GUARDA AVANTI - Sax Four Fun

GUARDA AVANTI (CVLD031)

Sax Four Fun

1 - Dolofunky * 2’52” Fiorenzo Zeni
solos: Stefano, Fiorenzo
2 - Guarda avanti * 5’03” Fiorenzo Zeni
solo: Fiorenzo, Stefano
3 - Il senso di Smilla per le note * 4’49” William Tononi
solo: Stefano
4 - Stort Blues * 4’55” William Tononi
solos: Stefano, Fiorenzo
5 - Oasi°© 4’29” Pepito Ros
solo: Pepito
6 - Sax Four Fun° 3’44” Fiorenzo Zeni
solos: Pepito, Fiorenzo
7 - About you°© 5’19” Pepito Ros
solo: Pepito
8 - Latin Street°°© 4’53” Pepito Ros
solo: Fiorenzo
9 - Reactionary Tango * 4’21” Carla Bley / arr.Hans Tutzer
solo: Stefano
10 - Hard Times * 4’30” Paul F.Mitchell / arr.Hans Tutzer
solos: Stefano, Fiorenzo, Hans
11 - Abbamele°°° 4’52” Paolo Fresu / arr. Hans Tutzer
solo: Fiorenzo
12 - Mo Better Blues * 5’23” Bill Lee / arr.Giorgio Beberi
intro e solos: Stefano, Fiorenzo
Total time 55’16”

Stefano Menato, soprano-alto

Hanz Tutzer, alto

Fiorenzo Zeni, tenor

Giorgio Beberi, banitone

Pepito Ros, soprano-alto

* Stefano, Hans, Fiorenzo, Giorgio

° Pepito, Hans, Fiorenzo, Giorgio

°° Pepito, Stefano, Fiorenzo, Giorgio

°°° Stefano, Pepito, Hans, Fiorenzo, Giorgio

This recording was made at Teatro Comunale Polivalente, Abano Terme, Italy, on July 13 - 14, 1999, using the ultimate and the most advanced digital tecnology based upon 24Bit / 96Khz Analog to Digital Converter PRISM SOUND DREAM AD2.
Marco Lincetto used only a stereo pair omnidirectional mikes (SCHOEPS MK2s).

Production: VELUT LUNA
Executive Producer: Marco Lincetto
Recording & mastering engineer: Marco Lincetto
Artistic Direction: Sax Four Fun / Marco Lincetto
Editing engineer: Fabio Framba on SONIC SOLUTION 24/96 Workstation
Photo: Ilenco Tracmot
Critical notes: Vittorio Albani
Layout: Limage

 
Sax Four Fun # Guarda avanti
The title of the second recorded work by Sax Four Fun is by itself a programmatic declaration. Guarda avanti (Look ahead)
can, as a matter of fact, be clearly seen
as an answer to the detractors of the “all
saxophones” sets, according to whom, after
World Saxophone Quartet and 29th Street
Saxophone Quartet, no further virtuoso news are possible. Instead, a second and more intelligent analysis presses for spontaneity as well as for a reflection about a project, which indeed, has much to say. And as it is, looking ahead, respecting musicians at the height of Murray, Hemphill, Lake, Bluiett, Purcell, Watson, Jackson, Rothenberg, Hartog and other “sacred monsters”, that the quartet (or quintet when Pepito Ros’ soprano
or contralto joins in) chooses modern and
“creatively correct” phrasings, rich in the
originality obviously lacking to the other
celebrated emulators of the mentioned
sax Bible. By “looking ahead” and at the
same time by going through well-known
territories as the one of the great sea of
blues, the formation roots its own research
in the entire range of the family of reeds,
analytically boring traditional polyphony, still in the absence of a “historical” rhythmic, capable of finding useful deliberate solutions. A collage in which irony and seriousness are able to combine in efficacious rills of the imagination and that – at the end – forge new kaleidoscopic structures to be openly enjoyed. The architecture of the twelve texts in this cd is, by certain aspects, highly nonconventional, ready to play willingly in order to create funk exactly when it seems the world rows against it (Dolo Funky); in the
improbable Stort Blues “stolen” to Guido
Bombardieri’s ensemble and delightedly
arranged by the guitarist William Tononi from Brescia; in the 6/8 of Oasi where Pepito Ros doubles his credentials in unison with the marvelous following ballad About you, in the homonymous Sax Four Fun by Fiorenzo Zeni, by now new “signature tune” of the group, fitting well with the many “walking tunes” of the already cited groups, such as Murray and Watson, in the “joke” of a “perfect blues” becoming such only in a second moment (Hard Times); in the performance of one of the great modern ironical masterpieces by Carla Bley (Reactionary Tango); or, finally, in the wonderful Abbamele by Paolo Fresu with whom – by the way – the group has begun a new all to be lived collaboration, finding the trumpet player from Sardinia in full tuning with the evolutions of a combo capable of mediating – with inborn enlightening – the geometries of the score with the urgencies of the improvisation. The “live recording”, well assembled by Marco Lincetto for the courageous Velut Luna, ennobles the concept: the time when jazz was merely “stuff for Americans” has definitely ended.
Vittorio Albani