Emanuele Maniscalco - Emanuele Maniscalco Meets Sandro Gibellini (2016)

An apparently classic encounter between guitar and piano, this work actually has more than one reason for interest. The first is the documentation of a collaboration that has lasted for about fifteen years but which had never been recorded before, that between the guitar of Sandro Gibellini and the piano of Emanuele Maniscalco, that is, a historic interpreter of our jazz and one of the most interesting new levers.

A second point of interest is the fact that Maniscalco is entirely occupied with the piano, when he is much better known as a drummer - from collaborations with Rava to the Third Steel trio with Nicolas Masson and Paul Motian, an excursion into Pixinguinha's Brazil ("Carinhoso "), songs by Gibellini and even four short but very interesting improvisations - in one of which, "Coffee with Bread," Maniscalco puts the keyboard at the disposal of his drumming soul.

The result is a composed and far from banal work, in which the scene is occupied above all by sound and interplay, which can be appreciated without interruption in very different situations. Simple, but refined and enjoyable.