Cristiano Calcagnile / Andrea Grossi / Giancarlo Locatelli

Federico Marchesano

Atalante

Felmay fy 7065

Program music that you don’t need a program to appreciate Atalante and Kakuan Suite are mostly Italian clarinet-focused CDs which additionally have a passing connection to film.

The mostly Italian label is because although bassist Federico Marchesano, who composed the music and who moves between improv and traditional bands is Italian and so are drummer Mattia Barbieri and Enrico Degani playing classical guitar, French clarinetist Louis Sclavis is also featured. With one instrument less Trio Pipeline is as Italian as pasta. The suite was composed by clarinetist Giancarlo Nino Locatelli, who organizes larger iterations as Pipeline 8, plus Andrea Grossi on bass and percussionist Cristiano Calcagnile. As for the cinema references: While the somewhat enigmatic titles of each of the so-called dances of the Kakuan Suite relate to Locatelli’s idiosyncratic concepts, the first tune was previously recorded as the soundtrack of a short film by Pietro D’Agostino, Meanwhile Marchesano’s compositions are influenced by Jean Vigo’s classic film Atalante.

Although some of Atalante’s eight tunes are sufficiently sunny sounding and surge with aquatic inferences, the tunes are as metrical as they’re nautical. One is a feature for Barbieri’s prowess with echoing hand drumming and cymbal color, while many, such as “Terra” focus on Degani’s faultless finger styling, in that case blended with horizontal clarinet smears in gentle swing. Maintaining a steady beat throughout with drum shuffles and bass sting slaps, other tunes take advantage of Sclavis’ expressive clarinet and bass clarinet proficiency. “Germinale” for instance is a stop time swinger where guitar frails and drum pops are pushed against double and triple tonguing clarinet smears that move up the scale and end with a defining reed squeak. “Vigo” on the other hand is refined by Marchesano at a measured pace, accompanied by guitar licks that eventually reveals brilliant harmonies when string plinking is mated with a clarinet obbligato. Still the title track may be the key performance. It attains a near Rock-like groove with guitar crunches, drum ruffs and reed honks. The intersecting tones of Sclavis’ doubled tonguing and Degani’s concentrated trills undulate in a manner that suggests a dance, but one taking place on a water floating vessel.

Locatelli’s suite diverges from Atalante in that while evolving in the traditional form with an introduction, coda and theme variations, the reference points are so exclusive to the composer that extra-musical inferences aren’t necessarily essential. As a trio there is also more improvisational scope for Locatelli’s Bb and alto clarinet work and that of the others. The pieces are also often lively and taken at vivace tempos. One such track is “otri”. With its trilling reed glissandi and intersectional drum ruffs that resemble a sand dance, clarinet peeps are layered among Grossi’s arco pushes in the cello range and are pushed to discordance until Calcagnile’s contrapuntal drum rattle pushes creates a tonal motif at the end. Meanwhile “La vita felice” that includes castanets-like strokes, bass plucks and slinky reed trill is a jolly foot tapper that could be a banda rondo. Swirling glissandi and drum rumbles are expressed atop a walking double bass line that speeds up and slows down for motif variations then replicates the intro with nerve beat claps and clarinet trills. However the most elaborate instance of Locatelli’s composing and improvising activity is on “tiro”. Moving from a beginning where his tone is almost straight Benny Goodman-like to a midsection of squeezed suction in atonal territory, the piece advances logically. The narrative is enhanced with cymbal strokes and bass string stings that vibrate from screech to sul tasto strokes. Eventually the track climaxes into a bright speedy ending. There’s even “orti”, a bass clarinet feature, which slides from repeated trills to woody tongue slaps, up and down the scale without ever abandoning tonality.

Nothing waterlogged, everything buoyant, there’s plenty of shipshape music to be admired by clarinet fanciers and others on both discs.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Atalante: 1. Le voci di dentro 2. Germinale 3. La vita felice 4. Terra 5. Vigo 6. Atalante 7. Shipwrecked 8. 8 Sur la montagne

Personnel: Atalante: Louis Sclavis (clarinet and bass clarinet); Enrico Degani (classical guitar); Federico Marchesano (bass) and Mattia Barbieri (drums)

Track Listing: Kakuan: 1. le corna 2. rito 3. roti 4. tiro 5. tori 6. irto (take 2) 7. orti 8. otri 9. irto (take 1) 10. La coda

Personnel: Kakuan: Giancarlo Nino Locatelli (Bb and alto clarinet); Andrea Grossi (bass) and Cristiano Calcagnile (drums and percussion)