1. I M Waiting 05:12 |
2. Theme For Bond 09:40 |
3. Creole 04:30 |
4. Sweet 2 04:04 |
5. Next Stories 07:29 |
6. I Could Have Done More 04:40 |
7. What Is This Thing Called Love 04:03 |
8. Few Days 06:40 |
9. Sabrina And Joseph 03:05
One doesn't come across many pianists who not only have a firm
command of the blues, bebop, ballads and beyond but also bring something
personal and original to the keyboard. Antonio Faraò who has
collaborated with Franco Ambrosetti, Richard Galliano, John Abercrombie,
Billy Cobham, Lee Konitz, Antonio Hart, Branford Marsalis, Joe Lovano
and Terri Lyne Carrington, among others, is arguably the leading
mainstream jazz pianist in Italy today. The reigning winner of the
Martial Solal Competition, Faraò is a leading member of Europe's
multifaceted jazz community and among the few instrumentalists from that
side of the Atlantic to have hung out and held his own in jam sessions
at Small's and other clubs on the challenging New York scene where he
earned the respect of his Afro-American peers there like the late Kenny
Kirkland.
For his third album on ENJA, "Next Stories," two days had been
set aside for taping and a third for mixing but Faraò and his cohorts
had quickly become a tightly knit unit that effortlessly put down ten
tracks in seven hours including a break for lunch. There were a few
false starts but otherwise the quartet nailed each tune the first time
around and did so with authority. Except for the Cole Porter song and
the pianist's tender rendition of John Williams's moving ballad "I Could
Have Done More" from his soundtrack for "Schindler's List," all the
songs were written by Faraò during the year leading up to the session.
In May 2000, American magazine Cadence commented Faraò's ENJA debut, "Black
Inside": "Faraò at times recalls McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock but
basically has his own advanced style.The pianist is particularly adept
at building up his solos, his technique is quite impressive and his
originals contain enough quality to hold one's interest throughout."
"Next Stories" is the latest chapter to chronicle the ongoing creative
saga of Antonio Faraò who started his adventures in jazz during the
mid-1980s as a teenage prodigy sitting in with the likes of Daniel
Humair and Steve Grossman at the Capolinea Jazz Club in Milan. Although
still in his mid-30s, the classically trained pianist who graduated with
honors from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan is a mature artist
today. (ENJA)
