Braida, Alberto

Talus

Label: Nuscope Country: USA

"This disc, which was recorded on November 28, 2008, features Braida on a beautiful Fazioli concert grand at Artesuono Studios in Udine, Italy with noted engineer Stefano Amerio. According to Francesco Martinelli's liner notes, "This music is a new combination where strains of jazz, 20th Century music, and the past 40 years of European improvised pianism are the ingredients of an organically balanced musical architecture which is exquisitely pianistic without resorting to any pre-set approaches."

According to Christian Carey from the Sequenza 21 website, "The free improv milieu currently has a crowded field of talented practitioners; particularly pianists - Georg Graewe, Steven Lantner, Matthew Shipp, Craig Taborn, and Fred Van Hove all immediately leap to mind. But Alberto Braida's latest CD, Talus, reminds one that there's certainly room for one more. This is especially true when one considers the distinguished playing and creative spontaneous composing displayed here. 'Sand in my Shoes' is a descriptive title, and it captures well the piece's slithery chromaticism, frequent stabbing pokes inside the piano, and even dampened notes that 'bend' as they sustain (the latter is quite a nifty trick!). But lest one think that there's no connection to more traditional improvising, Braida supplies bluesy licks. Also, amid the stacked verticals, there linger post-bop progressions, hanging tough amid the dissonance. 'Riding with Ghosts and Stones' goes still further, channeling the bumptious touch and spiky attacks of Thelonious Monk to season an otherwise sultry bebop ballad. On Talus, Braida makes his mark: pointedly."

This recording, which was recorded, mixed, and mastered in the 24 bit domain, features an 8-page booklet with liner notes from Pisa, Italy-based journalist Francesco Martinelli, and intriguing cover art from Norwegian artist Terry Nilssen-Love."-Nuscope