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Rating: After delighting in the (surprise) listening of this CD, I had the opportunity and pleasure to host Silvia Donati and her trusty trio in our "jazz bar" in Venice.
Silvia Donati, a 42-year-old singer from Bologna, is one of the most unconventional and "honest" voices in the Italian improvisational scene. Moreover, the trio that should accompany her, but fortunately, interacts and intertwines with the captivating spirals of the singer's unrestrained phrasing, is composed of musicians of fine caliber and infinite modesty: Alfonso Santimone, a daring and omnivorous pianist, Alessandro Fedrigo, an unpredictable, flexible, and sparing bassist, and the rich, jagged GianRanieri Bertoncini on drums.
Just take a look at the tracklist of the CD "Singin' in the Brain" to understand that we are not in the usual little world of American standards and no one here is trying to recreate Fitzgerald, or dissolve into whiskey jazz, refinedly vulgar and umbilical. Donati is beastly and primordial, in fact, when listening to the cover of "On Broadway," I immediately think of… Captain Beefheart. And that might be enough to convey what we are facing.
Her voice loves to lose itself in the irreparably disintegrated harmonies of "important" classics like "Invitation," as in the mysterious interpretations of "Sign o' the Times" by Prince or in the sorrows of a mad "Lonely Woman" by Ornette (lyrics by the singer), never so close to Pain and Resignation, sentiments adrift in the free magma of her followers. We are always a step away from crumbling and shipwreck, if it weren't for a faint light on the horizon.
Silvia Donati has a masculine and dark timbre and definitely unusual. Live, she is an animal ready for any madness and capable of channeling every suggestion of the band. And above all, she does something that rarely happens in jazz lately: she improvises.
Highly recommended CD…
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