FOUR STORIES

Roberto Gatto Quartet

Available in: SACD, DSD, Hi-Res Audio

Track list:

1. Kool Mary Lou Williams 6’11”
2. The Music Next Door Roberto Gatto 4’46”
3. Il valzer della fonderia Alessandro Presti 4’50”
4. Salon Malaga Matteo Bortone 5’45”
5. Four Stories Roberto Gatto 6’24”
6. Cherry Song Alessandro Presti 5’41”
7. Waver Alessandro Lanzoni 5’25”
8. Monaco-Palermo Alessandro Presti 5’36”
9. Victoria Regia Matteo Bortone 4’09”
10. Gardenia Gary Peacock 3’23”       

Notes

Roberto Gatto Quartet
Alessandro Presti trumpet
Matteo Bortone double bass
Alessandro Lanzoni piano
Roberto Gatto drums

Conceived, recorded and produced by Giulio Cesare Ricci
No editing. All the tracks on this record are heard as they were performed.

This album is part of the recordings Giulio Cesare made during the concerts of the fonè Music Festival Piaggio 2023 edition, which he himself organized. The chosen location is the Piaggio Auditorium inside the famous Museum of Pontedera, the place where Piaggio was born and where it still produces today. The protagonists of FOUR STORIES are 4 great musicians with an extraordinary leader, Roberto Gatto, the greatest Italian jazz drummer, accompanied by Alessandro Presti on trumpet, Matteo Bortone on double bass, and Alessandro Lanzoni on piano. Roberto Gatto has played throughout Europe and the rest of the world with his groups and with international artists. The groups bearing his name are characterized, in addition to an interesting timbral research and impeccable performing technique, by a great warmth typical of Mediterranean culture. This certainly makes Roberto Gatto one of the most interesting drummers and composers in Europe and worldwide. Among the pieces played, many were composed by the artists themselves: The Music next door by R. Gatto, Il valzer della fonderia by A. Presti, Waver by A. Lanzoni, and Victoria Regia by M. Bortone. The album is completed by two very special pieces by Mary Lou Williams and Gary Peacock. For this recording, Giulio Cesare Ricci brought all his equipment, both analog (Ampex ATR 102 Electronic Tube Ampex Model 351-1965, 2 tracks, ½”, 30ips modified by David Manley) and digital (Pyramix Recorder, dCS A/D and D/A converters). Regarding microphones, he used his original collection of Neumann U47, U48, M49, as well as the Signoricci microphone preamplifier and cables. Pairs of Neumann tube microphones from 1947 and 1949 (U47, U48, and M49) with a very natural timbre were used, employing bi-microphone field effect techniques. These microphones have an important history: they are, in fact, the original microphones used to record, among others, the Beatles' performances at Abbey Road Studio and by RCA for "Living Stereo" recordings. The sound that Giulio Cesare Ricci manages to capture with these legendary microphones is perfectly in line with his sonic taste. No other microphone has such a true timbre and the ability to record all the nuances of sound and all the richness of harmonics. The uniqueness of these microphones is linked to their ability to perform a perfect "sonic photograph" and to perfectly place the music in the sound space chosen for the recording. This is because for each recording, Giulio Cesare Ricci creates two Masters: an analog master for vinyl and a DSD digital master for SuperAudioCD, as in this case. For this SACD, he used the DSD format, on Pyramix using dCS A/D and D/A DSD converters. From 1998 to today, he has recorded in DSD 64 x 44.1 bit with Signoricci ex Philips workstations equipped with Pyramix programs, dCS 904 analog-to-digital converters, and dCS 954 digital-to-analog converters, all to best realize the fonè SACD. The SACD mastering was done using the entirely analog and tube Signoricci system. A "state-of-the-art" system without sound manipulation, equalization, reverberation, compression, and expansion... but natural sound and true timbre to best enhance the acoustics of the Piaggio Museum Auditorium. All this to create recordings characterized by technological sophistication and aimed at recovering the original musical atmospheres. For this recording, Ricci also used the "field effect" recording technique... all this to allow the listener, in their home hi-fi system, to relive the live effect as if they had been present at the performance.