14 May 2007

GIANCARLO SCHIAFFINI-AS A BIRD 1994


HI heres one of the great charlie parker tributes , by one of the pioneers of the italian avant guard, a founding member of the pioneering quartetto 'free jazz ' di roma , and one of the great interpreters of, berio, nono, and scelsi's music for solo tuba, and trombone.
this was released on penta flowers in 1994 and according to various scources including their current catalog, is out of print.
for me this is up there with george lewises hommage to charles parker on black saint.
thoughtful,and palpably joyous freebop, though also very ecclectic
passages of non idiomatic free improv
and italian folk influenced bop tunes.
heres a bio from all music ,followed by a review of the album( a bland one by steven loewry)
Biography by Francesco Martinelli
Born in Rome, where he still lives, trombonist Giancarlo Schiaffini graduated with a degree in Physics, but left scientific research for music. He's been a key figure in both Italian new music and the European improvised music scenes, playing with Evan Parker, Maarten Altena, Barry Guy, and recording with Andrea Centazzo and Lol Coxhill (Situations, New Tone, 2000), among others. Self-taught on the instrument, Schiaffini studied and earned degrees at Darmstadt, operating in the academic avant-garde realm with the improvising group Nuova Consonanza, and playing solo compositions by Berio and Scelsi. He's also the designated soloist for Luigi Nono's Prometheus, and is a conservatory teacher. On the more experimental side of his work, Schiaffini makes creative use of electronics, as documented on Edula (Pentaphon) and The Missing Chainring (Imprint, 2001), as well as in his textbook on contemporary trombone techniques. Yet Schiaffini does not renounce his jazz roots, which is equally evident in his improvisations, in his teaching activities for the Siena Jazz Courses, as well as in his original tributes to the music of Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, As a Bird and About Monk (Pentaflowers). The SIC Trio, with percussionist Iannaccone and saxophonist Eugenio Colombo, recorded several LPs in the '70s and a live CD at the 1994 Controindicazioni Festival in Rome (Passemmezzo, Splasc(h), 1996). With Dubs (ART-PURecords), Schiaffini introduced strings, Silvia Schiavoni's voice, and the traditional Iranian percussion of Mohsen Kasirossafar; while a meeting with the Peter Fraize Trio led to the invigorating free bop of Deconstruction! recorded live in Washington (Pentaflowers, 2001) with tunes by Monk and Ellington, and originals inspired by the music of Cuba, where he taught. Co-founder of the Instabile Orchestra, Schiaffini writes articulate, witty suites for the band, like Litania Sibilante (Enja, 2001).
Review by Steve Loewy
A classic of avant-garde Italian jazz, As a Bird uses the life and work of Charlie Parker as inspiration and diving board to produce a splendid set of eleven tracks. Trombonist Schiaffini, one of the seminal figures of the Italian free scene, wrote all the compositions, and is joined by an all-star crew. His work on trombone is characteristically rough and wild, incorporating a range of influences from Dixie to hardcore bop to 1960s freedom. Alto saxophonist Sandro Satta splendidly takes off where Bird left us, with some adventurous skydiving, and Alberto Mandarini reaches into his Don Cherry derby for some amazing gymnastics. Schiaffini's humor abounds; the Spanish titles result from the leader's recent visit to Cuba. The CD successfully captures the spirit of Bird without copying him or fawning his style.
VISIT SCHIAFFINI'S WEBSITE HERE
AND BY HIS RECORDS, THERE ARE SOME AVAILABLE ON SPLASCH, A ND GOOD ONES UNDER MARIO SCHIANOS NAME ON ATAVISTIC, AND SPLASCH
ALSO CHECK OUT THE ITALIAN INSTABILE ORCHESTRA RECORDS ON ENJA, AND LEO
enjoy!!
for some reason im having trouble paragraphing this post, sometimes it works some times not
a bug in bloggers programing?

7 comments:

centrifuge said...

paragraphing - you too, huh? copying and pasting from word worked for me in the end :)

only just grabbed this and now i have to make sure i find time to listen to it - i know fuck all about these italian guys but this sounds great... as good as homage to charles parker? that's gotta be pretty damn good...

SOTISE said...

YEAH ITS ODD,THAT THE PARAGRAPHING FAILS AT CRUCIAL MOMENTS ALTHOUGH ,I WAS FINDING THAT WHEN I PREVIEWED THE POSTS, EVERYTHING WAS NEATLY PARAGRAPHED.
THEN AS SOON AS YOU HIT PUBLISH...

AS FOR SCHIAFFINI ,ID BE INTERESTED IN WHAT YOU OR ANYONE THOUGHT OF IT AFTER A LISTEN.

I FIRST HEARD HIM ON SOME GREAT ICTUS RECORDS. ONE OF WHICH'MOOT'
HAS BEEN REISSUED, BY ANDREA CENTAZZO IN HIS 30TH ANNIVERSARY BOX
A SINGLECD OF MOOT, ALSO APPEARED BRIEFLY IN THE EARLY NINETIES
ITS GREAT AND I RECOMMEND IT , IT WAS A TRIO FEATURING, COXHILL AND CENTAZZO WITH SCHIAFFINI.

ALSO CHECK OUT THE ITALIAN INSTABILE ORCHESTRA RECORDS ON LEO AND ECM, AS WELL AS THE ONE THEY MADE BACKING CECIL'OWNER OF THE RIVER BANK'ON ENJA FROM A FEW YEARS AGO
SCHIAFFINI REALLY MAKES THOSE RECORDS, SPECIAL

centrifuge said...

he mec :)

just listening to this now... very high-end playing all right, reminds me of evan parker (et al) at times

you've clearly heard an awful lot more recordings than i have - at least in this field! and i don't suppose i will even "catch up" - but thanks for the recommendations. actually i did have a chance to hear (and record) the instab. orch a couple years ago, or maybe last year, when radio 3 played a set of theirs with matthew bourne... by this point my opinion opf bourne was worn down somewhat by the constant abuse he recevied on the r3 messageboard, and in the end i didn't bother to listen that week.

apparently i have to be in the right mood to appreciate this one - when i first pulled it (late at night) i just played the first track and loved it, then left it on one side for a few days and went back to it when i burned it to cd - and at that point i found it just didn't hold my attention, wasn't what i was looking for. but now it sounds really interesting again - so much so that i can now understand the comparisons with homage... because there is a lot of depth to the performances on this.

cheers for sharing, as they say :)

Anonymous said...

Fantastique because 1st i do love this guy and 2nd because this album is new to me. Many thanks!

maracujazz

brian said...

is ther a repost somewhere! please!

trabukko.59 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
trabukko.59 said...

NEW LINK CDrip -> FLAC :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JoSxN6aACp1sinle-MjwnMpe3ddN1RiW/view?usp=sharing