ENRICO PIERANUNZI “Improclassica” and LUIGI MARTINALE “Invisible Cities”

ARTIST

Enrico Pieranunzi and Luigi Martinale

ALBUM TITLE

“Improclassica” and “Invisible Cities”

LABEL

Abeat

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Swing and symphonic music, opposites that attract. The encounter between a jazz ensemble and a classical orchestra is like a subterranean river that runs through the history of improvised music, disappearing and periodically resurfacing, as John Lewis and others taught so well. Today it resurfaces in two albums recorded in Italy and released by the same label, Abeat, both led by pianists: Luigi Martinale and Enrico Pieranunzi.

Martinale is no newcomer to projects of this type. In an earlier Abeat release, Sundials’ Time (2018), the Piedmontese pianist and composer had already attempted to merge the sounds and timbres of the classical symphonic tradition with those of Afro-American culture. Here he undertakes the challenge once again, leading a quartet whose principal melodic voice is that of saxophonist Stefano Cocco Cantini, on tenor and soprano sax. They are supported by strings, flute, clarinet, and French horn from the chamber orchestra of the Ghedini Conservatory in Cuneo. The title refers to Italo Calvino’s celebrated book Invisible Cities, published fifty years ago, whose imagery and dreamlike inspiration the leader translates into a series of eight fresh, airy, melodically inspired pieces.

More complex, more successful, and richer in aesthetic implications is Enrico Pieranunzi’s project. In this period the great Roman pianist has recorded extensively and launched one project after another, managing the rare feat of combining quantity with quality. Yet within his recent output, Improclassica holds crucial importance. Happily divided between his academic training and his irresistible attraction to improvised music (“Mine is a three-way relationship in which classical music is the wife and jazz is the lover,” he jokes, though not entirely), Pieranunzi has created an authentic project that synthesizes these two worlds.

The album moves from the overwhelming Mediterranean atmosphere of Sicilian Dream to the delightful romantic variations of Mein Lieber Schumann, and to the elegant homage to Erik Satie (Gymnosatie). Pieranunzi’s music takes flight, thanks in part to Michele Corcella’s refined orchestral arrangements. But the album’s most precious jewel lies at the end: the Suite 785, in which the pianist identifies a sequence of similar notes linking a page by Bach (BWV 785, the Two-Part Invention No. 14 in B flat major) with the jazz standard Sweet Georgia Brown. Once again, lightness and finesse go hand in hand in our music.

Ivo Franchi

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