An Italian, Milano-based,
contemporary jazz orchestra that plays originals tunes, spacing from
modal moods to latin to hard r&b freestyle.It started with the desire to score up some of my compositions and charts with a large jazz ensemble, including excerpts from the previous productions. Particularly from the Jazz Chromatic Ensemble, a medium sized jazz ensemble active in the '90s, founded by myself and Daniele Cavallanti, which featured many of outstanding musicians present today in the Italian jazz scene.
Even though the language and the format of the project reflect callbacks to tradition, my artistic intent is to explore more contemporary expressions possible in a large jazz ensemble. This ambition is reflected in the choice of musicians, that consists of the best jazz, avant-garde, and rock professionals, who have been cherrypicked from the Milano music scene for this project specifically. The live repertoire includes original compositions, a few reinterpretations of the mainstream jazz repertoire and charts of important contemporary jazz leaders, including Maria Schneider and Darcy James Argue.
The various themes of the album reflect my musical feelings: modal atmosphere and open improvised spaces (Unwired), a more classical imprint to formal patterns (Blues To Blues, based on Daniele Cavallanti’s theme), love for the song form (Dark Eyes, inspired by a tormented and passionate melody of the Ossetian songwriter Ahser Dzhigkaev, to whom this track is dedicated) and finally the two Skydreams. I had already recorded number 5 with a medium sized ensemble years ago, but I have repurposed it here, because I feel a particular affinity to it. The track is preceded by a short souvenir of number 3, which contains themes further developed in number 5 and represents a bridge between my past experiences and this new adventure.
CDBABY
