Simone Massaron – electric & bariton guitars, loops | Jamaaladeen Tacuma -electric bass | Massimiliano Sorrentini – drums (right channel) | Federico Scettri – drums (left channel) | Piero Bittolo Bon – alto & baritone saxophones
Recorded by Vito Farano on January 11, 2010 at Power Music Studio, Rome, Italy. Mixed by Enrico Terragnoli at Greedy Little Sisters Studio, Verona, Italy. Mastered by Maurizio Giannotti at Newmastering Studio, Milano, Italy. Artwork by Massimiliano Sorrentini. Little Pencil by Piero Bittolo Bon. Photos by Regina Schütz for Sound Evidence. Produced by Piero Bittolo Bon and Fabrizio Perissinotto.
Special thanks to Simone, Massimiliano, Federico for being such great friends in life & music, to Jamaaladeen for all the inspiration and power he brought to this session, and to Fabrizio who such enthusiastically supported a project that just popped out of a strange dream one strange night. Many thanks also to Vito Farano. Enrico Terragnoli, Maurizio Giannotti and to El Conjunto del Gallo Rojo. ‘Simpri Indenant” is dedicated to my mother Paola
Tracklist: 1. DFW/Calypso de Pelo 2. Simpri Indenant 3. Moon Liver 4. The Day Sandro Bondi Stood Still 5. Stoppani Stomp 6. Tsar Bomba! 7. Tamarrow Is The Question
“I would like to thank Piero and all of the musicians from Italy who I was happy and blessed to perform with on this great recording session. Music is a Universal Language”.– Jamaaladeen Tacuma
Piero Bittolo Bon
is one of Italian Jazz’s youngest and most acclaimed rising stars. A mostly self-taught player, he mainly plays alto but is also at ease on baritone, bass clarinet, contralto, clarinet and flute. Passionate and vibrant, his music reverberates with echoes of the best of free jazz, “fire music”, torrid improvisations, sharp attacks and continuous inventions bar after bar.
Member of El Gallo Rojo collective, he collaborated with some of the best italian creative musicians (Danilo Gallo, Zeno de Rossi, Beppe Scardino, Enrico Terragnoli, Stefano Senni, Francesco Bigoni, Tiziana Ghiglioni, Tiziano Tononi, Daniele Cavallanti, Francesco Cusa, Domenico Caliri, Giovanni Maier, U.T. Gandhi, Simone Massaron, Silvia Bolognesi among others) and with overseas stars like Anthony Braxton, Uri Caine, John Tchicai, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Jessica Lurie, Vincent Davis and Ernest Dawkins, and he also is in the berlinese avant-garde jazz scene, often playing in the city with musicians like Gerhard Gschloessl, Christian Lillinger, Tristan Honsinger and many others.
Piero has always had a long-standing affair going on with the electric bass, which he played at the beginning of his musical journey in funk, reggae, and rock bands, before totally committing himself to improvised music.
Given these premises, it seemed natural that sooner or later he would somehow connect his various passions on his new project, “Mucho Acustica” a totally improvised and powerful session by Piero’s new band “The Original Pigneto Stompers”, with double drums, electric guitars and special guest electric bass giant Jamaaladeen Tacuma.
Tacuma, defined by guitar ace Marc Ribot as a “funk hurricane”, has a glorious past in Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time band, where he contributed to the music of legendary albums as Body Meta or Dancing in your Head. With his heavy recipe of funk and groove oriented bass lines and free music, he has taken part over the years in many other musical projects, not just jazz and funk.
The rest of the band is completed by guitar player Simone Massaron, and drummers Federico Scettri and Max Sorrentini, young but experienced musicians on the forefront of the best Italian jazz and avant-guard scenes.
“Mucho Acustica” is definitely filled with many moods and strong musical statements. The good feeling among the musicians was immediate and the energy was running from the very first takes.
There’s a dominating vibe, which is a mix two sources. First there’s Piero his sounds are proud and fierce, dark and austere, always serching even physically for his limits and the way to go beyond them. Then there are the thunderous hypnotic electric grooves of Tacuma. These sounds set the base for some layers of “Electric Miles” oriented jams, but with an overall self-abandon more typical of free jazz, with a double drum and guitar interplay that often even moves rhythmically into Afro territories, heavy and light at the same time. What dominates is “Black Music” and some of its more visceral elements and expressions, with furious electric rides and blues and funk meetings. But there are also abstract moments of delicate instrumental dialogues, that suddenly move into rhythmic explorations and long trancey pedals, dry and raucous.
You can also enjoy Max and Federico’s respective finesse in mixing their jazz and rock improvisational roots and skills, and their dexterity in avoiding clichés and keeping the beat precise and fresh, and Simone’s endless tone and harmonic ability in delivering mind blowing solos and various unexpected turning points over many tracks.
“Music is a universal language” says J.Tacuma about this pleasant session, and on his “conversations” with these players from another country he’s absolutely right!
CD version (incl. shipment cost world-wide)
Adding...
Piero Bittolo Bon on alto & bari saxes, Simone Massaron on electric & baritone guitars & loops, Jamaaladeen Tacuma on electric bass and Massimiliano Sorrentini & Federico Scettri on drums. We hadn’t heard from the Long Song label in a while so it was great to get this disc in the mail. Besides superstar bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, each of these players can be found in previous Italian ensembles. Leader & saxist Piero Bittolo Bon has a disc on El Gallo Rojo as well as on Clean Feed. Guitarist Simone Massaron is on a few earlier Long Song discs. The drummers I don’t really know of before this.
Although all of this music was improvised, this quintet is extremely tight, focused and filled with exuberance. This disc opens with Jamaaladeen’s furious electric bass spinning quickly until the rest of the band comes jumps into the groove, funky and burning! The group gets into a harmelodic groove, with all five members spinning tightly around one another. It is pretty rare to hear music that makes you want to dance and listen at the same time, but that is what the first piece (“DFW/Calypso de Pelo”) actually does. “Simpri Indenant” is a fine laid back duo for electric bass and alto sax that sounds like an warm conversation between two old friends. “Moon Liver” builds from a quiet calm while the Jamaaladeen takes a long, thoughtful story-like solo, the sound of his bass and the way his plucks those strings completely distinctive. By the fourth track, the rhythm team is soaring with some incredible guitar work from Mr. Massaron as he changes the tome of his guitar throughout the entire piece. He uses occasional elements of distortion while playing one of the hottest jazz/rock guitar solos around. Simone ends his long solo with an impressive bluesy conclusion. This entire disc flows organically from beginning to the end with amazing playing from all five members throughout.
Si stratificano le generazioni di improvvisatori e jazzisti italiani che non smettono di ricercare e di dare alla musica che fanno un significato avventuroso. Tra le “giovani leve” che più stanno catturando l’attenzione di critica e pubblico, il sassofonista Piero Bittolo Bon, che guida qui i suoi “Original Pigneto Stompers” in una splendida session di improvvisazioní con il bassista Jamaaladeen Tacuma [storico partner dell’Ornette Coleman elettrico]. Le ossa spolpate del free-funk, un lirismo allucinato, lacerazioni rock – ottimo Simone Massaron alla chitarra e e una ritmica con doppia batteria che sospinge la musica sull’orlo di inebrianti precipizi.
Tutti i talenti del veneziano Bittolo Bon sono bene in mostra in questo ottimo disco quasi completamente improvvisato. Vi si riconoscono una logica impressionante nel creare sul momento, una personalità ben delineata (capace di sconvolgere ogni forma troppo prevedibile) e il gusto di suonare con un piglio ricco di spirito e di sarcasmo. Certo, i riferimenti a Ornette non mancano – nella presenza dell’ospite d’onore Tacuma, nella formazione con doppia batteria, in qualche passaggio sassofonistico e perfino nella storpiatura Tamarrow Is The Question – ma poi le analogie non si trasformano mai in un adeguamento supino.
La musica degli Original Pigneto Stompers sgorga liberamente dalle tessiture nodose di chitarre e basso (su cui si innesta un sassofono laconico: Simpri Indenant) o prende corpo su ritmiche reiterate e insistenti (Calypso de Pelo) e le soluzioni più imprevedibili sono a portata di mano: dall’anarchia al funk, dal punk swing di Stoppani Stomp al blues di The Day Sandro Bondi Stood Still. A proposito: che siano dedicati a lui i tre schiaffoni immortalati in copertina?