All is quiet on the southern front: dispatches from the free Italian shores

By Ferruccio Martinotti

Federico Ughi feat, Leo Genovese and Brandon Lopez - Infinite cosmos calling you you (577 Records, 2024) 

52 years, from Rome, NYC based since 2000 after some years spent roaming from London to Tangeri, Ughi engaged in a longtime and fruitful partnership with Pennsylvanian flutist Daniel Carter with whom he founded 577 Records. This record, the first under his own name in 5 years, sees Federico teaming up with the monster keyboardist Leo Genovese from Brooklyn and fellow New Yorker, upright bassist Brandon Lopez, to deliver some of the most intriguing and challenging music we had the chance to listen to throughout the year. Notes by the record company highlight the “connection between artists, music and audience” where the musicians represent “conduits for the delivery of cosmic sound, the music world, the cosmic dimension of sound and light”. Easy to quote Sun Ra among the influences and not only because the last song of the album took its title from the name of the mythological artist, but if this can’t be denied, it’s definitely less mundane trying to label and pigeonhole such doom, dissonant and dystopian sounds who often driving Scandinavian or Japanese free projects to take shape in our mind. Anyway, the perfect soundtrack for this crooked and vile time.

Roberto Ottaviano, Danilo Gallo, Ferdinando Faraò - Lacy in the sky with diamonds 

The subject matter of the cover versions and the tribute albums is so fascinating, intricate and complex to deserve a Blog’s masterclass, here we simply tell about a champion and two standout musicians who decided to pay homage to the late great Steve Lacy on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of his death. We’re talking about Roberto Ottaviano (soprano sax) the champion of the Trio, trained by Luigi Nono, Evan Parker and Jimmy Giuffre, professor at several music academies across the globe, collaborator of Chet Baker, Enrico Rava, Han Bennink, Mal Waldron and Keith Tippet; Danilo Gallo (double bass, banjo, guitar), eclectic musician with a broad sonic perimeter encompassing jazz, avant, ethnic music, he played all over the world, teaming up with the likes of Uri Caine, Marc Ribot, Francesco Bearzatti, Gianluigi Trovesi, Anthony Coleman; Ferdinando Faraò (drums, percussion) who, after a period of time spent in the ensemble of Tiziana Ghiglioni, Claudio Fasoli e Tango Seis, had the chance to play, during their italian tours, along with Lee Konitz, Mal Waldron, Steve Grossman, Franco D’Andrea and Paul Jeffrey. The structure of the record sees seven Lacy’s songs performed by the group (Esteem, Deadline, Napping, And the sky weeps, Owl, Bound, Prospectus), “chosen by chance according to our tastes”, says Ottaviano and four originals (Bone/These foolish things, No one flew over the cuckoo’s nest, Diamond flocks accident, Hard landing), “impromptu songs generated by climate in the recording studio”. The polar star of the project is set on the map, directly quoting Lacy’s words: “Risk is at the heart of jazz, every note we play is a risk”, meaning that we won't find here a slavish and calligraphic rendition of Lacy, but rather a free expression that in his music finds the ignition to blast and then disperse in a thousand streams.

Massimo De Mattia Suonomadre - Domicide

Self-taught flutist from Pordenone (the rich and hyper contradictory north-east of Italy), with past collaborations with Gianluca Trovesi, Ares Tavolazzi, Tom Kirk, Herb Robertson, among others, De Mattia wrote Domicide as the third chapter of his own project Suonomadre. When the former “Riot” and “Ethnoshock!” have been recorded live with an electric band, this time the record saw the light in a recording studio with the musicians strictly using acoustic instruments. Accompanied by the faithful pards Zlatko Caucic (voice, drums, percussion), Giorgio Pagoric (piano) and Luigi Vitale (drums, marimba, percussion), Massimo doesn’t step back of an inch from the deep nature of his music, defined “rebel music, overtly and unconditionally”. The political tension coming from social and environmental worries is the propellant with the acoustic set-up as well, being text and subtext at same time. Musically speaking, the leader put the tracks on the ground through hyper free, oblique and extreme sounds; the drumming, enriched with objects frantically beaten, is constantly forced to pander to the rolling of the wagon, accompanied by the atonal Tayloresque piano and by the colorful percussion, a polyrhythmic added value for a beautifully working final outcome.