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Rating: But how beautiful can Italian jazz be, especially when it elegantly exudes its Italian essence in the midst of the beautiful American colonization, experienced without fear, without scruples, without shame or complexes, but only with a joyful desire to have fun and play? Yes, because Italian jazz, unlike other European jazz (the icy and brilliant one from the north, the noble and slightly snobbish, albeit perfect, French one, etc...) has that sly, carefree, and entirely high air of the younger brother, the one that imitates the older but often proves to have more guts than his sibling. And today, if we don't want to say superior, we can certainly maintain that our jazz and our jazz musicians have absolutely nothing to envy in those from across the ocean.
It's not a sustainable position for so-called "classic jazz" (no doubt about it): we haven't had a Lester Young first and a Coltrane later, nor an Art Tatum or a Keith Jarrett. But today is today, and we can proudly say that Bollani, Coscia, Rea, Rava, and Fresu (and many others, perhaps ignored or unjustly considered minor), have very few rivals even on that larger and more famous side. And above all, they have very few rivals when they move on that beautiful boundary terrain which is the meeting of the two cultures: that straightforward jazz/swing culture, predominantly blues-oriented, North American, and that of the Italian song (historical or singer-songwriter).
Renato Sellani is an "ancient" pianist in the Italian scene: he's always done jazz, and always with that appearance of a friendly and seemingly silent gentleman, who bows to that piano which, after a few notes, bows to him. He's played with everyone a bit (the recordings with Chet Baker in Milan in the sixties are famous and beautiful), he knows and pays homage to the world of singer-songwriters (he has dedicated beautiful albums to Battisti, Lauzi, Paoli) and venerates the classic Italian song, the one that has been whistled by quite a few generations for many decades. He has already expressed himself sublimely on this song with the beautiful Radio Days recorded together with Enrico Rava, which I mentioned a while ago, and some tributes to classic Italian songs are also found in this beautiful live album. Gianni Coscia, with his good and suspicious grin, typical of the Alessandrian mandrogno's mug, has been bringing his accordion everywhere and with everyone for many years, but always at the highest levels.
For the precedent of this project, one must go back to the antiquity of our recording history, namely the (unfindable) recordings of the Semprini (piano) Kramer (accordion) duo. But in between, there has been so much America, so much Italy, and so much musical, harmonic, social, political development, etc., and the music cannot help but be influenced by the atmosphere around it. And so the Italian/American repertoire that we can listen to here ranges from the most absolute and enjoyable lyricism to the phrases and "fugues" typical of overseas lands, from the purest swing to the most spontaneous improvisation. Some American classics Italianized in the title ("Dolce Giorgia marrone") to others respected even in the title ("My funny Valentine"), in addition to the classic Italians ("Non dimenticar le mie parole" and "Amore baciami"). All recorded in two evenings, in Cattolica and Spello.
An album perhaps a bit difficult to find, but well worth the search and richly rewarding.
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