Tiziana Ghiglioni, Enrico Rava, Mal Waldron - I'll Be Around (1989)

Not many singers could pull off the kind of vulnerable, open-armed performance Tiziana Ghiglioni does on this wonderful collection of ballads. Maybe Sheila Jordan or Helen Merrill or Chet Baker when he was young. Fragile, brave, backed only by the spare piano of Mal Waldron and the trumpet of Enrico Rava, Ghiglioni gets the most out of understatement, which is a true art. ~ by Jack Fuller, Chicago Tribune.

"Music this intimate and emotionally naked is seldom risked; it's safer to show off techinique than to expose feelings.  Ghiglioni, Rava, and Waldron shed light on the dark corners of the soul, with music that is beautifully bittersweet." ~ from Liner Notes by Art Lange.

Soul Note, 121256-2, 1991

Recorded 25^th July & 1^st August, 1989 At Barigozzi Studio, Milano, Italy

Personnel:

Tiziana Ghiglioni - Vocals

Enrico Rava - Trumpet

Mal Waldron - Piano

Tracks:

01. Am I Blue? {Harry Akst, Grant Clarke} (6:15)

02. They Can't Take That Away From Me {George & Ira Gershwin} (5:14)

03. You Don't Know What Love Is {Gene DePaul, Don Raye} (7:18)

04. All Or Nothing At All {Arthur Altman, Jack Lawrence} (3:22)

05. Glad To Be Unhappy {Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart} (5:16)

06. I'll Be Around {Alec Wilder} (2:49)

07. Yesterdays {Jerome Kern, Otto Harbach} (2:23)

08. Where Are You? {Harold Adamson, Jimmy McHugh} (4:16)

09. Darn That Dream {Edgar De Lange, Jimmy Van Heusen} (5:43)

10. But Not For Me {George & Ira Gershwin} (2:09)

Credits:

Recording Engineer - Giancarlo Barigozzi

Mastering Engineer - Gennaro Carone (Phonocomp, Tribano, Milano)

Cover Painting - Giuliano Crivelli

Photo [Tiziana Ghiglioni, Enrico Rava] - Lidia Panizzut

Photo [Mal Waldron] - Brian McMillen

Cover Art by Xerios and Paola Bianchi

Liner Notes - Art Lange 

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It is an intimate album, modest in its pretensions and great in its results. It consists of ten standards with cause. That is, immortal. And it is delightful to hear Tiziana's nuanced voice, accompanied by the minimalists Rava and Waldron, fortunately two declared enemies of artificiality and pyrotechnics. There is a splendid version of "Am I Blue?", The best I've ever heard (along with Charlie Rich in "Pictures And Paintings" and Ray Charles in "Modern Sounds in Country & Western"), but I also love the light of "They Can not Take That Away From Me".

Neither are the melancholy interpretation of "Where Are You?" And "Darn That Dream" (yes, with the inevitable shadow of Sinatra gravitating around). Less I like the somewhat accelerated, in my opinion, of "All Or Nothing At All". And there is still the title track, "I'll Be Around," by Alec Wilder, which Carmen McRae will take to infinity. And the mere mention of such a singer already gives an idea of the category that Tiziana Ghiglioni has.

And there is place, for solo performances like Waldron's exciting "Glad To Be Unhappy" and Rava's nude and cutting of "Yesterdays". And also duos like the ghostly, black film, Rava and Waldron of "You Do not Know What Is Love Is", daquí stripped of a certain mellow of other versions. The "But Not For Me" by Tiziana and Enrico is also comforting.

In short, a very content album, very pleasant; that yes, not to listen in any way, but with the due attention that simple things require, those that we neglect daily, and that, nevertheless, form an important part of life precisely because of their vocation of transcendence, because it is the reverse of the bombast with which so many musical, literary or cinematographic works are undertaken. A blessing in these times. ~ dorotea, RYM.