Stefano Maimone & Upset Strings - Chamber Music (2020)

A bridge between past and present where jazz meets classical music in a sonic journey that combines tradition and innovation. This is how Chamber Music presents itself as the debut album by Stefano Maimone & Upset Strings which will be released on 7 December 2020 for the Emme Record Label. A project that involves the classic string quartet consisting of two violins, viola and cello and a rhythm section consisting of electric bass and drums. The band is completed by Nicola Nieddu on violin, Sebastian Mannutza on violin, Francesca Fogli on viola, Antonio Cortesi on cello, Enrico Smiderle on drums with the special participation of Luigi Rinaldi on soprano sax (Havona) and Marianna Craca on transverse flute in (Teen Town , Theme One). The result is a visionary record in which two apparently distant worlds meet thanks to the use of electric and acoustic instruments that find common ground on which to confront. It is no coincidence that the album wants to pay homage to some of the composers who have had the greatest influence in the personal and musical growth of the bandleader. The two most important figures were certainly Claude Debussy and Jaco Pastorius, who played a decisive role in the style of musical writing and in the approach of the instrument.

The arrangements of the respective pieces of the two composers want to respect in all their completeness the original thought of the authors, while maintaining a personal character and continuing to create a constant dialogue between past and present. The comparison between these two authors that highlights the thought of this musical project in which the arrangements are often very original while maintaining the poetics of the original. This is the case of Havona, a famous piece by Jaco Pastorius, in which the string quartet, replaced by synthesizers, marries perfectly with the bass phrasing and rhythm that are quite faithful to the original. Dr Gradus ad Parnassum is instead a composition by Debussy that is completely distorted in the arrangement and while maintaining faith in the artistic idea of ​​the original, with the insertion of the electric bass and a syncopated rhythm, it perfectly blends the musical impressionism of the early 1900s with the experimental jazz of the 1970s. Bouncing is the only, but no less important, original track on the album that once again highlights the open mind of this project. In this case the string quartet becomes the right carpet for the electric bass which, in addition to keeping the rhythm, also becomes a melodic instrument capable of carrying forward the progress of the whole piece.