Gabriele Mitelli Three Tsuru Origami

An ingenious riff on a Sicilian legend, Colapesce is a suite if 15 miniatures that works as a dynamic Free Jazz program. It can also be appreciated  without knowing anything about the fable of the merman who warned Sicily of impending storms and is a local symbol of resilience, metamorphosis, and sacrifice. Interestingly enough none of the musicians are Sicilian. Gabriele Mitelli, who plays piccolo trumpet and electronics is Italian, but a native of far-away Brescia. Tenor saxophonist Camila Nebbia is Argentinean; while bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders are British.  The horn players have recorded with the likes of Alberto Braida and Yorgos Dimitriadis, while the bassist and drummer have singly or together backed innumerable international improvisers.

Weaving without overdoing the loss, lyricism, transformation, tragedy and tunefulness of the folk tale, the four players cycle through numerous theme, tempo and pitch variations. With Edwards deftly moving from drubbing string plucks to taunt arco slides and Sanders’ rumbles and ruffs avoiding unexpected sea side lurches, Mitelli and Nebbia build up a vocabulary of low-pitched smears, altissimo stutters and note-bending tongue slaps from the saxophonist, and pinpointed triplets, gurgling slurs, and inner horn exploration from the trumpeter.

These timbral examinations are expressed in condensed form on tracks such as “The Column Of Sicily” where siren-like ululations meet the drummer’s timbral rolls; and at great length on “The King and the Challenge”. On that track brass gargles and reed peeps buzz and coagulate as thematic architecture when the exposition becomes speedier and more abstract. Culmination is tonal inclusion which add electronic static, emphasized triplets and mouthpiece buzzes to regularized drum shakes.

Cleaving somewhat to the folkloric among the hocketing and dissonant timbres there are shifts towards melody, most obviously on the successive “The Sacrifice”, “The Rising Legend” and “Shadows in the Depths”. Midway through the first, quirky brass burbles and blats descend into grace notes to keep up with distended reed bites, then fade into gentling breaths. The subsequent resolution thickens into a jaunty line that matches vocalized pleading, negations and affirmations with instrumental cohesion.

While Colapesce may or may not please those who are familiar with this amphibian legend, the only myth making here is due to the strength of this quartet’s creative interpretation.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Mare Nostrum 2. Cola, The Call Of The Waves 3. Colapesce, Son of The Sea 4. The King and the Challenge 5. Three Stones, Three Pillars 6. The Abyss 7. The Column Of Sicily 8. The Sacrifice 9. The Rising Legend 10. Shadows in the Depths 11. Songs of Sea and Land 12. The Dance of the Waves 13. Under the Waves 14, The Eternal Guardian (Hymn for Lelio Giannetto) 15. Voices of the Sea

Personnel: Gabriele Mitelli (piccolo trumpet and electronics); Camila Nebbia (tenor saxophone); John Edwards (bass) and Mark Sanders (drums)