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Italian reed player Carlo Actis Dato has been playing modern jazz since the 1970s. He was a founder of the Italian new jazz group Art Studio, a member of the Italian Instabile Orchestra and has played with musicians such as Gianluigi Trovesi, Georgio Gaslini, Pino Minafra and others.
Dato plays tenor and baritone saxes and bass clarinet on his new album,
Garibaldi, and is joined by four younger musicians who play sax (alto and soprano), guitar, bass and drums.
The quintet, called the
Actis Band, combines avant-garde free jazz with some rockish rhythm elements.
On the opening tune "Vulcano Boro," the rhythm section of bassist Federico Marchesano and drummer Dardo Bruna plays a repeating, funky beat under some instense, screaming tenor sax playing. Dato switches to baritone sax on "Qued," which also has an interesting structure—while the bass and drums again play a heavy beat, Massimo Rossi plays a melody on the soprano sax and Dato has a screaming solo on the baritone. At around the four minute mark the horns drop and the piece gets quieter during a short bass and drum duet.
Other tunes change the pattern: "Dulcinea" has a surfy guitar solo opening by Antonio Fontana, then turns into more of a ballad, and Dato plays some bass clarinet towards the end.
"Viva Zapata" has some melodic guitar and bass playing. The tune takes a wink at Mexican folk music, with some Spanish-sounding hooting and flamenco style guitar strumming.
And the song "Miso Soup" is played at a slow tempo and has a shuffly, oozy feel—the title is descriptive of the piece, which sounds sounds cloudy, like the soup.
In summary, Garibalda seems to be another example of musicians using various strategies to mix musical traditions and genres. It's a quite enjoyable, listenable and fun recording.
Actis Band:
Garibaldi (Leo)
Release Date:
4 March 2003
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last update 25 April 2003