Mining the area between the blues and creative jazz with pieces by Charles Tyler, Ornette Coleman, Phil Cohran and Sun Ra, this is the 3rd album from the Italian quartet of Alberto Popolla on clarinets, Errico De Fabritiis on saxophones, Gianfranco Tedeschi on double bass, and Fabrizio Spera on drums & percussion, joined by Eugenio Colombo on flute and Francesco Lo Cascio on vibes.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2020 Country: Portugal Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold Recorded at Stone Recording Studio, in Roma, Italy, in September, 2019, by Gabriele Conti.
"Take Root Among the Stars, quoting the words of the great science fiction writer Octavia Butler, here is Roots Magic's third installment for Clean Feed. Cut by the Italian quartet, here and there augmented by a couple of special guests, historical wind player Eugenio Colombo and vibes maestro Francesco Lo Cascio, this new album comes as a further step into the borderland between Deep Blues and Creative Jazz.
The new repertoire includes reworked tunes by Skip James, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Charles Tyler and Ornette Coleman plus new works on some of the band's favorite composers, Charley Patton, Phil Cohran, John Carter, and Sun Ra. The album opens up with Phil Cohran's "Frankiphone Blues", a deep sensuous Afro oriented groove and tight horn arrangements, perfectly enhanced by Colombo's flute solo and Lo Cascio's oblique harmonies.
Energy music and Free Jazz keep striking a chord with the four Italians via the ultra-out spiritual sound of Kalaparusha's take and some boiling improvisations on their tribute to Charles Tyler. The spirit of the Delta is conjured here through a challenging version of Skip James's daunting classic Devil Got my Woman and the fat, earthy pulse of Patton's Mean Black Cat Blues. The album closes with John Carter's "Karen on Monday", A beautiful contemplative clarinet tune immersed in a wide-open soundscape with the quartet displaying a more explorative approach to sound, timbre, and noise."-Clean Feed