Claudio Cojaniz - Orfani (2021)

The collaboration between Claudio Cojaniz and Caligola began in 2004 with «War Orphans», an album made as a duo with Giancarlo Schiaffini. An already established pianist of the national jazz scene and protagonist of a few important albums for Splasc(H) Records, but not only, Cojaniz has kept releasing his albums through our label and this wonderful «Orfani» is the sixteenth title of the series. There is no denying that’s quite an accomplishment: it’s an absolute record in the nonetheless large Caligola roster. The “protective father” Cojaniz is credited with helping the growth of those who were only young rising stars back in 2009 and now are wonderful players of Italian jazz, that is double bass player Alessandro Turchet and drummer Luca Colussi. In 2010 that trio recorded «The Heart of the Universe» and a few years later percussionist Luca Grizzo, from Friuli too, joined in and enriched the already varied palette with new, stunning colors. The quartet, whose albums have been recorded since 2016, got to the top with this project by incorporating elements of the previous albums «Sound of Africa» and «Molineddu», but at the same time outdoing them in terms of cohesion and general design. Some African echoes are left in Bozo and Mokoba, but they are softer and attenuated; the lyrical, tender melodies of Blues dans la nuit and Winter complete them in a magical way. When translated into Italian, even the title track’s melancholic theme, Orphans, the pensive Fumoir and the hypnotic Papaveri Gialli have a deep, often fleeting sense of the blues, here meant more as a state of the soul than musical structure, more spoken language than grammar in other words. In such evocative musical journey the pianist from Friuli is marvelously accompanied by the lavish, precise double bass of Alessandro Turchet, Luca Colussi’s creative, throbbing drums and the imaginative, yet always spot–on percussion of Luca Grizzo. That’s a group who can surely say to have achieved model cohesion after a decade–long activity.