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Pere e cioccolato

"Pears and Chocolate": a small delight made of pears, chocolate, and other exquisite high-pastry ingredients, where the most suitable spices seem to be piano, voice, clarinet, sax, accordion, guitar, and cello, all filled with texts written by Paola Donzella (also on vocals), ironic, sweet, and sensual, making this 2009 album a delicacy for true connoisseurs. An album that mixes different influences, from jazz to classical music, and manages to revive, in a fresh and modern way, the refined atmosphere of the thirties.

A journey that conveys lightness with "Mondo storto", passion and charm with "Dentro un tango", an engaging and pressing grit with "Un italiano a Parigi", while the sweetly tender "Dove sei" slips away lightly. There are also nods to Paola's homeland, the splendid Sicily, with "Fiori di notte", sometimes melancholic and sunlit: "Sento già il canto della mia città / l'orgoglio delle donne belle e in piena dignità / del tempo che è passato ormai nei vicoli assolati e poi / nei giorni di felicità a due passi dal mio mar". No drop in quality, no drop in attention, not even when the atmospheres become more intimate and subdued with the ethereal "Neve" and the magical "Incanto".

The closure is fittingly entrusted to the cover of "Berceuse Insomniaque" by the Paris Combo, made enchanting by Donzella's velvety, almost fairy-tale-like voice. Creativity, technique, imagination, lively swing! These are the winning ingredients of a truly classy album! If these few lines have tickled your imagination... well, all that's left is to savor it!