Giovanni Guidi - Ojos De Gato (2021) [Hi-Res]

The world of jazz is coming alive again after a long, locked-down slumber, and nothing confirms that it has survived the pandemic with energy and heart than the fifth CAM JAZZ release by Italian pianist and composer Giovanni Guidi. Ojos De Gato is a rousing set of anthemic new compositions that have the beguiling characteristic of seeming familiar but also utterly new. With a powerful band around him – tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, trombonist Gianluca Petrella, bassist Brandon Lopez and drummers Chad Taylor and Francisco Mela – he commands a sound that can be as powerful as a full orchestra or as intimate as the smallest combo. The music touches many destinations that have featured in Guidi’s life and imagination, but that can only have been visited virtually in the last year-plus: “Buenos Aires”, “Paris Last”, “Roma 1962”, “Café Montmartre”. It’s a cliché to refer to any artistic endeavour as a journey, but that’s what Ojos De Gato takes you on. Music in the spirit of the great Gato Barbieri, but in a new chapter. (Brian Morton)