STEFANO MALTESE / ALEX MAGUIRE - Sun and Fire
Labirinti Sonori Records CD LS 023
Stefano Maltese, soprano, alto, tenor saxes, flute; Alex Maguire, piano
Recorded at Sonoria Studio, Scordia, Italy, July 23rd 2018
The CD cover tells us that tracks 10 and 11 are composed, the rest are ‘instant compositions’ by which one may assume free jazz or improv.
Maltese gathered together 10 musicians to record his composition Hanging in the Sky and several of them hung around to form the Instabile Orchestra, an experimental big-band. His effort was the first in Italy to bring together avant-garde musicians from all over Italy and later he was to repeat his experiment with musicians from all over the world. He has always followed his own nose, exploring different channels of performance as well as issues between composition and improvisation.
Alex Maguire plays piano with unequivocal style, due no doubt to his wide-ranging interest in music of very different genres and performance styles. His history includes learning from and playing with diverse inputs from such as John Cage, Elton Dean, Eric Dolphy, Louis Moholo, Evan Parker, Howard Riley and Cecil Taylor.
Full of fire and artistic inspiration, the discourse is unbroken throughout these pieces, but neither musician trips over a word or phrase and enunciation is perfectly balanced throughout. There is a soft concentration, yet both are fluid in their impassioned moments of high flying, energetic playing. A quite incomparable album.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Labirinti Sonori Records CD LS 023
Stefano Maltese, soprano, alto, tenor saxes, flute; Alex Maguire, piano
Recorded at Sonoria Studio, Scordia, Italy, July 23rd 2018
The CD cover tells us that tracks 10 and 11 are composed, the rest are ‘instant compositions’ by which one may assume free jazz or improv.
Maltese gathered together 10 musicians to record his composition Hanging in the Sky and several of them hung around to form the Instabile Orchestra, an experimental big-band. His effort was the first in Italy to bring together avant-garde musicians from all over Italy and later he was to repeat his experiment with musicians from all over the world. He has always followed his own nose, exploring different channels of performance as well as issues between composition and improvisation.
Alex Maguire plays piano with unequivocal style, due no doubt to his wide-ranging interest in music of very different genres and performance styles. His history includes learning from and playing with diverse inputs from such as John Cage, Elton Dean, Eric Dolphy, Louis Moholo, Evan Parker, Howard Riley and Cecil Taylor.
Full of fire and artistic inspiration, the discourse is unbroken throughout these pieces, but neither musician trips over a word or phrase and enunciation is perfectly balanced throughout. There is a soft concentration, yet both are fluid in their impassioned moments of high flying, energetic playing. A quite incomparable album.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
