LUCA ALEMANNO - I Can See Home From Here
Workin' Label
Luca Alemanno - bass; Miguel Zenon - alto saxophone; Simon Moullier - vibraphone; Jon Hatamiya - trombone; Isaac Wilson - piano; Jongkuk Kim - drums
Italian by birth and initial musical training, but now based in New York, Luca Alemanno is emerging as a member of a long tradition of bass playing bandleaders. Think Charlie Mingus, Charlie Haden, Eberhardt Weber. On this new album, Alemanno makes a strong bid to sit at the top table.
Although it's number 6 on the tracklist, Alemanno's solo take on Hoagy Charmichael's classic Stardust might be the best way of starting to appreciate his sheer musicality. I think it's the phrasing that does it, the way that he works around the familiar refrain in a way that is more structural than decorative, creating a new soundscape which connects familiar falling cadences (dreaming of a song…, I am once again with you… ) with swirls and clusters of unexpected but elegantly persuasice chord sequences.
This musicality is present throughout the other 7 original compositions on the album. With an international lineup (France, the US, Puerto Rico, and South Korea) or strong individual players, Alemanno's presence is discretely there throughout. It provides a foil to Miguel Zenon's sax on the opening track, One of a kind, and is a strong presence in the opening trombone / bass duet of I can see home from here, and the gently swinging An ocean between where Simon Moullier's virtuoso vibraphone solo is a standout.
There are one or two moments when I worried that a rootless blandness might set in – the trombone opening on The chance not taken made me long for the kind of edge that Gianluca Petrella can get from the instrument. However, on the same track, Isaac Wilson's beautifully shaped piano solo lifted the song and Hatamiya's second trombone solo was inventive and engaging. Sometimes you just have to wait for things to warm up.
And so the rest of the album goes. Anew rocks along in a Gary Burtonish way, with lovely tight ensemble work from the sextet, while Flames and ashes starts reflectively with bowed double bass, but then drives along with a free energy that reminded me (somehow) of Weather Report and Kryzsztof Komeda's Astigmatic! This pace is maintained through the final track, Ever-evolving you which features a great duet between vibraphone and sax. If Alemanno continues to evolve along these lines, he is an artist we will be hearing more of.
Reviewed by Chris Tribble
Workin' Label
Luca Alemanno - bass; Miguel Zenon - alto saxophone; Simon Moullier - vibraphone; Jon Hatamiya - trombone; Isaac Wilson - piano; Jongkuk Kim - drums
Italian by birth and initial musical training, but now based in New York, Luca Alemanno is emerging as a member of a long tradition of bass playing bandleaders. Think Charlie Mingus, Charlie Haden, Eberhardt Weber. On this new album, Alemanno makes a strong bid to sit at the top table.
Although it's number 6 on the tracklist, Alemanno's solo take on Hoagy Charmichael's classic Stardust might be the best way of starting to appreciate his sheer musicality. I think it's the phrasing that does it, the way that he works around the familiar refrain in a way that is more structural than decorative, creating a new soundscape which connects familiar falling cadences (dreaming of a song…, I am once again with you… ) with swirls and clusters of unexpected but elegantly persuasice chord sequences.
This musicality is present throughout the other 7 original compositions on the album. With an international lineup (France, the US, Puerto Rico, and South Korea) or strong individual players, Alemanno's presence is discretely there throughout. It provides a foil to Miguel Zenon's sax on the opening track, One of a kind, and is a strong presence in the opening trombone / bass duet of I can see home from here, and the gently swinging An ocean between where Simon Moullier's virtuoso vibraphone solo is a standout.
There are one or two moments when I worried that a rootless blandness might set in – the trombone opening on The chance not taken made me long for the kind of edge that Gianluca Petrella can get from the instrument. However, on the same track, Isaac Wilson's beautifully shaped piano solo lifted the song and Hatamiya's second trombone solo was inventive and engaging. Sometimes you just have to wait for things to warm up.
And so the rest of the album goes. Anew rocks along in a Gary Burtonish way, with lovely tight ensemble work from the sextet, while Flames and ashes starts reflectively with bowed double bass, but then drives along with a free energy that reminded me (somehow) of Weather Report and Kryzsztof Komeda's Astigmatic! This pace is maintained through the final track, Ever-evolving you which features a great duet between vibraphone and sax. If Alemanno continues to evolve along these lines, he is an artist we will be hearing more of.
Reviewed by Chris Tribble
