SKETCHES OF MEMORIES THE BEST SONGS OF OUR LIFE

SKETCHES OF MEMORIES THE BEST SONGS OF OUR LIFE (CVLD210)

Original compositions by F. S. Key, J. Van Heusen-J. Burke, J. Styne-L. Robin, B. Dylan, S. Mc Kenzie, J. Phillips-M. Phillips, M. Jagger-K. Richards, G. Paoli, P. Simon, E. Bennato, A. C. Jobim, Quilapayùn-S. Ortega, D. Gilmour-R. Waters, G. Marzorati.

Tracks

01 - Music For Play for plectrum orchestra-Allegro
02 - Music For Play for plectrum orchestra-Canzone
03 - Music For Play for plectrum orchestra-Ritmico
04 - Ceciliana, 10 variations on a theme by Max Roach for plectrum quintet
05 - Improvviso, -Ad Alessandro-, for solo guitar
06 - Requiem-aprilemillenovecentoottantadueadErika
07 - Preludio e Fuga for plectrum orchestra-Preludio
08 - Preludio e Fuga for plectrum orchestra-Fuga
09 - Jazz, Pop, Rock-I promenade - Mambo
10 - Jazz, Pop, Rock-II promenade - Blues
11 - Jazz, Pop, Rock-III promenade - Stomp
12 - Tiperatatupeti, 5 variations on the Italian children's song for plectrum quintet
13 - Fabulus, concerto for flute and plectrum orchestra-Merlino, allegro
14 - Fabulus, concerto for flute and plectrum orchestra-Morgana, lentamente
15 - Fabulus, concerto for flute and plectrum orchestra-Gnomus, allegro

Featuring: Cheryl Porter, Massimo Salvagnini Quartet & Stefano Riva, Nina & Marco Strano, Mideando String Quartet, Enrico Santacatterina, Melting Pop & Emilia Vecchi, Four Fried Fish, Nina & Villa el Salvador, Sax Four Fun & Cristina Sartori, Paola Casula & Alessandro Mozzi, Ninni Arini, Tatiana Maria Meira de Aguiar & Alberto Boischio, Alejandro Martinez & Maurizio Scomparin, Fabiana Martone & Fabio Ranghiero, Guido Marzorati.

This is a live-in-studio recording, using vintage instruments from Sixties and Seventies: so it will not be strange, if you will listen to anykind of “isss” or “uhmmm” from Marshall or Fender tube amplifier, or “natural distortion” from Leslie amplifier of original Hammond B3…
Each recording has been appropriately realized, on original arrangement ad hoc, by Marco Lincetto at the Magister Area Studios in Preganziol (with the exception of “El pueblo...”, recorded by Alejandro Martinez in his own studio in Padua), using 24bit/88.2kHz digital recorder; and Marco Lincetto also have mixed and mastered each piece of this CD.

The choice and sequence of the songs presented in this album is seemingly without a common musical thread. The other title of the project, until very recently, was "Il Posto delle Fragole" (Strawberry Fields): in fact, the meaning of this collection should be sought in a unifying motif different from the music itself: namely, in myself, who conceived it and who, in this Anno Domini 2011, turns fifty years old. This album was not even meant to be published originally, as it was my personal gift to myself for my fiftieth birthday; but then my collaborators suggested that probably many other people, my peers and others, could identify with and derive satisfaction from a publication of this material, and so it was decided to include it in the now extensive Velut Luna catalog.

For important anniversaries – and "50" years undoubtedly is one – some people give themselves a precious object, a big party, or an epic journey. I decided to give myself a journey through memory, by reinterpreting those musical pieces that contributed to my formation, in the broadest sense of the term. These are mostly the songs I listened to between the ages of 15 and 20. And it must be said that I was quite an eclectic kid: in those years I was studying clarinet, due to my passion for American swing music of the 1940s, and Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller were my heroes (and so here’s "Polka dots and moonbeams"). Those were the 70s, but I had grown up very close to a person, my aunt, just a little "older" than me, who had been a teenager in the late 60s, and who had somehow left a very strong "imprinting" of the culture of the splendid "season of love" on me. And so, here are some of the iconic songs of that legendary era: "Like a Rolling Stone," "San Francisco," "California Dreaming," "The Sounds of Silence," "Jumping Jack Flash."

Another unhealthy passion of those years was the very moody poetic spirit of the Italian singer-songwriters of the so-called "Genoese school," of which Gino Paoli was undoubtedly the main standard-bearer. And so, two of his iconic songs could not be missing: "Sapore di sale" and "Senza Fine."

Every self-respecting teenager ends up falling in love, more or less platonically, with a movie star (today perhaps young people fall in love with TV "showgirls"... but that's another story, and another era...): and it happened to me too. And I must say I treated myself well, given that the object of my desire was, from the beginning, an authentic icon of glamour and feminine charm of all time, the unforgettable Marilyn Monroe. And "Bye, Bye, Baby" I think represents her best.

But then, the "contemporary" reality of my adolescence, i.e., the mid-70s, could not but be fixed in the great English rock – here represented by the splendid and poignant "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd – and in the great ideals of rebellion and freedom, of which a people, the Chilean one, and a group, Inti Illimani, became symbols: "El pueblo unido jamas serà vencido," was sung in the squares, by everyone, with their left fist raised, wearing Eskimo coats and Clarks. And finally, in the singer-songwriters of my generation, whom I have decided to represent here with the one I felt most akin to: Edoardo Bennato, with his masterpiece "Un giorno credi," from his first album.

The end of adolescence and the entry into adulthood, in the early 80s, and thus the end of my little story that I decided to tell with this album, coincided with the discovery of an entire musical world "alternative" for me, including "ethnic" music. And so, explosively, Brazil, with bossa nova, represented here by one of its iconic songs, the splendid "Aguas de março" by Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Finally, a separate discussion for the two songs that respectively open and close the album: "Stars Spangled Banner," the national anthem of the United States of America, and "Journey of Hope" by Guido Marzorati. Paraphrasing a fragment of the famous prologue of Woody Allen's film Manhattan, I can say with thinly veiled pride: "I love America and I always have." My life, more and more, with each passing year, can be considered a long interval between one trip to the USA and the next. The "Journey of Hope," sung by Guido Marzorati, completes the concept expressed by my love for America and its ideals: and it is the projection into the future, in the constant hope and conviction, of a better world.

Marco Lincetto