EMANUELE CISI “Rushin'”

- Advertisement -

ARTIST

Emanuele Cisi

ALBUM TITLE

“Rushin'”

LABEL

Right Tempo

______________________________________________________________

Rushin’ has the atmosphere of a session from another era. It feels like a leap back to the margins of the bop tradition, where the urgency suggested by the title is little more than a semantic illusion, designed to transport the listener into a world in which jazz and its deepest essence remain at the centre of everything.

Swing and blues provide the foundation upon which Emanuele Cisi constructs his musical discourse. His approach embraces the classic language of the tradition while incorporating modern nuances and contemporary sensibilities. Throughout the album, each track becomes an opportunity to express emotions, memories and experiences in the pursuit of a profound spiritual connection with the music itself.

On Rushin’, Cisi presents himself without compromise. Through phrasing, pauses, silences and subtle inflections, every note becomes a reflection of his inner voice. In a sense, the album serves as an introduction to the saxophonist’s personal Olympus: the guiding figures whose influence led him into the world of jazz. He exposes his musical identity with remarkable honesty, unconcerned with fashions, trends or aesthetic movements, simply playing what he feels with humility, clarity and conviction, beyond any conventional notion of time.

Surrounding him is a quartet of musicians who fully share his vision. Dado Moroni, a master architect of harmony and a natural leader, supports Cisi at every turn, complementing his ideas, commenting upon them and engaging in a dialogue marked by balance and restraint. Moroni is both architect and soul of the music, sustaining its structure while reinforcing its foundations with generous doses of blues feeling and authentic swing. It is the work of a pianist whose experience has distilled his playing into a remarkable combination of depth, control, elegance and technical mastery.

Alongside him, Nicolas Thys contributes a warm, resonant and deeply grounded bass sound that interacts beautifully with the heartbeat-like precision of Jorge Rossy’s drumming. The ensemble is further enriched by the discreet yet effective presence of young trumpeter Cesare Mecca on two hard-bop-oriented selections: Hank Mobley’s “My Groove Your Move” and “Boogaloop”, a Cisi original conceived with Lee Morgan very much in mind.

The programme achieves a convincing balance between original compositions and reinterpretations. “Pharoah’s Message”, a spiritual invocation dedicated to two masters with whom Cisi feels a profound connection – Pharoah Sanders and John Coltrane – serves as a powerful opening statement, immediately clarifying the narrative thread of the album and the foundations of the saxophonist’s musical journey.

The title track itself functions as a distillation of the influences that have shaped Cisi’s artistic identity. The same can be said of “Baubles, Bangles and Beads”, which he approaches through a distinctly Coltrane-inspired lens, reshaping the tune’s waltz character through the voice of the soprano saxophone and the circular momentum generated by the piano.

Coltrane’s presence continues to hover over “Never Let Me Go”, performed with heartfelt emotional involvement and a pronounced blues sensibility. At the close of the piece, Cisi subtly weaves in a quotation from “Naima”, creating a touching moment of homage. With “Riverside Blues”, the album moves decisively into hard-bop territory, emphasising velocity, rhythmic drive and blues expression. In the same spirit, Jackie McLean’s “Little Melonae” finds a natural place within the programme.

Moroni also contributes one of the album’s most distinctive moments with his original composition “Ile De Roume”. Introduced by a solo bass passage, the piece unfolds gently through exotic harmonic colours, embroidered by lyrical soprano saxophone lines and inventive piano voicings.

The album concludes with Randy Weston’s “Hi-Fly”, whose memorable melody provides a fitting closing statement to a work that ultimately reads as an autobiographical portrait of Emanuele Cisi and his personal vision of jazz.

Flavio Caprera

DISTRIBUTED BY

righttempo.bandcamp.com

LINEUP

- Advertisement -