Pipeline

Combining for two 20-minute connected tracks  in a live setting a septet of Italian players expose the prismatic elements that constitute in-the-moment improvisation exposing a concoction of  experience, elation and emotion. A variation of the Pipeline ensemble, the group here includes brass players Sebi Tramontana and Gabriele Mitelli; clarinetist Giancarlo Nino Locatelli; string players Luca Tilli and Andrea Grossi; percussionist Cristiano Calcagnile and pianist Alberto Braida. With participants ranging in age from their sixties to their thirties, those among the seven have played with everyone from Anthony Braxton and Wadada Leo Smith to Alexander Hawkins and Evan Parker.

Emphasizing percussion rumbles and cymbal pops, reed tongue slaps and split tones, brass snarls and huffs, and string slides and stops there are sequences where the band surges from polyphony to near cacophony. Happily Braida provides proportional symmetry throughout. Notwithstanding interludes where the combination of Mitelli’s piccolo trumpet cries, Tramontana’s plunger trombone growls and forced static air respiration from Locatelli’s clarinet reach a crescendo of vibrating but seemingly impassible timbres, the pianist’s unperturbed and measured comping steadies the horizontal exposition. These metronomic clips and focused keyboard effects, continue to steady additional sequences throughout as well as serving as mature centering for frequent duets. These on-on-ones involve parallel string slices from cellist Tilli and lyrical breaths from the clarinetist or elsewhere find Mitelli’s brassy trumpet triplets meeting Locatelli’s pressurized downwards scoops.

Each player gets to insert individual expressions, including Tramontana’s windy flutters and Calcagnile accenting the exposition with chain rattling, bell shaking and even finger cymbal pings. Cellist Tilli and double bassist Grossi stop, scrub and stroke spiccato stretches, sometime in tandem, while Braida also gets solo space.

Build on well thought out accompaniment, the pianist’s level headed textural examinations adulterate as well as accent the ongoing narrative. During the penultimate section for instance he adds percussive keyboard bangs alongside trombone drones, hard reed bites and jagged scours from the strings attaining a full band climax. Again though it’s Braida’s sutured piano slaps which amplify a restrained and emotional cello-clarinet duet to emphasize the pensive as well as powerful segments on “Ahead of July”.

In total, a more definitive instance of contemporary Italian composition/improvisation probably couldn’t be found.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Ahead of July Part I 2. Ahead of July Part II

Personnel: Giancarlo Nino Locatelli (Bb and bass clarinet); Gabriele Mitelli (piccolo trumpet); Sebi Tramontana (trombone); Alberto Braida (piano); Luca Tilli (cello); Andrea Grossi (bass) and Cristiano Calcagnile (drums and percussion)