Zlatko Kaucic – drums, percussion | Stefano Battaglia – piano | Paolino dalla Porta – double bass
Recorded and mastered by Stefano Amerio on November 2011 at Cavalico – Udine, Italy. Cover photo: Filip Przewozny. Cover design: Malgorzata Lipinska
Tracklist: 1. December Soul (Kaucic) [09:27] 2. Jacob #1 (Battaglia / dalla Porta / Kaucic) [02:23] 3. Morning Veil (Kaucic) [05:15] 4. Mavrice (Kaucic) [06:33] 5. Simona na Obisku pri Mojci (Kaucic) [06:42] 6. Jacob #2 (Battaglia / dalla Porta / Kaucic) [03:43] 7. Senci (Kaucic) [05:48] 8. Jacob #3 (Battaglia / dalla Porta / Kaucic) [04:12] 9. Julijske Barve (Kaucic) [14:12]
ZLATKO KAUCIC
has been known to take household items and turn them into percussive instruments incorporating them into his music, experimenting with the sound they make and the sharpness and clarity of their timbres. This is also a point made by one of his most memorable fans Jakob, a ten year old boy, who attended Zlatko’s concert in Nova Gorica and said loudly to his father in the middle of the show, “Look what Zlatko is playing, some funny home-made instrument.”
Provocative, thoughtful, spellbinding, and always original and contemporary, Zlatko Kaucic’s compositions have inspired collective improvisations in his native Slovenia and abroad for over thirty years, celebrating this achievement with his 2009 recording 30th Anniversary Concerts. His sonic contributions, experimental sounds and concepts can be found on 24 recordings combining his solo efforts and collaborative offerings.
Zlatko’s endless reservoir of melodic ideas, oftentimes uniting discord and rhyme, exceeds his critic’s expectations. His affinity to continually compose is discernibly due to his compulsion to perform with musicians both new to playing live and those who have played for more than half their lives. Earlier in 2013, he recorded Zvocna polja za T.S. with a group of students demonstrating that a bandleader can also support improvisations made by other members of his ensemble.
DECEMBER SOUL once again shows Zlatko in a dual role as a leader and a supportive instrumentalist. Joined by Stefano Battaglia on piano and Paolino dalla Porta on double bass, most of the album was written in December; hence, the meaning behind the title of the album. During their sessions of pure improvisation, Zlatko’s trio amassed a collection of free flowing ideas motivated by their inclination to converse spontaneously and guided by their impulse to explore. Zlatko’s drum patterns and percussive beats are calibrated to supplement transitional phases and add texture and trimmings while functioning to make pauses along the tracks progressions giving the bass and piano space for solos. The rapport which the trio displays wheedles lyrical passages interspersed with shards of dissonance as Stefano’s keys sow fluid motifs stoking Zlatko’s punctuated thrusts and Pao-lino’s pulsating bass in the title track.
The trio’s crisscrossing lines display a vigorous scuffling in “Mavrice” and shower tranquilizing atmospherics across “Send.” The perky and brusque rustling of Zlatko’s drumming pedestal Stefano’s lambasting keys in “Jakob #3” contrasting the Lamenting sonorous of the keys wafting serene vibrations through “Sirnona na Obisku pri Mojci.” Paolino’s bass fuses rolling knolls along “Morning Veil” and brawny lunges across “Jakob #1” accentuating the arcs of the keys along “Jakob #2” as ZLatko’s percussions vibrate and clatter. To honor his fan Jakob, Zlatko has written three tracks on December Soul with his fan Jakob in mind, “Jakob #1,” “Jakob #2,” and “Jakob #3,” all of which are se-quenced by impromptu expressions.
Kaucic’s compositions and contributions are an extension of his ingenuity, a culmination of abstract soundscapes uniquely tailored and focused on experimenting with sounds, decibels, and frequencies and how they affect the overall sound structure. The trio’s improvisations juxtapose off the cuff conversing with a cutting edge slant and melodic overtones.
Recorded in four hours at Stefano Amerio’s studio in Staly, December Soul is dedicated to Marek Winiarski “for having a nice nap in the afternoon” in Zlatko’s words. The recording takes improvisation and experimental jazz to a place where multiple ideas converge and manifest into lyrical cohesiveness. Eclectic and mellifluous, the recording is a collaboration of individual minds contributing their thoughts and twining them together, arranged to form a multi-faceted tapestry. — SUSAN FRANCES
Susan Frances is a freelance writer having contributed articles to Jazztimes.com, Yahoo Voices, Newsvine.com, and the defunct Jazzreview.com. She also writes fiction. Her novel The King Maker has been published by Champagne Books.
This recording is dedicated to Marek Winiarski and a great Slovenian writer Milan Dedleva.
CD version (incl. shipment cost world-wide)
Adding...