Three years after the excellent Things, here is the duo's new album, here expanded in some songs to the Alborada String Quartet where Sonia, Paolo's wife, plays. Compared to the previous work, which seemed more like the beautiful but fortuitous meeting of two protagonists, here there is an evident harmony and the logical development of two creative and multidirectional minds. While Fresu imparts lyricism, discursive ease, multi-ethnic stimuli, Uri Caine manages to insert a personal and highly cultured imprint into each song, passing through osmosis from jazz to classical language, without forgetting blues and American song. Only two standards are present, Darn That Dream which opens the album, and the Rollinsiana Doxy . Then there is a different revival ofHandel's Leave Ch'io Pianga and a series of new and old compositions, from Non ti Scordar di me to Centochiodi , from the film of the same name by Ermanno Olmi. The Alborada String Quartet makes its appearance in Blood Money , underlining and supporting the muted trumpet that punctuates the theme, while the piano embroiders arpeggios before launching into a short significant solo. The exchange of roles between the two protagonists in The Dragon , a post-boppist piece with an evocative and linear theme, is very effective. In Memoriam it is a slow and meditative aria, with the melody supported by strings and trumpet and a wonderful piano that distills notes and silences. Caine 's cultured and imaginative quotation , Fresu 's melancholic and poignant trumpet create a varied and pleasant album in which jazz is one of the components. The Alborada String Quartet offers classical atmospheres with taste and grace. The Fresu family is completed in the last song, Cowboy and Indians , where the laughter of little Andrea is the initial and final background to the strings and instruments of the two protagonists. - Roberto dell'Ava / jazzitalia.net
Tracks
01. Darn That Dream (James Van Heusen/Eddie De Lange)
02. Blood Money (Uri Caine)
03. Medley: The Way Forward / Metamorfosi (Diederik Vissels / Paolo Fresu)
04. The Dragon (Uri Caine)
05. Doxy (Sonny Rollins)
06. In Memoriam (Uri Caine)
07. Duru Duru Durulìa (Paolo Fresu)
08. Lascia Ch'io Pianga (Georg Friederich Haendel)
09. Think (Fresu/Caine/Berovski/Peana/Ciricugno/Salvatore)
10. Medley: Non Ti Scordar Di Me / Centochiodi (Ernesto De Curtis, Domenico Furnô / Paolo Fresu)
11. Claws (Uri Caine)
12. Roberto Strepitoso (Uri Caine)
13. Ossi (Paolo Fresu/Dieterik Wissels)
14. Tema Celeste (Paolo Fresu)
15. Cowboys And Indians (Uri Caine)
URI CAINE piano, e-piano
PAOLO FRESU trumpet, flugelhorn, effects
With/ ALBORADA STRING QUARTET
Recorded Oct. 10-12, 2008 and Mixed Nov. 15-16 at ArteSuono Recording Studio, Cavalicco, Udine, Italy
Blue Note – 50999 693875 2 4