Riccardo Zegna - Carillon (2018)

Marco Moro's flute comes from far away, as if he did not want to dare to interrupt Zegna's dream. Hommage has something of a chamber, even if the lines of the strings are replaced by the softness of the winds. Gabriele Mirabassi, with his clarinet, makes us look back in time, in the history of music, to seek out melancholy melodies that belong to a more European than Afro-American culture. The piece oscillates between the world of Bill Evans and an indefinable, in the sense of time, late romanticism. But it is already "Maldido duente"! The passage to the second piece is almost "glissato", the listener does not notice, so much is the elegance in finishing and starting again, with rare stylistic refinement. On the other hand, Carillon and the compositions for this magic instrument were interested, in the past, Byrd, Couperine and Bizet!

The "Tango della lontananza" is a succession of instruments, where cello, flute and clarinet embroider over a barely mentioned rhythm, yet determined and incisive. Zegna's plan is never too much protagonist and this makes the album a valuable work also in terms of musical education, as well as on the creative level. The "melancolia" of the violin is almost inspired by tangos of other times: solitary and musical like the beating of wings of a moth in the night. A sound, in short, that sometimes gives a little 'to Ravel and De Falla. Mirabassi "impregnates" the Tango of distance with high notes, but never "scream", the reed is always controlled and the breath comes out of his magical clarinet slipping away to make room for the piano. And once again, Zegna plays "touching" the keys and "hammering" the strings with sweet reverence, centering the goal to get inside the heart of the listener. Only when the instruments play in section do you remember that you are listening to a tango: the Tango of distance.

The "Blue choir" opens with a sweet melody that the Piedmontese musician takes care to play with chords and then with single notes. His piano should be heard in the semi-darkness, and with his eyes closed ... The shadows are mixed with the sound of the strings, while the arrival of Enrico di Crosta's cello is an embroidery - deep - to the whole work. Carillon should be heard closed inside the walls of his mind ... little light, disturbed only by the imagination that hovers, sovereign, and extinguishes the gusts of wind that blows without being heard. A voice ... the voice, that of Joanna Rimmel materializes in "Carillon di Joa". A line that strengthens what Zegna says of his latest production: "The themes are inspired, in large part, by the music of some great composers of the past". The piano and clarinet dialogues, also in the fifth piece, are predominant. "Lestofunk suite" is "intentionally" neoclassical and draws thematic fragments even from echoes of "strawinskiana" memory. There is also a healthy call to be bop! A little ironic, in a work like Carillon? Possible! But Lestofunk is al be bop, as Maldito duente could have been in a late Art Nouveau image, almost like an oriental coffee. And the funky? You will say! Well, there is a bit, but a short graft that anticipates the third aria - "elegia" defines it as Zegna - sung by the double bass.

Four are the "chorus" of "Rolls tag", a miscellany that, with a little effort, is easy to postpone, as an influence, to rag time, with sounds that Zegna defines: "Far from Jelly Roll Morton". Di Carillon, the sixth piece is - absolutely - the most rhythmic. Counterpoints and syncopations that someone would say, finally, recall jazz. The piano dimension of Zegna is almost tonky honky or, at least, mainstream. The album should be listened to and listened again and, each time, it will be a new adventure in that semi-darkness where the first notes resounded ...