor saxophone. They gigged and recorded together under one or the other's nominal leadership as well as in tandem, and are heard on records like Adams's classic live date 10 to 4 at The Five Spot, recorded on 5 April, 1958 for Riverside; Motor City Scene (aka Stardust), an all-Detroit date for Bethlehem in 1960; and a 1961 date for Warwick Records, Out of This World, in which Herbie Hancock made his recording debut. The core of their collaboration, however, is contained in the series of recordings they made for Blue Note between 1958 and 1961, both live and in the studio (the latter were collected by Mosaic Records in The Complete Blue Note Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams Studio Sessions in 2000, which also includes a later date from 1967, belatedly issued in 1981 as The Creeper).

Their studio work in the earlier period yielded five albums. The first two, Off To The Races from 21 December, 1958 and Byrd In Hand, recorded on 31 May, 1959, both featured sextets (as did the 1967 date), with the trumpet-baritone combination augmented by Jackie McLean's searching alto and Charlie Rouse's tenor respectively. Bassist Sam Jones and drummer Art Taylor played on both albums, while Wynton Kelly was the pianist on the earlier date, and Walter Davis, Jr. filled that chair on Byrd In Hand (Byrd returned the favor in August on the pianist's excellent Davis Cup, a Blue Note album which was his only date as a leader until a flurry of activity in his last decade, starting in 1977).

Chant, recorded on 17 April, 1961, but not released until much later; The Cat Walk, laid down two weeks later, on 2 May, 1961; and Royal Flush, from 21 September, 1961, were all quintet dates, and gave early recording breaks to the respective pianists, Herbie Hancock on Chant (with bassist Doug Watkins, another old Detroit buddy of Byrd's, and drummer Terri Robinson) and Royal Flush, and Duke Pearson on The Cat Walk. While a good pianist, Pearson's real strength lay in composing and arranging, and he contributed several tunes to the band's repertoire (Byrd later played on one of the pianist's best albums as a leader, Wahoo, released on Blue Note in 1964).


While they were working very much within the constraints of the hard bop idiom rather than pushing the envelope, these remain consistently strong and engaging records, full of vibrant playing, clever but unobtrusive arranging touches, and well-chosen tunes, many written by Byrd himself. If Byrd In Hand and The Cat Walk are the pick of the bunch, there is excellent material to be found on all of them, and a dip into any of them will give a powerful impression of the group's music.
Some listeners may prefer the extra immediacy and atmosphere of the live club gig captured on At The Half Note Café, recorded on 11 November, 1960, and issued under Byrd's name (Blue Note issued the LPs in two separate volumes, but these were eventually combined on a double CD, with extra material). Both Byrd and Adams were in fine blowing form on that occasion, with a rhythm section of Duke Pearson, Lymon Jackson and Lex Humphries, and the music surges off the bandstand in sparkling fashion, although Humphries is a little four-square on drums - listen to the same group with Philly Joe Jones on The Cat Walk for an instructive illustration of just how much lift a really great drummer can add.
By the end of 1961, the leaders had broken up the band to pursue their own projects, and they reunited only for The Creeper date in 1967, with alto saxophonist Sonny Red, an old school mate of Byrd's from Detroit (his real name was Sylvester Kyner) who featured on several of the trumpeter's albums in the mid-'60s, and Chick Corea on piano. Adams went off to work with Lionel Hampton and then Thad Jones, while Byrd concentrated more fully on his own activities as a leader. He had already cut two sessions for Blue Note without his baritone partner: the rather lackluster Fuego, recorded in October, 1959, with Jackie McLean on board, and Byrd in Flight (a title that seemed inevitable at some point), made in two sessions in January and July, 1960, with either McLean on alto or Hank Mobley on tenor.


He always had a sharp ear for the commercial aspects of his music, one which would come to fruition in the 1970s, but his willingness to feed the public's appetite for funk and groove tunes is already apparent. Herbie Hancock has recalled the trumpeter advising him to fill half of his debut album with crowd-pleasing funk or pop tunes, and show off his chops on the rest (his response was to come up with one of the most successful of all soul jazz tunes, 'Watermelon Man').


Although most of his work was done for Blue Note in this period, Byrd also recorded occasionally for other labels. A two-volume live recording of a Paris concert in 1958, Byrd In Paris, with the Belgian flautist and saxophonist Bobby Jaspar, is one such record, while another, recorded in January, 1962, and released as Groovin' With Nat on Black Lion, saw him form a two trumpet front line with Johnny Coles, who also played with Gil Evans and Charles Mingus, among others, but made relatively few records as a leader (he is heard to advantage on his sole Blue Note date from 1963, Little Johnny C.) Although not as well known as Byrd's many Blue Note issues, both of these records are worth hearing.

Byrd had developed steadily throughout the late 1950s, both as a player and as a composer. Royal Flush featured the Blue Note debut of Butch Warren and Billy Higgins, a rhythm team that became a staple of Alfred Lion's stable in the early '60s, and departures like the modal scales used on 'Jorgie's' and the mobile drum pulse on 'Shangri-La' gave hints of the more experimental approach which Byrd adopted on his next session for the label, Free Form, recorded on 11 December, 1961. The original LP opened in classic hard bop fashion with the gospel beat of 'Pentecostal Feelin", and worked through three more original compositions by the trumpeter, including the subtly inflected 'Nai Nai', and Hancock's exotic ballad, 'Night Flower' (the CD release added the pianist's 'Three Wishes').

The most intriguing departure from the conventions of hard bop came in Byrd's 'Free Form', in which they extended some of the harmonic and rhythmic directions explored on Royal Flush. The tune uses a scale (based on a serial tone row) and a free pulse as a flexible framework for experiment. Byrd described the process in the sleeve note in these terms: 'We move in and out of that basic framework.... The tune has no direct relation to the tempo. I mean that nobody played in the tempo Billy maintains, and we didn't even use it to bring in the melody. Billy's work is just there as a percussive factor, but it's not present as a mark of the time. There is no time in the usual sense, so far as the soloists are concerned.' Even if the trumpeter occasionally sounds as if he is struggling to assimilate his style within the context of Wayne Shorter's oblique probings, Hancock's adventurous open chord voicings, and the flexibility of Warren and Higgins, Free Form remains one of his finest albums, although not everyone would agree, starting with the Penguin Guide. Perhaps with rather more justification, they do not think much of its successor, either, but A New Perspective broke fresh ground for Byrd in its combination of a vocal chorus of eight singers (directed by Coleridge Perkinson, who had arranged the choir on Max Roach's It's Time the previous year) and a septet which featured Hank Mobley and guitarist Kenny Burrell as well as Hancock, with arrangements by Duke Pearson.
The album was recorded on 12 January, 1963 (Byrd had spent much of the intervening time studying composition in Paris), and earned the trumpeter a minor hit with its best known track, 'Christo Redentor'. It drew on a long-standing strain of gospel-derived music in Byrd's work, but in a populist form which foreshadowed the crossover directions he would follow in an even more overtly commercial idiom in the 1970s. He repeated the experiment with less success on I'm Trying To Get Home in December, 1964 (he had made a rather nondescript album for Verve, Up With Donald Byrd, between these Blue Note dates), and recorded several more hard bop oriented sessions for Alfred Lion in the mid-'60s, released on albums like Mustang, Blackjack Slow Drag, and The Creeper (all featuring altoman Sonny Red).

The introduction of modal and even freer elements in his albums of the early- 1960s demonstrated his awareness of the new directions running through jazz, and that tension is equally evident in the music on these albums. By the time of the late-1960s sessions issued on Fancy Free, Kofi and Electric Byrd, he was moving in the direction of a more overt jazz-funk and rhythm and blues feel which would make him a star in the 1970s, a breakthrough which finally arrived with the formation of The Blackbyrds and the release of Black Byrd in 1972. It became Blue Note's biggest selling album, and took the trumpeter away from hard bop altogether, into an often forgettable fusion vein which took in smooth pop, disco, and an early entry into jazz-meets-hip hop with rapper Guru and saxophonist Courtney Pine in Jazzmatazz.

He did return to the bop idiom in the late 1980s, following a serious stroke, and recorded several albums for Orrin Keepnews's Landmark label. Getting Down To Business, recorded in 1989 with Kenny Garrett, Joe Henderson, and an excellent rhythm section, is the best of these, but that is mainly down to his collaborators. His own playing is disappointingly diffuse, and no match for the prime hard bop he laid down in his peak decade from 1955.

Jazz in Italy: The House of Jazz - Part 1

- Steven Cerra. [C] Copyright protected; all rights reserved.
Inaugurated on April 22, 2005, The House of Jazz [Casa del Jazz] occupies the beautiful Villa Osia which was built in the 1930's by the architect Cesare Pascoletti.
In a bit of irony, given the somewhat dodgy early history of Jazz in the United States, the building and the grounds were appropriated [confiscated ?] by the "Comune di Roma" from a well-known, local criminal and restructured into a facility devoted to the perpetuation of Jazz in Italy and Europe!
This three-storied building and its magnificent park which sits on two and half hectares is designed to be a multi-functional centre for Jazz performances and related activities. In addition its the multi-purpose auditorium that seats 150, the complex also includes a state-of-the-art rehearsal rooms, recording studio, library and multimedia archive room. Also available are sleeping quarters for Italian and foreign artists, a restaurant/cafe' and a beautiful parkland featuring a variety of specialty gardens.
According to my translation of a press release from Palaexpo, the specialty company charged with its management, the idea of Casa del Jazz: "is to encourage and propagate Jazz here in Italy, creating the chance for musicians, promoters and critics to meet together and to promote activities for the benefit of all those who wish to acquire a knowledge and understanding of Jazz."

Sadly, there is no such contribution of resources for a House of Jazz in the country of the music's birth, at least none that I am aware of as of this writing.

In an effort to share the richness of the current Jazz scene in Italy, the editorial staff at Jazzprofiles has decided to offer a piece that focuses on a number of jazzitaliano live recordings including those by Rosario Giuliani, Stefano di Battista, Maurizio Giammarco, Enrico Pieranunzi, Gianluigi Trovesi, and Franco d’Andrea. It begins this piece with a review of drummer Roberto Gatto's quintet which appeared on the blog earlier this year.For a full listing of the many additional recordings available in this series, please visit Jazzos.com- http://www.jazzos.com/products0.php?brand=506329.

Ira Gitler, the long-time critic writing on the website AllAboutJazz concerning the forthcoming 2005 Jazzitaliano Festival wrote:

Italian jazz musicians are the best in Europe and are world-class players. American jazz lovers have been aware of this to some extent, through recordings and some live performances in New York over the past few decades. In March New York audiences will have an even clearer and more complete picture. From the 1st through the 6th, conceived by impresario Giampiero Rubei, the Jazzitaliano Festival will be presented in a variety of Manhattan jazz clubs. … March in New York is said to blow in like a lion. This year that force will be embodied by Italian jazz-lions.
Listening to Roberto Gatto Quintet’s Tribute to Miles Davis ’64-’68 [jazzitaliano live 2006 - Palaexpo 03] with Flavio Boltro [trumpet], Daniele Scannapieco [tenor sax], Dado Moroni [piano], Rosario Bonaccorso [bass] and Roberto Gatto play a repertoire of tunes from the pre-electric Miles period of the 1960’s will leave little doubt in your mind about the quality of Jazz on exhibit in Italy, nor about the validity of Mr. Gitler’s view of it.

The tunes on this recording are from Miles’ Seven Steps to Heaven Columbia album and from the period referred to by Jack Chambers in his wonderful book, Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis as the “Circle, 1964-8.” Included in this period are such recordings as E.S.P, Miles Davis Quintet in Berlin, and the Miles Davis Quintet at the Plugged Nickel multiple disc set.

The track selections on the Gatto quintet’s tribute CD are: [1] Joshua [2] There is No Greater Love [3] Footprints [4] Stella by Starlight [5] All Blues [6] Basin Street Blues [7] All of You and [8] Seven Steps to Heaven.It’s obvious that these Italian Jazz musicians have been influenced by the Miles-Shorter-Hancock-Carter-Williams group from the Circle period. Boltro acknowledges Miles’ phrasing, Scannapieco Shorter’s tone, Moroni is indebted to Feldman’s percussive approach to the piano, Bonaccorso’s big sound comes from Carter-by-way-of-Chambers, and Gatto’s approach to keeping time on drums is done in the interrupted and inflected style as first emphasized by Tony Williams [by way of Elvin Jones].

But these Italian Jazz musicians all put their own “footprint” on this music [apologies to Wayne] by making unique contributions to this portion of the Miles canon.

Don Pate, son of the Jazz bassist, Johnny Pate, offers the following observation in Paul F. Berliner’s brilliant Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation:

“What’s intense about a solo is where somebody does something and it makes you think: ‘What’s THAT he’s playing?’ or ‘WHERE is he coming from? Or ‘HOW did he ever do that.”
This description - what Pate calls “otherwhere”- is akin to The New Yorker’s long-standing Jazz critic, Whitney Balliett’s famous phrase – “The sound of surprise.”
If “otherwhere” and “the sound of surprise” are an aspect of Jazz improvisation that interest you, there’s plenty of it on this recording.

While Gatto’s style owes its inspiration to Elvin Jones and Tony Williams, what Jazz drummer in the last 50 years hasn’t shared in this influence, he also has a prodigious technique that allows him to say something that is all his own.

As an example, Roberto’s solos on Footprints and Seven Steps to Heaven employ a style that crosses bar lines while creating a sense of time that seems to be floating or suspended [the Tony Williams influence] but what is also in evidence here is the use of drums figures that are uniquely Gatto’s.

All drummers, at one time or another, have a go at Seven Steps to Heaven, but Gatto’s solo is blisteringly fast, displays and amazing control over the instrument and is full of sustained excitement. I’ve listened to many drum solos on this tune and Roberto’s is of the highest quality I’ve ever heard.

Another highlight from this recording is Dado Moroni re-harmonizing of Victor Feldman’s already-famously reharmonized Basin Street Blues. Dado’s spot-on “comping” [accompaniment] and mature presence is felt on every tune and his solos are engaging and polished.

Tenot saxophonist Daniele Scannpieco’s playing is another surprising treat on this recording. His tone may be reminiscent of Shorter, but his phrasing is like no other tenor player that I’ve ever heard before. He takes so many chances and while he escapes from some of his improvisational adventures, he also crashes during others by placing himself in situations from which there is no extraction other than by taking a deep breath and going on to build the next sequence. What fun!

Bonaccorso is a rock throughout; Gatto’s constant barrage of rhythmic urgings would overwhelm the music without Rosario steady time-keeping. And his selection of notes in which to frame the chords is impeccable.

Boltro’s sound, while indebted to Miles, is fuller and his range on the horn enables him to go places that one wishes Miles would have gone in his solos, but couldn’t because of his technical limitations. Boltro takes some of Miles’ well-known licks and make completes phrases out of them. Like Miles his tone is vibrato-less and mellow but he can also attack or punch notes to add a bit of Dizzy’s pyrotechnics now and again.

If you are looking for a musical maiden voyage to Jazz in Italy, you need look no farther than this CD. Despite its familiar musical story lines, you’ll find it to be full of new sounds, new approaches and new ideas; in other words, full of “otherwhere!”
Born in Rome in 1969 into a family of what he describes as “passionate musicians,” Stefano di Battista waited until the relatively late age of thirteen to take up the alto saxophone. His two earliest influences were recordings by Art Pepper [who introduced him to the “joy in Jazz”] and the teaching of the legendary, Italian alto saxophonist Massimo Urbani. Di Battista attended a music conservatory from ages 13-16 where he developed an extraordinary facility on the instrument by studying it classically. While at school, Urbani introduced him to the music of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane which were to become the two formative influences on his style.

Di Battista first gained public recognition in 1992 as a member of Nat Adderley’s group. He also spent time in Paris during the early 1990s playing in various groups led by drummer Aldo Romano and as a member of the of the French National Orchestra of Jazz under the direction of Laurent Cugny. In 1998, he signed with Verve after releasing two albums on the French “Label Bleu.” Today, he is a Blue Note recording artist and that label granted permission for the release of Stefano di Battista: jazzitaliano live 2006 [Palaexpo 04].

Di Battista has a magnificent technique and like many young players he likes to put it on display [sometimes all of it in one chorus!]. Yet, his inventiveness can be awe-inspiring; the guy can really get around the horn.
On this CD, di Battista is joined by Eric Legnini, his pianist of choice, Rosario Bonaccorso returns on bass from the Roberto Gatto quintet and Andre Ceccarelli is on drums. In an effort to boost vocal Jazz at the Casa del Jazz, female vocalist Nicky Nicolai joins the quartet to offer a moving rendition of N. Piovani’s Doppi Significati [Double Meaning] which closes the concert.

André Ceccarelli has long been one of Europe's premiere jazz drummers and since the new century began he is getting additional opportunities to showcase his talent as a bandleader and composer/arranger as well and Bonaccorso is a first call bassist with a number of Italian-based Jazz groups. But, aside from another exhibition of di Battista’s mastery of the soprano and alto saxophones, the real revelation on this recording is the piano artistry of Eric Legnini.
The set opens with a stirring version of A Night in Tunisia in which di Battista’s four-bar break after the playing of the line is the equal of that played by Bird on the classic Dial recording. It is followed by the group’s version of Laura during which Leginini, in a sterling display of pianism, takes an incredible solo based around a series of re-harmonization that utterly transforms the standard. Legnini’s four minute solo on this second tune of the concert is mesmerizing. It not only took my breath away, but you can also hear members of the audience gasping with the sheer beauty of its sound.

With the exception of Nicolai’s closer, all of the other five tracks on this recording range from 11 minutes to 21 minutes, which gives everyone a chance to stretch out. Also adding to their length are the codas [or “tags” or “tails”] that closes each tune. These extensions are based either on a sustained chord or an oscillation between two chords and serve to provide either di Battista and/or Legnini with a platform to experiment with motifs, vamps and riffs while Bonaccorso and Ceccarelli are keeping things cooking in the background.

This recording is an excellent introduction to di Battista’s passionate and joyous approach to Jazz with the added bonus of Legnini’s sparkling pianistic inventions, all propelled forward a first-rate rhythm section.
As he approaches his 60th birthday, Enrico Pieranunzi has long been considered one of the grand masters of Italian Jazz and this performance does nothing to dissuade from that view. As was the case with Michel Petrucciani, Pieranunzi had a guitar-playing father who was also a Jazz fan. And like Michel’s Dad, Enrico’s father-required that his son study the piano classically. As a result, Pieranunzi has become a man of two worlds: performing jazz in a variety of settings while at the same time serving as a classical pianist and teacher at the Conservatory of Music in Frosinone [Lazio province which is located southeast of Rome].

Over the years, Pieranunzi has played with Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Jim Hall, Lee Konitz, Frank Rosolino and Phil Woods, issued a number of trio recordings for various label, usually with rhythm sections that include bassists Marc Johnson or Charlie Haden and drummers Joey Barron or Paul Motian, and has been voted the number one Jazz musician in Italy on many occasions. In 1997, while receiving the “Django D’Or” as the best jazz musician in Europe, Le Monde said of him:

“The Roman pianist has created one of the most successful experiments of today’s jazz music scene. His sense of nuances and dynamics is reflected in his playing, at times lyrical and meditative, at times venturous and intoxicating”.
These qualities and attributes are all on display in Enrico Pieranunzi: jazzitaliano live 2006 [Palaexpo 08] on which Pieranunzi is joined by Rosario Giuliani [ss/as], Fabrizio Bosso [tp/flugelhorn], Pietro Ciancaglini [#1,2,5,7] and Luca Bulgarelli [b], and Walter Paoli [d]. Vocalist Ada Montellanico joins the group are a number of tracks, and while she does sing some lyrics [notably on Enrico’s original – Armida’s Garden], Pieranunzi writes her into to some of these compositions as another “horn.” The parts Ada sings are extremely complex and her masterful execution of them is a testimony to her reading skills and excellent intonation. Be forewarned, however, that her pronunciation of English lyrics leaves a great deal to be desired.

Pieranunzi opens his concert with a trio version of Ein li Milin, an original with a lovely melody that is infused with classical-pastoral overtones and is very reminiscent of Keith Jarrett’s My Song. Bosso and Giuliani join in on the next track - Night Bird - a 16 bar, medium tempo blues that gets the quintet cooking. Ada Montellanico is then added to complete then band on Armida’s Garden, a hip slick and cool jazz waltz. After singing the lyrics, and following the individual solos by Giuliani, Bosso and Pieranunzi, Ada joins in to sing unison lines with either piano or one of the horns 0n a spectacular shout chorus. This is the first tune that unleashes Giuliani’s Cannonball-inspired wail and Rosario and Bosso literally rip through their choruses with inspired solos.

On the concert’s next piece, Persona, Ada’s voice is once again infused with the horns, but this time in harmony, instead of unison. Giuliani switches to soprano and all the soloists once again deliver impressive short choruses on this up tempo burner. Montellanico further impresses with her musicianship by harmonizing noted, counter-melodies with the bass and the horns that provide an alternative “out” or closing chorus for the tune.

Fabrizio Bosso next gets the spotlight with a beautiful Harmon-mute version of Pieranunzi’s lovely ballad – As Never Before. Giuliani follows in the solo spotlight with a emotive soprano saxophone version of Pieranunzi’s jaunty Autumn Song. The tune closes with Rosario and Enrico trading eight bar solos with Walter Paoli, another of the never-ending stream of excellent young drummers on the Italian Jazz scene.

Continuing the pattern of featuring the individual members of the group, Ada Montellanico is up next with a vocal rendering of Pieranunzi’s surreal sounding lyrics to Non Posso Sognarti Come Sei on which she sings a note-for-note solfeggio in unison with Fabrizio’s Bosso flugelhorn solo on the tune. Much to her pleasure [and relief, one would imagine] Montellanico also gets to do a bit more straight-singing [mercifully, in Italian] on Luigi Tenco’s Il Tempo Passo and Se Sapessi Come Fei. Aurelio Pasini offers this background on Tenco in www.allmusic.com: “Luigi Tenco is doubtless one of the most tragic and misunderstood figures in the history of Italian pop music. Largely ignored — when not openly criticized — during his life, after his suicide he became the object of a posthumous cult that transformed him into an icon of despair and angst. He became a symbol of love and desperation deeply rooted in his own time but also universal, despite the fact that his desperate love ballads and Sartre-tinged ennui were only two facets of his complex artistic personality, which at times was ironic and socially aware as well.”
The quintet is rejoined for Fellini’s Waltz - Pieranunzi homage to the great filmmaker - a waltz with more overtones of 6/4 than 3/4 and which has some lovely writing for the horns over which Enrico constructs his very moving solo. The tune is just one indication of how much thought and preparation has gone into the selection and presentation of the music for this concert. The Pieranunzi Casa del Jazz performance is as much a composition tour de force as one that highlights the significant improvisational skills on the musicians and, as such, it serves to demonstrate that the superior, creative qualities of Jazz in Italy on all levels. …. To Be Continued …