Art Lande, David Samuels, Paul McCandless - Skylight (1981)

As one of the finest mallet players of his generation, Dave Samuels has trodden a wide and multifarious path. From Double Image (his gorgeous project with David Friedman) to the exciting territories of his work with the Caribbean Jazz Project (some of the best Latin jazz around), not to mention his fruitful years with Spyro Gyra, Samuels brings a signature delicacy to his playing that is comforting and domestic. His first two intersections with ECM, Dawn and Gallery, are both sadly out of print but make a flowing trilogy of sorts with 1981’s Skylight, which thankfully is still available and marks his last appearance on the label. Joined by one-and-only Art Lande and Paul McCandless, Samuels shows us his compositional brilliance in the airy title cut. Not to be outdone, Lande and McCandless offer two tunes apiece. Lande’s territories are more contradictory in their energies, at once twilit and dripping with morning dew, and undeniably engaging. The reed work of McCandless is awesome in its quiet power, particularly in his “Willow,” which closes the album in unified pleasure. Two improvisations round out this overlooked effort. The loamy tales of a bass clarinet thread every monochromatic turn of “Duck In A Colourful Blanket (For Here),” while the inter-ludinal “Ente (To Go)” stands as one of the most effective pieces to employ a thumb piano I’ve heard in a long time. While the album’s title may refer to an architectural feature, here one encounters its meteorological meaning (“the diffuse light from the sky, scattered by air molecules, as distinguished from the direct radiation from the sun”) in full. With a blend of joy and sorrow that is imaginative but never gaudy, this singular trio session shows us that, even in a darkening day there is music to be discovered. ~ Tyran Grillo, ecmreviews.com. 

ECM Records, 531 025-2, 1982
Recorded May, 1981 at Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg, Germany 

Musicians:
Art Lande - Piano, Percussion
David Samuels - Vibraphone [Vibraharp], Marimba, Percussion
Paul McCandless - Soprano Sax, English Horn, Oboe, Bass Clarinet, Wood Flute

Tracks:
1. Skylight {David Samuels} (8:09)
2. Dance Of The Silver Skeezix {Art Lande} (6:30)
3. Duck In A Colorful Blanket [For Here] {Lande, Samuels, McCandless} (1:28)
4. Chillum {Paul McCandless} (5:14)
5. Moist Windows / Lawn Party {Art Lande} (8:01)
6. Ente [To Go] {Art Lande, David Samuels, Paul McCandless} (2:01)
7. Willow {Paul McCandless} (9:08) 

Total Time: 40:33 

Credits:
Producer - Manfred Eicher
Engineer - Martin Wieland
Cover Design - Barbara Wojirsch
Photography [Cover] - Klaus Frahm
Photography [Liner] - W. Patrick Hinely

Ada Montellanico, Enrico Pieranunzi - Danza Di Una Ninfa (2005)

Two great artists leading an exceptional ensemble to present a project that will not fail to amaze and fascinate jazz and non-jazz fans. Ada Montellanico and Enrico Pieranunzi have, in fact, created a new work for the EGEA label that is a real journey into the poetic-musical world of Luigi Tenco. It is difficult to imagine a more effective combination to face and carry out such a delicate operation as that of giving life to new original sound stories through the exciting stories contained in the beautiful music and lyrics of the singer-songwriter. The two artists who signed "Dance of a Nymph" have brilliantly succeeded in the undertaking thanks to the excellent qualities that have long been recognized to them. Ada Montellanico has carved out her own, important space in the vocal panorama for making the Italian language sound and jazz improvisation and for being an interpreter capable of making her intimate emotional world adhere to the needs of narration. Enrico Pieranunzi, for his part, has built over the years, through his improvisations and compositions, a very personal sound universe that has made him one of the most appreciated Italian musicians in the world. If it is true that the Montellanico / Pieranunzi collaboration has already produced important works in the past such as "L'altra Tenco" (1996) and "But love no" (1997), it must be said immediately that "Dance of a nymph" presents itself as a completely new project, in a certain sense "revolutionary" because in it the most refined Italian songwriting tradition blends with the most authentic and transgressive jazz; so famous compositions such as, for example, "I fell in love with you" and "I understood that I love you" thanks to Pieranunzi's surprising, "transversal" arrangements and Montellanico's passionate, highly original interpretative approach, they will be completely "unpublished". 

But, speaking of "unpublished", four truly special songs can be heard on the CD that cannot fail to impress with their great beauty and poetic force. There are four texts by Luigi Tenco - two of which set to music by Montellanico, two by Pieranunzi - whose recording constitutes an "event within an event" because never before have the songwriter's lyrics been set to music, an operation that has the other received the warm consent and support of the Tenco family. And the fact that two jazz musicians did all this has a particular flavor, taking into account the enormous importance that this music had in the formative years of the future author of so many wonderful songs. Naturally the extraordinary artistic results of the project would not have been possible without the decisive contribution of the musicians who participated in it, each of whom enriched the CD with his strong expressive personality with an exceptional guest, the prestigious American multi-instrumentalist Paul McCandless, for some time strong point of the legendary "Oregon". A project therefore that constitutes for various reasons an important and rare opportunity also and above all for the subtle interplay between the two artists who created it: a sort of seductive interplay, thanks to which Montellanico makes the word "Sound" and Pieranunzi transforms his sound into "word". But mainly, it will be possible to rediscover the immense originality and depth of Luigi Tenco, one of the most important artists ever to appear on the Italian music scene, in a completely new and unexpected guise. ~ enricopieranunzi.it [Translated from Italian] 

EGEA Records, SCA 121, 2005
Recorded 20th and 21st February, 2005 at Oratorio Di Santa Cecilia, Perugia, Italy 

Musicians:
Ada Montellanico - Vocals
Enrico Pieranunzi - Piano, Arranger
Paul McCandless - Soprano Saxophone, Oboe, English Horn, Bass Clarinet, Flute
Bebo Ferra - Guitar
Luca Bulgarelli - Double Bass
Piero Salvatori - Cello
Michele Rabbia - Drums, Percussion
Arkè String Quartet (#1,2,9) 

Tracks:
01. Mi Sono Innamorato Di Te {Luigi Tenco} (7:23)
02. Da Quando {Ada Montellanico, Luigi Tenco} (5:29)
03. Mia Cara Amica {Enrico Pieranunzi, Luigi Tenco} (6:12)
04. Quasi Sera {Carlo Donida, Luigi Tenco} (4:51)
05. Danza Di Una Ninfa Sotto La Luna {Ada Montellanico, Luigi Tenco} (6:24)
06. Che Cos'e'? {Enrico Pieranunzi} (4:12)
07. Ho Capito Che Ti Amo {Luigi Tenco} (5:39)
08. Il Tempo Passò {Gianfranco Reverberi, Luigi Tenco} (5:39)
09. In Qualche Parte Del Mondo {Luigi Tenco} (5:45)
10. O Me {Enrico Pieranunzi, Luigi Tenco} (4:59) 

Total Time: 56:41 

Credits:
Recording & Mixing - Angelo Cioffi
Cover [Watercolor] - Richard Peduzzi
Graphics [Progetto Grafico] - Cecilia Valli
Photography - Adriano Scognamillo
Liner Notes - Walter Veltroni
Liner Notes [Translation] - Darragh Henegan 

Danza Di Una Ninfa Sotto La Luna