Reviews that mention Marco Colonna
October 21, 2020
Fili
Naifunken nfk 007
Julius Gabriel
Geminga
Creative Sources CS 637 CD
Yves Charuest
Le Territoire de l’Anche
Small Scale Music SSM 022
Alexandra Grimal
the monkey in the abstract garden
Ovni OVB 0003
Ben Bertrand
Manes
Stroom/Les albums claus STRLP-038/LAC015
Something in the Air: Sophisticated Solo Reed Sessions Score with Surprises
By Ken Waxman
Once a rite of passage, solo outings for reed players have now become almost as commonplace in improvised music as jazz piano trio discs. At the same time, figuratively performing musically naked like that involves more than desire and technical skill. Cerebral planning as well as deciding which horn(s) to use plus the suitability of the location’s acoustics are necessary as well. These new discs demonstrate how international reed players deal with the challenges. MORE
September 16, 2020
Setoladimaiale Unit & Evan Parker
Live at Angelica 2018
Setoladimaiale SM 3880
Check Test Check
Half Laboratory Half Band
Umland Records 30
Whether ad-hoc or regularly organized, committed to interpreting compositions or pure improvisation, little big bands can serve as flexible vehicles for musical expression. But besides a similarity in number of players, very little unites these ensembles except how each shrewdly solves sonic challenges. Live at Angelica 2018 adds veteran British improviser Evan Parker to a clutch of Italian players for a nearly 71¼ -minute single track sound exploration recorded in Bologna. Half Laboratory Half Band in contrast draws 10 players from the massive Essen-based The Dorf orchestra to experiment with five compositions by tenor saxophonist Jan Klare and two group improvisations that later may be added to the larger group’s repertoire. MORE
May 20, 2020
Morning Patches
Fundacja Słucha FSR 05/2019
Using the spatial expanse of Šmartno’s ornate St. Martin's Church for additional sonority, Slovenian percussionist Zlatko Kaučič guides a reed-heavy international quintet through 11 instant compositions here. Guides is the proper verb since Kaučič, one of Slovenia’s most prominent improvisers who has worked with everyone from Evan Parker to Joëlle Léandre, makes it a point not to direct the group. Instead, using a collection of self-made and conventional percussion instruments he calls ground sounds, he interjects resonances and textural coloration when needed as the band plays on. MORE
March 23, 2019
Eternal Love
Dodicilune Dischi Ed 411
A fine instance of how to construct a Jazz Repertory session without resorting to deification or imitation is this slick, foot-tapping, nine-track session by veteran Italian soprano saxophonist Roberto Ottaviano. The saxophonist, who has wo4ekd with multiple Jazzers, including Mal Waldron and Aldo Romano, leads a quintet in homage not only to his main influence, John Coltrane – on “Your Lady” – but also with particular takes on other Jazz heroes. Curiously, like a select group of Northern-Italian players, including Daniele Cavallanti, Carlo Actis and Tiziano Tononi, Ottaviano also has an affinity for African-oriented sounds, and most of tracks, beginning with “Uhuru”, the first, represent this sound imagery through compositions by Charlie Haden Abdullah Ibrahim, Dewey Redman, Elton Dean and Don Cherry MORE
December 27, 2018
Agrakal
NotTwo MW 972-2
Augmenting the auditory parameters of the baritone saxophone and clarinet in this one-horn-one-piano-and-percussion recital is Italian reedist Marco Colonna. Colonna, whose experience encompasses the performance of notated music for clarinet, improvisations with the likes of Silvia Bolognesi and Eugenio Colombo and duo concerts featuring himself and poet Alberto Masal, has come up with a unique setting for Agrakal, which is a Cabilian word for the Mediterranean sea. Here the extended techniques displayed by the hefty saxophone are met by equivalent textural extensions by Catalan Agustí Fernández’s piano and Slovenian Zlatko Kaučič drums and percussion. MORE