Fabrizio Bosso
You've Changed

About a year ago, Fabrizio Bosso lost his Monette on a subway train in Rome, to which he was deeply attached. In the case, there were also photos and various personal effects. The case of an instrument says a lot about an artist and their life made up of meetings, evenings, satisfactions, and disappointments. A historical memory on which to mark the various seasons. A Jazz musician’s trumpet lost in the Eternal City. Very poetic and inspired. It only lacks Massimo Urbani’s Carbonara, and there’s all the rustic poetry of our homeland with which I identify our Jazz; which also passes through food and these suggestions.

How much a musician is attached to their instrument is obvious. Instruments can be repurchased, obviously, but the feeling created over years and years with an instrument cannot be. That, no. Brian May still plays with the famous guitar he built with his father, and I don't think he lacked the money for another guitar (...) Especially for a wind instrument musician, I believe the attachment is more deeply felt, because as someone dear to me once said: “In a wind instrument, you put your soul, your breath, something that comes from within. You don't just put muscles and tendons like with other instruments. Tendons and muscles do become a means, but first of all, you put in what you have inside.” Obviously, every musician feels their instrument: whether it’s a guitar, piano, or percussion, it makes no difference, but the story of breath and the soul that directly reaches a wind instrument has always been a very particular suggestion for me.

The metallic blue case was found, the trumpet was there, and the photos too. Finally, Bosso's memory and sentiment had returned to play their rightful role in the life of the Turinese trumpeter. Bosso has lent his trumpet to an infinity of projects in our Jazz world over the past 15 years, thus becoming the leading trumpeter of the Italian scene; taking up proposals not strictly Jazz but very related: you acquire a Nicola Conte and his suggestive lounge atmospheres? There’s Bosso. You acquire the dean of our saxophonists, that is Gianni Basso? There’s Bosso, and if you acquire that of the pianists, that is Sellani? There is, there is, Bosso. You acquire a sophisticated Cammariere? There’s Bosso. You acquire a delicious Blue Napoli production on Jazz and Classic Neapolitan Song? There’s Bosso. You acquire a Mario Biondi who makes such refined trends? There’s Bosso at the head of the High Five.

Finally, an album in his name: year 2007, "You’ve Changed". A very ambitious album, born from the magnificent desire to return to the profound richness born from the meeting of strings and Jazz. A noble union that has given so much satisfaction behind the scenes to many arrangers and which has made the artistic and economic fortune of many Crooners of the golden age; first of all, obviously Frank, but which boasts illustrious precedents also in a purely Jazz context as in the case of Chet, a true conceptual point of reference for Bosso of "You’ve Changed".

Paolo Fresu, another who has made expressiveness one of his best points, speaks very heartfelt words of praise towards Bosso, from the Parisian winter of that January 2007, which anticipated the album’s release by a few months. Highlighting the harmonies, the lyricism, the depth, the poetry of the notes. Elements that sound each time loaded with tedious rhetoric, as a matter of circumstance, like a broken record, but which take shape every time these elements are paired with the musician of the moment, leaving little room for words and much, everything, for the music.

In this journey, Fabrizio surrounds himself with a handful of loyal followers, like Luca Bulgarelli on double bass, Pietro Lussu on piano, and Lorenzo Tucci on drums, splendid travel companions. The other half of the apple. An album that touches on various strings, and this is its peculiarity: it touches happy strings, melancholic strings, reflective strings, strings that are tinged with depth in every case and in every subtle nuance. The ghost of Chet, that of the splendid “With Fifty Italian Strings”, accompanies Ours in “The Nearness of You”. I didn’t think anyone could give equal intensity to the strings of the Love Theme from Nuovo Cinema Paradiso like in the original version written by Andrea Morricone, yet Paolo Silvestri, to whom much of the credit for the success of this album is due, achieved it.

The guests bring luster to Bosso and his trumpet: a voice of unique and sensual charm like that of Dianne Reeves, the epitome of Jazz Ladies, manages to bring to life harmoniously with Bosso’s trumpet a poetry in music, “You’ve Changed”. Stefano Di Battista will lend himself to a spectacular and timeless “Senza Fine” by Paoli and to a “Joyful Day” of springtime aperitif and written by Bosso himself. Cammariere returns the favor and takes place behind the piano and the microphone, giving life to a memorable “Estate” by Bruno Martino and to his night-clad “Per Ricordarmi di Te”, and the trumpet and the strings were tinged with noir. Pieces that serve as meeting points for souls a little so and a little restless.

The Sardinian guitarist Bebo Ferra is also called to order, ready to give soft arpeggios in a delicate exotic ballad like “Rio de Majo”, and swing to the famous “Summer Samba” made famous by Walter Wanderley. How not to say a few words on the sensational version of “Georgia on My Mind”, or on the instrumental version of “You’ve Changed” that closes the album. Little to say in this ending: if you love strings and Jazz, make it yours without thinking twice.

Bosso is an absolute guarantee.

A bit like the Midas King of Italian Jazz.