MONDO JAZZ

"OPEN" reviewed on MONDO JAZZ blog!

TOMMASO CAPPELLATO QUARTET - OPEN (ELEFANTE ROSSO) 2009

Post n°1453 pubblicato il 02 Marzo 2010 da pierrde

 

Dopo quarant’anni di concerti e di ascolti è difficile emozionarsi ancora al primo ascolto di un album. Evento raro,  in particolare se si tratta dell’opera prima di un giovane batterista, italiano e conosciuto praticamente solo dagli addetti ai lavori. L’album in questione è uscito lo scorso anno per Elefante Rosso, ma di fatto è scomparso subitamente dai rari negozi che trattano la musica jazz, e se non ne avessi ricevuto una copia dallo stesso Tommaso non sarei mai riuscito ad ascoltarlo. Già sulla carta il gruppo appare intrigante, grazie al sapiente accostamento del sassofonista americano Michael Blake con il pianista Giovanni Guidi, adeguatamente supportati dal contrabbasso del chicagoano Joe Rehmer e dai poliritmi di Tommaso Cappellato. Le composizioni sono tutte del leader, ad eccezione di alcune brevi improvvisazioni di gruppo e del brano suonato solo dalla sezione ritmica (He Said Then She Said), che mette in rilievo un timing perfetto ed una naturale melodicità espressiva. Il gruppo suona un jazz eclettico e moderno, un occhio alla tradizione ed un altro alla sperimentazione, con un ottimo groove impreziosito dal suono acido ed obliquo delle ance di Blake. Mi hanno impressionato e convinto fin dal primo ascolto i brani dal tempo lento e rarefatto dove il tocco sapiente ed evocativo di Guidi lascia una traccia indelebile. Mysteries of Life e Krishnamurti rivelano una liricità emotiva non disgiunta da una profondità compositiva e spirituale di grande interesse. Le note sottratte hanno un peso ed una importanza equivalente a quelle suonate, contribuendo ad accrescere il pathos. Ma è tutto l’abum a convincere ascolto dopo ascolto. L’affiatamento tra i musicisti è palpabile ed evidente, tanto da far sperare in un seguito sia concertistico che discografico. Intrigante, originale, eclettico.

V A L U T A Z I O N E  : *  *  *  *

NESSO G

The album NESSO G is finally out on PUNTO ROJO RECORDS

(a sub-label of El Gallo Rojo Records)

Available on ITUNES and AMAZON

SHOWS

March 15 2010 - Il Torrione Jazz Club - Ferrara

http://myspace.com/ilnessog

Michele Polga - sax

Francesco Bigoni - sax & clarinetto

Danilo Gallo - bass

Tommaso Cappellato - drums

NESSO G at Radio 3 BATTITI on February 23 & 25!
GET PODCAST HERE

GRAVITY.FM

Ra.h's Edit from "The Knight" made it as one of the best tracks of 2009 on the chart http://gravity.fm

QUARTET & TRIO TOUR

Just completed a round of gigs around Italy with my own projects: the Quartet featuring Michael Blake, Giovanni Guidi and Joe Rehmer and the Trio featuring Alessandro Lanzoni and Gabriele Evangelista. Eight gigs total in twelve days. The tour started off and ended in Padova, my hometown, playing for two different jazz festivals. The first three dates (November 6/7/9) were dedicated to celebrating the release of my new quartet album entitled "OPEN"  (Elefante Rosso Music) playing in Padova at Spazio Gershwin Music School, where I currently teach, in Bari at Club 1799 directed by saxophonist Gaetano Partipilo and finally at the Bologna Jazz Festival performing at a new venue called Il Posto.

The trio tour started off at the same spot in Bologna the following day on November 10. After a 5 days gap we played again in Ferrara with a very special guest, tenor saxophonist John Ellis. He and I went to New School together a dozen years ago and we hadn't been playing since. He was touring with John Patitucci and Brian Blade and had a few days off before going back to NYC. Francesco Bettini, art director of Bologna Jazz Festival as well as the Torrione Jazz Club in Ferrara, didn't waste any time and organized everything last minute. It was a very special night, the atmosphere was that of an old fashion jazz club, filled up with musicians, young students from all over the world, music lovers and occasional customers. John played exquisitely and the rhythm section fit very well with his style.

The next day John had his flight back to the U.S. from Verona where we played as a trio at Cantine De L'Arena. After that we proceeded to Marostica at Panic Jazz Club. Here we had another great saxophonist sitting in with us, Michele Polga. The whole set was recorded and possibly one of the tunes will be included on a vynil release from the club best sets. Our last gig was at Hotel Plaza for Padova Jazz Festival. It's been a very special way to end the tour having to open up for Brad Mehldau and his Trio. Many musicians were in the audience including Mehldau, Jeff Ballard, Larry Grenadier, Greg Hutchinson, Reuben Rogers and Joshua Redman. The overall vibe of the festival was great making some really nice connections. Hopefully the Trio will record some time next year. Stay tuned.

"OPEN" CD RELEASE TOUR

I'm proud to announce the release of my first album as a leader entitled "OPEN" published by Elefante Rosso Music and distributed by Rush Hour Records. Three amazing musicians are also part of this record: Michael Blake on tenor and soprano saxophones, Giovanni Guidi on piano and Joe Rehmer on bass.

Preview and order available at the RUSH HOUR STORE

Sono lieto di annunciarvi l'uscita del disco 'OPEN' (Elefante Rosso Music), il mio primo lavoro come leader assieme ad altri 3 magnifici musicisti: Michael Blake, Giovanni Guidi e Joe Rehmer. Per l'occasione faremo 3 concerti in varie citta' d'Italia.
Spero di potervi vedere in una di queste occasioni.

Il disco "OPEN" e' distribuito da Rush Hour RUSH HOUR STORE

Sara' inoltre disponibile in forma fisica presso il club Elefante Rosso a Mestre (VE)

TOMMASO CAPPELLATO QUARTET
feat. Michael Blake, Giovanni Guidi, Joe Rehmer

6 Novembre h. 21:30
SPAZIO GERSHWIN
Via Tonzig, 9 Padova
http://www.storiedijazz.com

7 Novembre h. 21:00
CLUB 1799
Piazza dei Martiri, 42 Acquaviva delle Fonti (BA)
http://www.club1799.it

9 Novembre h. 22:00
IL POSTO (Bologna Jazz Festival)
Via Massarenti, 37 Bologna
http://www.ilposto.bo.it/
--


Produzioni

LUDMILLA FACCENDA
ART & NETWORK
Via Ercole Ricotti, 19 20158 Milano
info@artandnetwork.com
http://www.artandnetwork.com/

Live Session with Fabrizio Puglisi & Alvise Seggi

On October 13 2009 I had the honor and privilege to meet and play with piano player Fabrizio Puglisi. I had heard about him since I moved back from NY and had been wanting to meet him for the longest time. Once again it happened at our music temple, Elefante Rosso in Mestre right outside of Venice. Fabrizio is originally from Sicily living in Bologna since the late 80's where he co-founded the music collective Bassesfere for the development of improvised and creative music. His work expands on an extended area of styles but the focus remains that of creativity and freedom. His collaborations include some of the most important names of  avant-garde jazz like John Zorn, Steve Lacy, Louis Sclavis, Lester Bowie, Don Moye, George Russell, David Murray, Butch Morris, Hamid Drake. He also spent a considerable amount of time in Amsterdam, where the free jazz scene is quite popular, playing with the likes of Tristan Honsinger, Han Bennink, Ernst Glerum, Ab Baars, Sean Bergin, Ernst Reijseger, Tobias Delius.

I was very impressed by the well-roundness of this artist, who can play all sort of styles, from afro-cuban and be bop jazz to contemporary classical music, mainting the same individual sound.
On bass my good friend Alvise Seggi, another member of Upperground Orchestra, an electro-jazz band we are both part of with producer Rabih Beaini, owner of Elefante Rosso. The set included some original tunes by Fabrizio and myself alternated to some free style improvisations. It all flowed very naturally as if we had been playing together for years. The whole session was recorded and I'm soon going to make it available for download.

Here's the link to the Jazzos page with some of Fabrizio's recordings.

Paul Randolph @ Elefante Rosso

Another amazing night at Elefante Rosso. This is going to be a great season for the newly born club in Mestre! Club owner and founder Rabih Beaini decided to give a preview of what is to be expected for the remaning of 2009 by hosting bass player and singer Paul Randolph backed up by myself, Michele Manzo on guitar and DJ/producer - a pioneer of broken beats - Enrico Crivellaro aka Volcov aka Isoul8.

Paul Randolph, originally from Detroit - vocalist, guitarist, bass player and producer - previously worked with Carl Craig, Hugh Masekela, Funkadelic, War, Waajeed of PPP, Amp Fiddler, “Mad Mike” Banks and many other soul, R&B and electronic music artists. More recently he's been guest starring with German nujazz band Jazzanova.

It couldn't be a better way to start the Elefante Rosso concert series especially since Paul recorded the very first release on Elefante Rosso Label, the single "Collide" remixed by Volcov (ER001). Being my record "The Knight" the number 2 of the series with an edit by Ra.H, we finally joined forces to showcase both the label and the club... and we made it happen! Another great meeting that is sure going to lead to further collaborations.. Detroit - Venice via Berlin.

Hamid Drake & more...

Just came back from a couple of days in Milano. I had two great sessions with piano player Antonio Zambrini and young bass player Andrea Di Biase. Mr. Zambrini is definitely one of the most underrated pianists around. His musicality and knowledge on the instrument are astonishing as well as his beautiful arrangements and compositions. He recently recorded an album with NY based trumpeter Ron Horton entitled "It's A Gadget World" published by Abeat Records but his recording production is pretty vast having played with the likes of Lee Konitz, William Parker and Hamid Drake.

Speaking of which... the main reason I went to Milan was to meet my good friend and inspirer Hamid Drake, on a day off between his tours. Besides being an outstanding musician, an innovator of percussive instruments and a musical chameleon Hamid is a very spiritual person. He has a deep knowledge and understanding of Eastern philosophies and religions. He practices yoga, meditation and chanting which definitely enhance his clarity in music. His band as a leader is called Bindu a Sanskrit word that describes one of the main chakras. Hamid is about to release his third album with this project entitled Bindu III on the french label Rogue Art.

Not everybody knows that he has been involved in countless projects with such musicians like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Foday Musa Sosa, David Murray, William Parker, Anthony Braxton and many others. At the end of the '70s he was a member of the Mandingo Griot Society, one of the first world music ensembles. It included Drake on drums, tabla and bells, Foday Musa Sosa on kora and voice, Adam Rudolph on bongos, congas, timbales, djembe and Joseph Thomas on bass. Their first recording guested Don Cherry on trumpet. A later recording entitled Jazz Africa includes Herbie Hancock on piano and Armando Peraza on congas. Definitely a few recordings worth checking out...

More & more people should be aware of the immense contribution that this wonderful musician and human being brings to contemporary music and art. His fresh and positive approach in relating to his fellow musicians and the audience through creativity and spirituality sets a good example of human and artistic conduct for those who like me are engaging in this art form as a way of living.

CVL Drums

For the last 2 years I've been collaborating with CVL Drums, a company owned by Mr. Lucio Cavallarin, based in the city of Chioggia right out of Venice in Italy. Their main aim is to build quality instruments thanks to their long time experience in wood working in many other industry fields.

CVL works are very original due to the strong relationship between the artist and the manufacturer. Their staff always welcome new ideas and develop its products based on both the musical and selling potentials of the instruments. They build drums with any kind of wood and in any kind of finish, experimenting on the ways of assembling the shells, on their sizes and implementing the sound with additional elements, like finger cymbals or string guitars.

My favourite instrument from their production is a jazz set made out of African mahogany wood. Besides the wood quality the real new thing is the fact there are no lugs on the shells, so what you end up playing is a solid, un-holed drum. They made it possible by adding long screws that go from one hoop to the other. The result is that by tightening the top head you also tune the bottom one simultaneously. Usually one would consider this as a down side but the outcome in sound is really outstanding. The hoops are made of the same wood and they are very resistant and hard to get dented. Even the bass drum is suspended through the same system. The main characteristic of this drum set is a super warm and original sound with a long projection. Playing the snare drum and bass drum feels like dipping a spoon in soft butter. This is how it looks:















Here's a demonstration and description of the set I made in 2008 at CVL headquarters.



The following is a clip from "Venezia Suona 2008" Music Festival, held in Venice - Italy every year. Dozens of musicians are spread throughout the city playing simultaneously in different locations. Unfortunately that day we got caught in the middle of a storm passing through that area, so you see people running to find some dry place where to rest. It was challenging and fun playing and keep concentrated on the music.



Othe interesting works by CVL:

For More Info Visit:

http://www.cvldrums.com
http://www.myspace.com/cvldrums
http://www.myspace.com/cvlpercussion

NICHE

Nice Review of the vynil single "The Knight" on the Japanese Internet Radio Show and Blog NICHE. The Blog includes other amazing cuttin' through acts like Mocky, Mulatu Astatke, Vincent Moon & others... worth checking it out even you don't know Japanese.. this is the pic they posted on the page..