Gaetano Partipilo - Leave&Meet (2022)

“Leave&Meet”, a detailed, original work on creative collaboration, mostly conceived throughout the 2020 lockdown.

Italian saxophonist Gaetano Partipilo’s new album “Leave&Meet” is the result of a very specific need: a virtual meeting, much like a distant hug, and the will to share a creative moment with musicians confined in their homes during the first Italian lockdown. It’s a complex, layered work, designed and written in spring 2020, followed by the search for the right musicians and by the recording, which mostly happened at different times and places.

«This second phase – Partipilo says – was the hardest, because I wanted to investigate a complete lack of interplay. Sometimes the musicians who were recording a track had no idea who else would be playing that. And this phase took 8 months! The lack of interplay leads you to new scenarios because it’s like going blindly. All those usual movements, that relentlessly drive each of us to the same familiar direction, no longer happen. I could say that, despite all its damages, the lockdown offered us a creative opportunity».

It includes 12 tracks (10 penned by Partipilo), and features 11 musicians, 2 singers, plus Partipilo himself on sax, keyboards, and synths. There will be 11 singles overall. Each of them will be released on all streaming platforms on a biweekly basis, starting from October 29th. The live show for the album launch will be on Friday, December 3rd, at Teatro Forma in Bari (Italy), supported by Node and Eskape, during the celebration of Auand’s 20th anniversary.

«I’ve selected the musicians for this project – Partipilo adds – by looking at some specific details: first of all, their area. The Boom Collective is “made in Puglia”. Second, their age: I wanted musicians younger than me, that I never played with. They brought a fresh, exciting new vision that drove our music into something unexpected to me».

This multi-layered work can be very well summed up by the opening track, which, not coincidentally, is “Puglia”. «This track – Partipilo explains – was written with the vocalist Angela Esmeralda. The first part is reminiscent of our video calls, something we all experienced back in those sad days. Our habits changed: we kept in touch using the Internet, through endless group calls, and remote learning. Everything changed, all of a sudden. “Puglia” is all about that time, our land, and our imaginary journey to distant places, whether it be New York, or Los Angeles, or Rio De Janeiro, while still staying put».