Main points circling in on ‘Blue Waltz’ and beyond:
A sprinkle of light and life
It’s always a risk introducing vocals on a largely instrumental album. But in the right hands It’s a risk worth taking.
And yet to be frank listening to Danish-Italian collaboration In Rome blind, an album that may well appeal to anyone who owns the Live at Gustav’s release Blue Waltz, I was surprised to hear the voice of Valentina Ranalli, an Italian jazz singer and songwriter from Naples who uncannily makes me head for the mood if not the timbre or register quite of Monica Zetterlund on ‘Waltz for Debbie’.
On further thoughts, UK jazz fans, if you imagine Alan Broadbent collaborator Georgia Mancio singing in Italian then it’s an even closer match to the Ranalli soundsphere and mutual penchant for nostalgic peregrinations. ‘Blue Waltz’ is also on Ranalli-Pieranunzi album Cantare Pieranunzi released a few years ago. Yet another version to know – there its atmospheric spoken word introduction adds another dimension to savour.
‘Blue Waltz,’ that particular track on the new release, is OK first time round. Second time round it’s even better as there are several layers of circling complexity that reward lots of play to try to start working it out a bit. And then, if like me, you end up in sepia tinted Evansiana conjuring some Monica and never minding the switch in European languages or metrical flicker at all. A later Ranalli vocal ‘Come Rose Dai Muri’ is even more spirited and involving.
Siren call
Led by Danish double bassist Thomas Fonnesbæk with two icons of Italian jazz in Enrico Pieranunzi and saxophonist Rosario Giuliani on board (a very welcome presence on ‘Siren’s Lounge’) In Rome operates ostensibly as a very elegant, euphonious, modern mainstream affair. And fairly romantic it is too. It’s Roberto Gatto on drums who steadies the ship and never has to work up much of a sweat.
Blue Waltz tracks ‘Come Rose Dai Muri’ and ‘Molto Ancora’ are also factored in.
Finishing one another’s sentences
You can hear the depth of their immersion in the classic modalities of 1960s jazz best of all perhaps on their album The Real You: A Bill Evans Tribute that sonically is even crisper and more sonorous than the otherwise perfectly decent recorded sound found on In Rome.
Fonnesbæk’s best bits are his soloing on ‘Il Giardino Di Anne’ (which is also oh so intimately on The Real You) where Pieranunzi also solos very decorously. Few European pianists can solo as extravagantly melodically as this Puccini of jazz piano. And on EP’s ‘Song for An August Evening’ what he does in the introductory passage is simply beautiful, the spell continued by some very soft and communicative soloing by the leader.
A bassist as at home in a trio or accompanying a singer
A style that compares favourably to Joris Teepe’s
Fonnesbæk, 47, has an extensive discography stretching back more than 20 years often as a member of the Lars Jansson Trio or heard with singer Sinne Eeg on labels such as Prophone and Stunt. And on Storyville the bassist appeared with the drummer Alex Riel (who passed away in the summer) on a trio recording with Heine Hansen called Signature.
The bassist’s style is not unlike that of the Dutchman Joris Teepe. And, like Teepe, the Dane is very compositional in the way that he measures beat and the energy of a piece even at mid-tempi. There isn’t too much of what I’d call filler walking bass on the album, mercifully – it’s more about strong motifs and tightly integrated trio play. Mostly Pieranunzi tunes. But both Gatto and Fonnesbæk also contribute tunes that sit snug within the pull and tug that the trio’s persuasive traction ubiquitously generates.