Raffaele Genovese Trio – Anamnesi (2013) [e-Onkyo FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Raffaele Genovese Trio – Anamnesi (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz  | Time – 51:58 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: e-Onkyo | Front Cover | © Alfa Music
Recorded at AlfaMusic Studio, Roma, Italy by Alessandro Guardia

Dove conduce il viaggio mentale nel passato musicale di Raffaele Genovese, il trentenne pianista siciliano che ci propone in trio la sua personale anamnesi? L’ascolto di questo nuovo album può lasciare spazio a diverse considerazioni in merito, ma sarebbe fuorviante pensare solo alla personale genealogia di influenze che hanno prodotto il suo linguaggio, perchè ciò che ci viene proposto è il frutto maturo di un percorso nel quale, a soli trent’anni, questa nuova realtà del jazz italiano dimostra di aver già metabolizzato un ampio spettro di riferimenti. Il trio che presenta ha le caratteristiche della mobilità, del dinamismo interno, con il basso che, ancor più del pianoforte, crea i collegamenti e la regia, mentre il piano e la batteria si muovono in completa sintonia (e a volte anche sincronia), con un gioco di rimandi continui da cui si origina un interplay creativo che rappresenta il vero cuore della musica. La pregevole coerenza interna della musica, ottenuta senza soffocare la libertà individuale, nasce anche dalla logica compositiva in cui prevale la brevità dei brani, talvolta quasi aforistici e portatori di idee che si riverberano nella creazione del momento, dove, a volte, si segue la strada della variazione estemporizzata se non, persino, dello sviluppo della composizione stessa all’interno della performance. Un album meditato e sorretto da un’energia interiore che come un fiume carsico sparisce e riappare tra le pieghe della musica.

As suggested by its title “Anamnesi” (in philosophy and psychology it means a recalling to memory or a recollection), this CD offers us a fascinating journey into the musical past of the thirty-year-old Sicilian pianist Raffaele Genovese, who has virtually expressed his own personal life history by means of his jazz trio. Genovese’s latest album gives us ample room for many different opinions and reflections about his musical origins, but it would be misleading to think only of the influences that have inspired him, because it is also the fruit of a process of maturation which clearly shows that, at the age of only thirty years, this relative newcomer to the Italian jazz scene has already metabolized a wide range of references. These include classical reminiscences ranging from Debussy to Scriabin, the valuable lessons of Bill Evans, the language of minimalism, and a way of managing the trio and communicating with its components that has a certain affinity with that of the late Esbjorn Svensson, at least as far as the direct simplicity and effectiveness of the melodies is concerned.
Genovese’s maturity also appears in the choice of his collaborators: Marco Vaggi and Tony Arco, musicians with a long and varied artistic experience, who are open to fully contemporary influences like those of the trio of Enrico Intra. They are able to satisfy the need of creating an ongoing and organic dialogue, making the music unpredictable while maintaining the identity and the climaxes of the single compositions. All of this nevertheless bears the distinctive signature of the leader, who has concluded his period of training and now, with this new project and this CD that marks its culmination, he has opened the door to the period of his maturity.
The trio is characterised by a mobility and a internal dynamism, in which the double bass, even more than the piano, creates the links and directs the performance, while the piano and the drums move in complete harmony (and sometimes synchrony), with a continuous game of references and a creative interplay that is the true heart of the music. The central elements of Genovese’s style are a simplicity that is truly essential and minimal (but not minimalist as such), which is managed and controlled so as to attain a poetic rigour that is an antidote to all that is bland or obvious and reveals a sobriety and a rejection of the superfluous that is based on a deep understanding of the language and practice of playing an instrument.
The masterful use of the drums, rhythmically firm but full of varied colours, and the full sound of the double bass are characterised by a choice of rhythms and notes that indicate an encyclopaedic knowledge of the possibilities of these instruments. They are combined with Genovese’s piano and his particular approach that eschews any superficial forms of virtuosity, while employing many of the resources offered by the instrument. In addition he incorporates techniques from the euro-cultured world of jazz, along the lines of Enrico Pieranunzi, using a soft and velvety touch that is never weary, weak or evanescent, and is often characterized by particularly relaxed and spacious rhythms.
As regards the melodic component, it does not feature any loud or brash tunes, but always conjures up an intimate atmosphere, sometimes based on simple riffs or even thematic cells, with c refully measured dynamics in the expressive crescendos and diminuendos. The elegant consistency of the music is obtained without stifling the individual freedom of the members of the trio, and there is also the deliberate decision to keep the various compositions as short as possible, so that they sometimes almost seem to be aphoristic expressions of musical ideas that continue to reverberate from the moment of their creation. Extemporized variations are occasionally employed, sometimes involving a further elaboration development of the composition during the performance in the studio.
As regards the specific tracks on this CD, the evocative opening piece, elegiac and based on the repetition of melodic cells, is followed by the contained crescendo and bluesy modulations 05.04 A.M., and then the subtly Latino melody lines of No Way Out, and the progressions of the next piece, which seems to be the ideal culmination and closure of this series of four compositions. In Memento a slower tempo resurfaces, followed by the ballad with soft and pliable tones that leads to the chains of chords in Pedro and then to the dry, clear and vaguely pop track Seabed, which again seems to close another hypothetical micro-suite, this time in three parts. The solo piano piece Il domatore dei venti (The tamer of the winds) features the colours of Debussy, and is a prologue to the almost Spanish Soft Light, with its tense crescendos and diminuendos as well as its inner dialogue between the marching rhythms of the drums and the melodic piano that explains its dedication to Scriabin. This is then followed by Way out, the last piece on the CD. In conclusion then, this is a carefully planned and conceived album supported by an interior energy that disappears and reappears in the folds of the music like an underground river. -Maurizio Franco

Tracklist:
1 Prologo 3:18
2 05.04 A.M. 4:16
3 No Way Out 4:51
4 How Far? 6:30
5 Memento 5:39
6 Pedro 5:31
7 Seabed 3:30
8 Rah’el 3:52
9 Il domatore dei venti 1:24
10 Soft Light 6:17
11 Alexander Scriabin 3:18
12 Way Out 3:01

Personnel:
Raffaele Genovese, pianoforte e composizioni
Marco Vaggi, contrabbasso
Tony Arco, batteria
Giuseppe Tortora, violoncello #1

Download:

mqs.link_RaffaeleGenveseTriAnamnesi2013enky2496.part1.rar
mqs.link_RaffaeleGenveseTriAnamnesi2013enky2496.part2.rar