Giovanni Guidi Trio – City Of Broken Dreams (2013) [HRA FLAC 24bit/48kHz]

Giovanni Guidi Trio – City Of Broken Dreams (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 52:05 minutes | 391 MB | Genre: Jazz
Official Digital Download – Source: highresaudio.com | @ ECM Records GmbH
Recorded: December 2011, Auditorio Radiotelevisione svizzera, Lugano

Pianist Giovanni Guidi (born 1985), is one of the most outstanding musicians to have emerged from the ranks of Italian jazz in the last decade and has already made his presence felt on Enrico Rava’s “Tribe” and “On The Dancefloor” albums. Rava praises both Guidi’s “limitless curiosity” as an improviser and his “relentless refinement” of touch and musical taste, and the pianist continually proves that those qualities are not opposites. His first leader date for ECM is a glowing collection of self-penned tunes, simultaneously inner-directed and creatively daring, with many adroit exchanges between the musicians and plenty of space given also to bassist Thomas Morgan, whose role in the Guidi Trio is perhaps analogous to Scott LaFaro’s in the Evans Trio. Portuguese drummer João Lobo is another highly original musician, poetically shading the music with a delicate tracery of cymbals.

It seemed inevitable. After working with Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava on 2013’s Michael Jackson tribute, Rava on the Dance Floor, and 2011’s more intimate Tribe, it should come as no surprise that pianist Giovanni Guidi—the only connecting thread between those two records (other than, of course, Rava)—should find himself with an opportunity to make his own record for the label. City of Broken Dreams comes with its own intrinsic continuity; a trio session from the final days of 2011, it features Joao Lobo, Guidi’s drummer who has graced the pianist’s two previous Cam Jazz outings, the quartet-based Indian Summer (2007) and larger, more audacious The Unknown Rebel Band (2009).
First impressions may be important, but they rarely reveal all that needs to be known. Opening with the title track that bookends the CD—a second variation bringing City to a close 52 minutes later—its melancholic lyricism and rubato style are but two aspects of this trio’s considerably broader reach. Still, there’s no denying Guidi’s ability to create gently appealing waves, supported by Lobo’s delicate brushwork (switching to mallets for the closing variation) and bassist Thomas Morgan’s sparse but ever-astute choices.
After debuting with guitarist John Abercrombie on Wait Till You See Her (ECM, 2009), Morgan has suddenly become a more frequent face for the label, already appearing on two other recordings this year: Tomasz Stanko’s Wislawa, with the Polish trumpeter’s New York Quartet, and pianist Craig Taborn’s trio date, Chants. An introspective bassist with a firm, muscular touch and a deceptively simple, Charlie Haden-like approach, Morgan’s unerring choices are never superfluous, the bassist never opting for virtuosic displays when just a few notes will do.
If City of Broken Dreams’ opening suggests an album of consistently calming quietude, nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, Guidi demonstrates a firmer touch and a penchant for majestic elegance on “Leonie” and buoyant classicism on the rubato “Just One More Time,” its serpentine melody opening up for an extended feature for Morgan that, supported only by Lobo’s delicate kit work, represents some of the bassist’s best work—not just on City, but in recent times. His motif-driven solo moves effortlessly from the lyrical upper range of his instrument to near-rhythmic implications as he moves to the lower register in preparation for Guidi’s entry, the pianist similarly expanding upon the tune’s etude-like premise.
Elsewhere, “No Other Possibility” winds its way from structural ascending lines and dissonant voicings to an open-ended middle section where Guidi proves his mettle in a knottier, more idiosyncratic context that harkens to pianist Keith Jarrett’s early, Ornette Coleman-inspired, pre-ECM trio recordings with Haden and drummer Paul Motian.
Still on the shy side of 30, Guidi’s reputation was already on the ascendancy prior to coming to ECM. Now, with two Rava recordings and this trio date under his belt, Guidi is clearly positioned as Italy’s most promising pianist since Stefano Bollani began coming out from under the trumpeter’s wing fifteen years ago. Based on the strength of his far-reaching, stylistically unfettered City of Broken Dreams, similar accolades and success are, no doubt, in store for this extremely talented young artist. -John Kelman, All About Jazz

Tracklist:
1. City of Broken Dreams 07:17
2. Leonie 03:51
3. Just One More Time 04:13
4. The Forbidden Zone 03:39
5. No Other Possibility 06:25
6. The Way Some People Live 06:06
7. The Impossible Divorce 03:35
8. Late Blue 06:16
9. Ocean View 03:28
10. City of Broken Dreams, Var. 07:11

Personnel:
Giovanni Guidi, piano
Thomas Morgan, double bass
João Lobo, drums

Download:

mqs.link_GivanniGuidiTriCityfBrkenDreams2013HRA2448.rar