Guerzoncellos - Blu Rondo a La Turk (2021)

Clown symbolizes the magical balance between a classical musical rationality and a modern improvisational craze. The performing musicians are half acrobats, half clowns; they display skill, technique and feeling; at times they are melancholic, at times slightly disrespectful of classicism; they are innovators, gazing with an eye to the present and with one to the future, but never despising the past, whence the cello comes.

The homage to Brubeck opens the CD and highlights the rhythmic and melodic soul that GuerzonCellos seek in their songs. In pieces such as The Bells we are captured by an “Italian” melodicism. While the music maintains a constant beat, it is occasionally interrupted by themes and counterthemes, such as happens in Strange (where the discourse is suspended for a while, as in a kind of recitative) or in Psychedelic (which, instead, softens the pulsating tones of a dialogue between two voices, later to resume it in the finale). Armando’s Rhumba and the blues Interplay pay homage to two great jazz composers and pianists, demonstrating the high esteem in which we held them. Taglia(n)tella Bolognese is a wordplay, which, in Italian, unites the words tarantella and tagliatella in a kind of musico-gastronomic specialty, merging the Neapolitan and Bolognese traditions.

Pat Metheny is yet another composer who, similar to Chick Corea, was able to master many styles: James proves this, displaying an American type of lyricism which he was able to express also in his soundtracks, not only in his jazz works.

Five for two is the only piece in this album where GuerzonCellos, through overdubbing, creates a work for five cellos: once more, and along with 4567 Little Stars, it expresses how important it is for GuerzonCellos to employ unconventional rhythmic components (the so-called odd rhythms), merging them with melodic elements, as frequently happens with folk music, and recalling the traditions from the Balkans or Africa.

Bachato is a clear reference to the great J. S. Bach, once more with a little wordplay, meaning, this time, someone with “Bach-itis”.

Agua de beber embodies the essence of Bossa nova, as celebrated by the immense Jobim, whose unique style influenced thousands of musical works in the following years.

Birdland is a milestone in the Jazz-fusion genre: as a merging of styles, it could not be missing in this musical miscellany. It is similar to the dreamy, shameless and playful The clown, which lends its title to the entire album and resumes the jesting spirit of GuerzonCellos. Fairy tale closes the album, and, similar to In the mood for love, it tells us a tale: the former speaks of a magical enchanted world which we imagine and desire; the latter of the story we know from the celebrated movie.