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Rating: Pragmatic and "American," seemingly normal and already familiar in its warm sound, sometimes reminiscent of certain late seventies albums from Galaxy, with warm and glossy sounds, the second work of the trio Sultry, led by Zeno De Rossi, truly confirms the bold and fresh wave proposed by the independent label "El Gallo Rojo."
Alongside the Veronese drummer, we have Stefano Senni on double bass (the "faithful" Senni, De Rossi's frequent playmate, as often as Danilo Gallo) and Chris Speed, about whom there's little to say except that he is one of the greatest American musicians of our time, with balanced and personal writing, seemingly calm but actually deep and sharp, "zen." The trio is accompanied by the acidic and frugal keyboard work of Anthony Coleman (a rummager of second-class Hammond modernities) and the guitar of Enrico Terragnoli, who, on his instrument, appears splendidly unique and alone in Italy.
Indeed, "Plunge" seems to not add anything new to the careers of these artists; however, it's the shift in compositions that indicates a bold display of confidence and clarity of ideas, daydreaming between sunny Tex-Mex plains and cities congested with exhaust pipes, whose smog gifts mocking iridescent sunsets. Recorded at 'Good and Evil,' between Brooklyn and New York with additions at Artesuono by Stefano Amerio in Cavalicco (UD), at Terragnoli's and De Rossi's homes, "Plunge" boasts a rich variety, always torrid, of soundscapes. It opens with Plunge (Speed), an almost-boogaloo brisk and "standard" as in certain late 60s blue note, followed by an opening very close to Coltranesque languors in Crescent style that introduce a Jewish rhumba (Tina, by De Rossi) where Coleman uncovers the presets of old fairground organs.
"The Daniel Quinn theme" is what one might call a pretext theme to play fast, sullied by Terragnoli's scorching guitar; the swing falters at the beginning of the improvisations in a collective free until Speed's hoarse tenor sound takes the reins. The taste for the forgotten, the marginal even of known names, leads De Rossi & c. to seek out and find tracks like "Audio Bongo" by Monty Norman (from the first Bond) and "Fuyiama" by Dave Brubeck, where Speed's clarinet with its tubular sound personally recalls John La Porta or Hal McKusick, as in De Rossi's "Zakaz", chased by Coleman's sparkling Rhodes. Speed's bouncing bajon, "Freezy", tempers the hoarse sax over a brief solo by De Rossi. Petunia could be a twist danced by some buxom Meyer starlet in a seedy Tijuana joint, with a few too many Coronas and a car kicking up dirt from the adjacent unpaved road. "Singer" is a Yiddish ceremony that follows an introduction for Hammond and clarinet with a Sabbathian/Morriconian climb, a slow showdown of solitary men, Leone faces encrusted with time. Stefano Senni writes "Ida y vuelta", the most Tex-Mex episode of the CD, with an antiphonal theme and collective improvisation.
"Abracadabra" is a fast Disney-like zigzag that frames the voices of Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak, taken from the film "The Man with the Golden Arm." With "Christo Redentor" by Duke Pearson (taken from the "sacred" blue note repertoire) of Donald Byrd, the piece itself reaches a purely rock ascensional dimension, with Speed's tenor as the lead Stratocaster. It's only the theme, faded out, that suggests it could continue forever. A classic conclusion worthy of certain rock concept albums.
In conclusion, "Plunge" is an album very sure of itself, brazenly modern and edgy and very cosmopolitan, absolutely American in its qualities without appearing as a transplant operation.
ZENO DE ROSSI SULTRY; "PLUNGE" (El gallo rojo records, 2005)
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