Paolo Fresu & Uri Caine – Two Minuettos (Live in Milano) (2017) [FLAC 24bit/48kHz]

Cultivated rereadings and pearls of European musical history make up the jazz album for connoisseurs that is Two Minuettos, the third one made together by Paolo Fresu and Uri Caine, who occasionally take the luxury of a collaboration that goes beyond the simple musical question ; the album is in fact a dissertation on grace, elegance, the beauty of music, in a journey that ranges from Bach to Gershwin, from Mahler to Lauzi and Lennon, passing through the figure of Barbara Strozzi. And to add atmosphere to the superb choice of songs, the fact of live performance; it is in fact a live, recorded on the occasion of the three Milanese concerts that the duo held at the Teatro dell’Elfo from 27 February to 1 March 2015.

An album made of music and silence, of suspended atmospheres and emotional tensions, of past and present, of nostalgia and enthusiasm; the result is a high-level aesthetic experience, where the piano, the trumpet (or the flugelhorn) meet in a musical limbo that is an authentic panacea for the soul; the technical virtuosities, which never exceed the baroque exaggeration, caress the listener’s hearing and accompany him in a jazz universe sui generis, where the notes develop on chiaroscuro atmospheres, celestial crescendo, warm and lively rhythms. A Palladian architectural harmony seems to drive Caine’s piano phrases, with its counterpoints building full and empty, and proceeding on a lively bebop. Which, although modern, is set nicely even with the pieces of classical music.

Next to well-known names of ancient and modern authors, it is a pleasant surprise to find that of the composer and soprano Barbara Strozzi (1619 -1677), a prominent figure of Venetian Baroque music, today known only by a few secentists. The choice of three of his pieces does not answer only an aesthetic choice, but also a technical one, since his compositions generally included the accompaniment of two melodic instruments, and of the basso continuo. An arrangement that goes to the duo Fresu / Caine, with the first that gives graceful passages to the flugelhorn, accompanied by Caine who just caresses the keys of the piano, to the point that the sound seems to come from another century. And indeed, the album is also an opportunity for a leap in time, at that time when aesthetics was not only a tinsel, but a canon for the conduct of life.

Smart and refined – centered on a trumpet that flies quietly like a swallow in the sky over the sunset -, “At least you in the universe,” the tribute to the Italian song of the author. A romantic piece, well interpreted by the pensive gait of the instruments, which meet like in the embrace of two lovers. On similar chords, although slightly more lunar “I Loves You Porgy,” historical Gershwin song.

On the end, the discreet, affectionate tribute to an Italian music intelligence unfortunately prematurely disappeared: that Lucio Dalla da Bologna who signed with “Caruso” one of the highest moments of his career, as well as Italian music. Fresu and Caine pay him homage with a ghost track, which suddenly appears, in a confidential manner, a little bit like what Dalla himself was, and how the original version shudders the listener; the amplitude of the notes of the flugelhorn widens the ideal perspective of the Gulf of Sorrento, and the pinched notes of Caine look like so many drops of rain that hit the face of the one who is watching the vast sea.

An album built like a cathedral, with dizzying heights, its areas of necessary shade, and always, a sense of magnificence that flows from the elegance of the melodic lines; a mixture of past and present that manages to annul the sense of time, and to create the impression of an eternal beauty capable of enveloping existence, of canceling the daily cacophony that unfortunately suffers our era.

Tracklist:
01. Minuet in G Minor (Live in Milano)
02. I Loves You, Porgy (Live in Milano)
03. Symphony No. 1 in D Minor, 3rd Movement (Live in Milano)
04. Almeno tu nell’universo (Live in Milano)
05. All I Want / Give Peace a Chance (Live in Milano)
06. La travagliata (Live in Milano)
07. Nature Boy (Live in Milano)
08. Sino alla morte mi protesto / L’amante bugiardo (Live in Milano)
09. Minuet in G Major (Live in Milano)
10. Caruso (Live in Milano)

Personnel:
Paolo Fresu – trumpet, flugelhorn, multi-effects
Uri Caine – piano

Download:

mqs.link_PalFresuUriCaineTwMinuettsLiveinMilan20172448.rar

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