PERISCOPES + 1 - These Human Beings
Alfa Project AFPCD150
Emiliano Vernizzi: saxophones; Alessandro Sgobbio: piano; Nick Wight: drums.
This CD comes with endorsements from jazz legends Dave Liebman, who calls it a ‘great record’ with ‘wonderful music with a very diverse repertoire’, and Enrico Rava, who says that the music here goes beyond ‘the notes, rhythms and harmonies’ to a ‘physical pleasure of listening’. The spiky playing on this set echoes some of Liebman’s own playing, while the gentler, lighter playing has something of Rava’s tone (albeit on saxophone).
Vernizzi is Professor of Jazz Saxophone at Parma’s Conservatorio di Musica so one might expect the composition and playing on this set to have a rather dry flavour of the academy. In contrast, as an award winning exponent of the saxophone in his native Italy, his playing has a warmth and richness that is continually at odds with the more cerebral. So, in his playing Vernizzi has an ongoing argument between pushing interesting, oblique tonal developments and playing emotionally beguiling tunes. This ongoing argument, between the cerebral and the emotional, is aided and abetted by the piano playing of Sgobbio, who provides a rich counterpoint to the saxophone, often with a rolling, rumbling passion that pushes Vernizzi’s playing.
The CD cover has images of the Manhattan project tests of the atomic bomb in Nevada; the front cover shows researchers sitting in deck-chairs wearing sunglasses and waiting for the explosion, the inner cover has mannequins in the houses used to test blast damage and the mushroom cloud, while the back cover has the camera crews filming the explosion. Having said this, there is nothing in the music (either the titles or the music itself) to suggest a meditation on nuclear weapons. Even the poem that is earnestly intoned over closing track has no mention of this, although the piece ends with the lines ‘It’s a crazy, changing, crazy, changing world.’
The ‘+ 1’ of the band’s name is the addition of Wight on drums. Wight provides a solid ticking pulse to the pieces, with cymbals picking up and emphasising the phrases that Vernizzi plays. The mix of drums and the low notes of Sgobbio’s playing maintain an insistent and steady beat through each of the pieces. The unity of the trio, even when the rhythm becomes most disrupted, is crisp and clean. In closing, I will just quote the last line of Liebman’s endorsement on the CD cover, ‘These guys have a history to be sure’.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Alfa Project AFPCD150
Emiliano Vernizzi: saxophones; Alessandro Sgobbio: piano; Nick Wight: drums.
This CD comes with endorsements from jazz legends Dave Liebman, who calls it a ‘great record’ with ‘wonderful music with a very diverse repertoire’, and Enrico Rava, who says that the music here goes beyond ‘the notes, rhythms and harmonies’ to a ‘physical pleasure of listening’. The spiky playing on this set echoes some of Liebman’s own playing, while the gentler, lighter playing has something of Rava’s tone (albeit on saxophone).
Vernizzi is Professor of Jazz Saxophone at Parma’s Conservatorio di Musica so one might expect the composition and playing on this set to have a rather dry flavour of the academy. In contrast, as an award winning exponent of the saxophone in his native Italy, his playing has a warmth and richness that is continually at odds with the more cerebral. So, in his playing Vernizzi has an ongoing argument between pushing interesting, oblique tonal developments and playing emotionally beguiling tunes. This ongoing argument, between the cerebral and the emotional, is aided and abetted by the piano playing of Sgobbio, who provides a rich counterpoint to the saxophone, often with a rolling, rumbling passion that pushes Vernizzi’s playing.
The CD cover has images of the Manhattan project tests of the atomic bomb in Nevada; the front cover shows researchers sitting in deck-chairs wearing sunglasses and waiting for the explosion, the inner cover has mannequins in the houses used to test blast damage and the mushroom cloud, while the back cover has the camera crews filming the explosion. Having said this, there is nothing in the music (either the titles or the music itself) to suggest a meditation on nuclear weapons. Even the poem that is earnestly intoned over closing track has no mention of this, although the piece ends with the lines ‘It’s a crazy, changing, crazy, changing world.’
The ‘+ 1’ of the band’s name is the addition of Wight on drums. Wight provides a solid ticking pulse to the pieces, with cymbals picking up and emphasising the phrases that Vernizzi plays. The mix of drums and the low notes of Sgobbio’s playing maintain an insistent and steady beat through each of the pieces. The unity of the trio, even when the rhythm becomes most disrupted, is crisp and clean. In closing, I will just quote the last line of Liebman’s endorsement on the CD cover, ‘These guys have a history to be sure’.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
