Artists
Album Info
Release Date: 2023Label: Caligola
Live recorded on June 28/29/30, 2022, at Auditorium of Conservatory Umberto Giordano, Foggia, Italy; recorded and mixed by Lorenzo Sementili; mastered by Tommy Bianchi.Four years after «Dada», which earned him the first place in the 2019 Musica Jazz poll as best new artist, Roberto De Nittis is back with another original work, «Maè», dedicated to composer Umberto Giordano and his love–hate relationship with Foggia – he lived elsewhere between 1892 and 1928. At the conservatory which was then dedicated to him pianist De Nittis, born in 1985, completed his classical training before moving to Rovigo, where he currently lives, to study jazz under Marco Tamburini and Stefano Onorati. Nine compositions were born after imagining what Giordano would feel going back to his hometown today. Those new tunes and the reprise of Oneiroi, already released on «Dada» and now the ghost track on the new album, are played by a jazz trio consisting of two friends and musicians, double bass player Riccardo Di Vinci and drummer Marco Soldà with the Umberto Giordano Conservatory’s Orchestra Sinfonica Young conducted by Andrea Palmacci. The result is an excellent blend of jazz and classical music which denotes the leader’s artistic journey and his talent as pianist, arranger and composer. It is hard to rank the ten compositions that are not linked, and yet are coherently bound as if they were part of a suite – it may sound similar to the soundtrack of an imaginary movie where neither Nino Rota, nor Henry Mancini are extraneous. The waltz La banda colta, La Ballada di Giordano, Struscio and the cheerful Bancarelle are strongly associated with Foggia and evoke local traditions and specific places; Madia, Don Gaetano (which is enriched by a wonderful bassoon solo), Umbé and Napoletana (which features a captivating electronic–ish clarinet solo by Zoe Pia) are about Giordano’s emotional life while the title–track Maè, short for Maestro, is a portrait of the composer as well as a nice recap of the album, that is the ideal soundtrack of a film not yet shot.