Alessandro Lanzoni, a young Tuscan just past adolescence, is managing to carve out a niche and time for himself without rushing, controlling the typical impatience of youth. Awards, a mass of acknowledgements, the Massimo Urbani competition (a good six years ago) as well as the one beyond national borders dedicated to Martial Solal in 2010, are the heights of a universally recognised path. Despite all this, he is under less stress and his music ranges far and wide.
Lighter and more irreverent, but even
more diversified, if possible: he has learned the language of the great
standards (hence, his debut for CAM JAZZ, in the remake of Crepescule With Nellie and Bright Mississippi,
both by Thelonious Monk); he has met the blues and has meticulously and
chronologically ingested the classics (from Earl Hines to Bill Evans
and many others), taking a deep look at harmony. And yet, like a crown
of thorns, he is managing, step by step, to encircle the most hospitable
jazz places. No torment, no nihilism, above and below the lines of an
album which reveals him in the standard trio, there is joy of life and
the awareness of his own means. So, even when the linguistic codes,
which may have been alright to describe his aesthetic youth some time
ago, are now too tight; the crossroad, which only the most talented
encounter along their way, has been crossed. There is no turning back
now". (F. Scoppio)
