By Guido Montegrandi

Roots Magic is Alberto Popolla, clarinets, electrical bass, banjo; Errico De
Fabritiis, alto and baritone saxophones; Eugenio Colombo, flutes, soprano
saxophone; Francesco Lo Cascio, vibraphone, percussion; Gianfranco
Tedeschi, double bass; and Fabrizio Spera, drums, percussion, zither. They
began as a quartet in 2013 and now, since August ‘21 when Eugenio Colombo
and Francesco Lo Cascio joined in, they’ve been established as a sextet.
That is their fourth album and the primary with the enlarged arrange. Their
inventive path, on the opposite manner, has confirmed its path “someplace
between deep Blues and artistic Jazz” (Roots Magic web site) becoming a member of the blues
of the origin with the inventive black music of the 60s and the 70s additionally
together with references to black literature and tradition as indicated by the
quoting of Toni Morrison (observe 2), Benjamin Zephaniah (observe 3) and Z.Z.
Packer (observe 8).

In November 2020, interviewed by Musica Jazz Journal, the musicians declared
that that they had grown up listening to this music (delta blues and artistic
music) and that they acknowledge its sturdy affect in order to really feel rooted
into its custom. Their first document – Hoodoo Blue – Roots Magic additionally included a quote by Evan Parker “my roots are in my
document participant” to mark their belonging to this cultural heritage.

Lengthy Previous Highway is made from 9 tracks: 5 are Roots Magic originals
and 4 are renditions of inventive Black music.

Within the opening observe – When The Elephant Walks (by

Kahil El’Zabar) – the reeds develop a rhythmic groove supported by a bass ostinato from
which the solos emerge; this function will return many occasions in the entire
album like in Consuming Espresso Elsewhere (Quoting Z.Z. Packer) and
Run As Sluggish As You Can (Quoting Benjamin Zephaniah) through which the
spellbinding theme phrase drives the soloes to observe the identical path
meandering round it to be lastly carried away by the hypnotic rhythm.

Different items like Sula (Quoting Toni Morrison) and

Blue Strains

(For Muhal Richard Abrams) are extra within the custom of Chicagoan inventive
music with open sections and incisive drumming.

The title observe Lengthy Previous Highway (by Bessie Smith) is characterised
by a bass and horns ostinato that enables the clarinet to design the melody
then every little thing thins out turning into extra summary with shreds of melodies
and a pervasive bass groove, an excellent instance of the way in which Roots Magic
approaches the blues custom.

All the music is rigorously structured and organized in a manner that provides
melodic parts the likelihood to emerge; the enlarged line up presents
many potentialities and the sound is wealthy and different (Frank Zappa Grand
Wazoo is simply behind the nook). The items are developed with love and
respect for the unique however with a private strategy that the group has
developed throughout the years and the result’s an fulfilling album for your
ear and far meals to your ideas in regards to the place Blues and Black music
in have within the up to date tradition.

After we end listening to this document an excellent train will likely be to return
to the unique songs to have a perspective view of the lengthy outdated street that
has been traveled; for instance hearken to the closing

Issues Have Acquired To Change (by Cal Massey)

after which go again to Archie Shepp 1971 document… love and respect as they are saying.