Stefano Onorati & Fulvio Sigurtà – Prolonged Singularity
(Caligola Data 2346. Album evaluate by Frank Graham)

Amongst the various revealing insights in LJN’s latest interview with Fulvio Sigurtà (trumpet, flugelhorn/ hyperlink beneath) have been his reflections on Wayne Shorter’s final nice quartet (“the quintessence of danger, and subsequently the quintessence of belief”). Sigurtà’s affection for the London scene following his 14 yr sojourn within the capital clearly stays undimmed, however now again in his native Italy full-time he performs internationally and is a school member on the Conservatorio di Rovigo within the Northeastern province of Veneto.

Certainly one of Sigurtà’s present initiatives is his longstanding duo Singularity, with pianist Stefano Onorati. In latest occasions the duo has been expanded right into a quartet, a format which permits them to place Shorter’s liberating musical philosophies into motion. Joined by Gabriele Evangelista (bass), first name for Enrico Rava and Stefano Bollani, and Alessandro Paternesi (drums), who performed on Sigurtà’s atmospheric 2013 launch SPL (CamJazz), the group’s nominal co-leaders might share the writing credit however every freshly minted piece is actually extra of a collective endeavour.

Opening with the splendidly spacious ballad “A Second And Then”, because the rhythmic pulses ebb and move all 4 gamers make an prompt mark. “Quintessence” develops fairly naturally from Evangelista’s rubato intro, the group coming collectively to state the theme earlier than the piece opens out into the form of elastic time-no-changes groove refined and perfected by Davis and Shorter within the mid-‘60s. The brilliant declamatory melody of “Thrills” recollects the post-NuJazz stylings of Mathias Eick, a marked distinction to the tense “Oslo Twilight”, a brooding piece the place pent-up tensions usually threaten to breach the floor.

Shorter’s hand is clearly evident on “Parallel Dimension”, the place vertical and horizontal patterns collide because the quartet exchanges glancing blows. “Swami”, impressed by a rhythmic sample (a Korvai) which Sigurtà realized from his Indian music trainer, is as playful as it’s enchanting, while “Out Of The Blue”, one other of Onorati’s roomy ballads, regularly pulls the listener right into a deep pool of sound. The advanced rhythmic and harmonic turns of “Nighthawks” kindle reminiscences of the late Kenny Wheeler, and it’s one of many set’s compositional highlights. Closing considerably paradoxically with “First Scene”, the second of Sigurtà’s two compositions, the quartet channel the spirit of Miles’ basic soundtrack to Louis Malle’s 1958 movie Ascenseur pour l’échafaud.

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Followers of Shorter’s later work and Tomasz Stańko’s Suspended Night quartet will discover a lot to take pleasure in right here, and with Enrico Rava offering his full seal of approval within the album’s poetic liner notes, what higher suggestion might there be?

LINKS: Interview with Fulvio Sigurtà
Press package with quote from Enrico Rave – supply adEIdJ