Andrea Centazzo, Gianluigi Trovesi - Shock!! (1984)

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Andrea Centazzo, Gianluigi Trovesi - Shock!! (1984)

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Andrea Centazzo and Gianluigi Trovesi, two among the most important Italian jazz musicians, recorded these tracks in 1984. Centazzo and Trovesi met the first time in New York in 1978. Centazzo was touring the States to perform with some of the most outstanding exponents of the improvised music scene of the time: Eugene Chadbourne, Henry Kaiser, Rova Sax Quartet, John Zorn, Tom Cora, just to name a few. Most of the music of this tour was recorded and then issued on Parachute, Metalanguage and Ictus Records. Music we are proposing again in CD format in this Series: The Bay, with Rova Saxophone Quartet; Environment for Sextet, with a group including Zorn, Bradfield, Chadbourne, Kondo e Corra; Usa Concerts West with J. Carter, Vinnie Golia, Greg Goodman; Usa Concerts East with J. Zorn, LaDonna Smith, D. Williams, T. Kondo, E. Chadbourne and others. Trovesi, rising star of the jazz music in Italy, was playing at The Public Theater with Giorgio Gaslini band, ironically the same group Centazzo started his carrier wuth and had just left. The unforeseen meeting between the two musicians, who know of each other but never met personally, began a relationship to be continued in the following years. Two years after Trovesi became member of the MittelEuropa Orchestra, touring and recording with this large ensemble that at the time was collecting some of the best Italian musicians and some European guest stars (Carlos Zingaro, Albert Mangelsdorf, Theo Jorgesmann, a.o.). The feeling between Trovesi and Centazzo gave birth also to a duo set. Several concerts and this recording are the result of that friendship. As you can easily notice exists between the two players a very rare community. The music is not just a live jam sessions, but the various moments and moods carefully planned. The tracks alternate moments very intense to other more subtle and refined. Trovesi, with a very personal phrasing, shows already his interest in the ethnic traditions that today are a trademark of his style. Centazzo goes along with the reedman with a percussive technique that includes the drum kit but also melodic instruments as marimbas, vibraphone, with a full display of his musical language that alternate more percussive moments to others more fluid and sparse. ~ felmay.it

Not shocking, but wonderfully atmospheric. When the Mitteleuropa Orchesta broke up, two of its members joined forces for a series of concerts. Their rapport was great; Centazzo says they had 'the ability to reinvent on stage every night what was essentially a conversation between friends.' And they have plenty to say: while Andrea crashes, Trovesi hums, swoops, and decorates the evolving rhythm. It's a world of sound, a whirl of emotion ' and a shock to the system. Andrea, persistent on tom-toms, brings us to the onset of 'Shock'. Trovesi, on slippery soprano, trills the nervy theme with hints of Steve Lacy. It then becomes a march: as cymbals form a mist, tiny notes peep from the sax, the chirps of a distant cricket. The beat returns, and Trovesi floats mournful notes with the touch of an oboe ' dignified, and profoundly sad. The 'nature' mood comes back, only more turbulent. A high bleat leads to deep rumbles, the bass drum gets frantic, and Trovesi more so. One final squawk at the end, bolstered by echo, and he creeps away in a fog of percussion. An electric moment.'Cen.Tro.' is an eternity in four minutes. Life goes on at the dock: a bell tolls, a horse snorts, and the foghorn sounds. (Trovesi does both on a bass clarinet.) The bells turn more exotic, and now we hear gongs: the port is somewhere East. Colors drift and the sun slowly rises; nothing happens but the mood, and that is enough. 'Tro.Ce.' is a world away: Trovesi on a vigorous march, the strident notes proud but worried. It sounds like modern classical; the clarinet's quizzical notes fall on a bed of echo. Andrea takes to the blocks, and percussion trades with the quiet reed ' shades of Takemitsu. Now the gongs, and while Andrea goes wild, Trovesi stays dignified ' a wonderful contrast. Andrea is certainly a different drummer, and I'm marching next to Gianluigi! 'Shockmaker' is frantic, Trovesi on what sounds like amplified alto. As Andrea goes strong, his partner erupts: greasy lines of blurred notes, some late-night struttin' and an aggression we didn't know he had. The closest thing here to straight jazz, and a wonderful dose of fury. 'Day in Tunisia' has a walking marimba, and a line close to Ravel's 'Bolero'. It's bass clarinet with th stance of a baritone sax; he answers himself with dubbed clarinet, high and peaceful. Mist rolls in as several basses make a bagpipe drone, joined by gongs. It's the harbor sound of 'Cen.Tro.', only louder. Andrea's solo takes a lot of bells, intermittent drums, and layered shimmers ' intense, but calm. The parts are disparate, but it works as a whole ' like the group itself. When recording was done, the musicians left the studio and were startled to find themselves in a blinding snowstorm. (They ended up having to walk home.) So wrapped in their music, the men lost all contact with the outside world. Hearing this, toy can see why: between thunders and whispers, the intricate lines and earthy moods, they create their own environment. And you'll feel right at home.

~ allaboutjazz.com

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Andrea Centazzo, Gianluigi Trovesi - Shock!! (1984)

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Andrea Centazzo, Gianluigi Trovesi - Shock!! (1984)

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