Meloni's Anglo-Italian quartet plays totally improvised music, Meloni deciding beforehand which
forms, sounds, timbres and registers to explore and then leaving it to discovery to produce the
instant compositions. What results is largely atonal, although that off-putting term conceals
much austere beauty in his work. He is a forceful pianist, urged on by Dunmall's insistent saxophone
and an energetic rhythm section. When at rest, his music is tranquil, Dessanay making the most of a
pastoral First Landscape with Dunmall joining him later for a contemplative duo. Finely recorded at
the Birmingham Conservatoire, this is a strong set of immediate music.
Simon Adams Jazz Journal Feb 2013
TRANSLATION
Mortified in a country that seems to have given a lot to jazz continental past thirty
years but that does not receive adequate support right where most be needed, some of
the most sensitive musicians of our house go abroad to seek better fortune.This is the
case of the two Cagliari Sebastiano Sebastiano Meloni and Dessanay calling the court of
the British Slam sharing with two lions English an interesting work record that travels
safe in the vast territories at the turn of the pure free, avant-garde and contemporary
tout court.
Meloni, in a sort of manifesto of his artistic activity, insists that his artistic lives
basically the only improvisation and offers an exemplary statement of his intentions when
he says that "the aim is to make atonal improvisation, a language composition ", which in
other words means strict rules and attention to form.At the same time, the game is far from
easy to "seek to preserve the joy inherent in musical discovery that flows through the instant
composition."
Ina Quartet Pictures ofthe operation is not at all coming evil.Abstract shapes and timbres
are obviously the strict master, but an attentive listener can not help but be awed by the
structure designed by the four protagonists of this project traveling safe in a world that
for many remains that of the "dialogue impossible."
The Anglo-Italian quartet does not need to "invent" firsts but music theory expressed is of
high caliber.Also because of other collaborations with contemporary architectures expressed
bring to mind important works dedicated to contemporary art from names such as Tony Oxley,
Roberto Dani, Adriano Orrù but Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and Cecil Taylor.One of the two
Italians is music that reflects of classical and jazz.One of the two Englishmen is wrapped in
the mantle of free decades of wide-ranging of the British school.Technique and lyricism available
atonal universe.Perhaps difficult to interpret, but once you have found the key, can give important
moments listening.What does that mean?It means creativity, fascination, groove and - ultimately -
communication.And when it is able to be conveyed in a consistent manner, then you can pull the wings.
Needless to say, the extraordinary skill of a bigwig like Paul Dunmall can really make the difference
in a work of this kind, providing depth and perspective rare. Moreover, there are exactly four decades
that the saxophonist Welling capture attention and respect not just for the unforgettable ride alongside
Elton Dean, or even the all-important adventures with Keith Tippett, Paul Rogers, Myra Melford, Henry
Grimes, Peter Brötzmann, Roswell Rudd, Barry Guy, Otomo Yoshihide, Ken Vandermak, Wadada Leo Smith, or
holds for all its permanent and historical attending the London Jazz Composers Orchestra.His discography
borders hundred and fifty discs.Of these more than half are small masterpieces of modern music.
Sanders and Dessanay, to close the circle, are the icing on the cake: two correct and careful explorers
who bring home the sense of a job that is perhaps for a few but certainly for art.
ORIGINAL
Mortificati in un paese che sembra avere dato molto al jazz continentale negli ultimi trent'anni ma che non
riceve sostegni adeguati proprio dove più servirebbero, alcuni fra i musicisti più sensibili di casa nostra
vanno a cercare all'estero miglior fortuna. È il caso dei due cagliaritani Sebastiano Meloni e Sebastiano
Dessanay che approdano alla corte della Slam britannica dividendo con due leoni inglesi un interessante lavoro
discografico che viaggia sicuro nei vasti territori a cavallo fra il puro free, l'avanguardia e la contemporanea
tout court.
Meloni, in una sorta di manifesto del suo agire artistico, sostiene fermamente che la sua ricerca artistica
vive fondamentalmente della sola improvvisazione e offre un'esemplare dichiarazione dei suoi intenti quando
afferma che "lo scopo è quello di rendere l'improvvisazione atonale, un linguaggio compositivo" che, in altre
parole, significa regole severe e attenzione alla forma. Al tempo stesso, il gioco per nulla semplice è quello
di "cercare di preservare la gioia insita nella scoperta musicale che scaturisce attraverso la composizione
istantanea ".
InPictures of a Quartetl'operazione non è per niente venuta male. Forme astratte e timbriche rigorose la fanno
ovviamente da padrone, ma un ascoltatore attento non potrà non restare affascinato dalla struttura concepita
dai quattro protagonisti di questo progetto che viaggiano sicuri in un mondo che per molti resta quello del
"dialogo impossibile".
Il quartetto anglo-italiano non ha bisogno di "inventare" novità assolute, ma la teoria musicale espressa è di
alta caratura. Anche per via di altre collaborazioni con contemporanei, le architetture espresse fanno venire
in mente importanti lavori dedicati alla contemporanea da nomi quali Tony Oxley, Roberto Dani, Adriano Orrù ma
anche Evan Parker, Derek Bailey e Cecil Taylor. Quella dei due italiani è musica che risente dell'educazione
classica e jazzistica. Quella dei due inglesi è avvolta da lustri dal mantello del free di ampio respiro della
scuola britannica. Tecnica e lirismo a disposizione dell'universo atonale. Forse difficile da interpretare ma,
una volta trovata la chiave, può regalare attimi d'ascolto importanti. Che cosa vuol dire? Vuol dire inventiva,
fascinazione, groove e - in ultima analisi - comunicazione. E quando quest'ultima riesca a essere veicolata in
maniera coerente, allora si possono tirar fuori le ali. Va da sé che la straordinaria bravura di un pezzo da
novanta come Paul Dunmall può davvero fare la differenza di un lavoro di questo genere, fornendo spessore e
prospettiva rara. Del resto, sono esattamente quattro decenni che il sassofonista di Welling cattura attenzione
e rispetto e non solo per le indimenticabili cavalcate accanto a Elton Dean o, ancora le importantissime
avventure con Keith Tippet, Paul Rogers, Myra Melford, Henry Grimes, Peter Brötzmann, Roswell Rudd, Barry Guy,
Otomo Yoshihide, Ken Vandermak, Wadada Leo Smith o, valga per tutti, la sua stabile e storica frequentazione
della London Jazz Composers Orchestra. La sua discografia rasenta i centocinquanta dischi. Di questi più della
metà sono piccoli capolavori di musica moderna.
Sanders e Dessanay, per chiudere il cerchio, rappresentano la ciliegina sulla torta: due corretti e attenti
esploratori che portano a casa il senso di un lavoro che è forse per pochi ma sicuramente per l'arte.
Vittorio Albani http://italia.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=8475
SEBASTIANO MELONI/PAUL DUNMALL/SEBASTIANO DESSANAY/MARK SANDERS -
Pictures Of A Quartet (Slam 539; UK) Featuring Sebastiano Meloni on
piano, Paul Dunmall on tenor & soprano saxes, Sebastiano Dessanay on
double bass and Mark Sanders on drums. Even without any new Duns
discs in recent memory, British sax colossus Paul Dunmall remains
prolific with several disc out this year on FMR, Rare Music and
Kilogram. Pianist Sebastiano Meloni has a previous trio disc out on
Slam as well as another trio out with Tony Oxley. Sebastiano Dessanay
also has a previous trio disc out on Slam. British drummer
extraordinare, has worked with Paul Dunmall and Evan Parker on dozens
of discs before this.
'Pictures of a Quartet' is an improvised disc featuring a series
of quartets, trios and duo sections. Right from the opeing track, the
quartet is off and running or rather soaring furiously. Dunmall is
wailing on his soprano, sailing high in the clouds with the piano,
bass and drums erupt quickly together until they slowly descend into
a more calm landing. This is a studio recording (from Birmingham, UK)
and the sound is perfect. Each piece evolves organically from modest
beginnings and then takes off for higher plains. Pianist Meloni is
pretty amazing and interacts with the rest of the quartet with like
there is no tomorrow, sounding like Cecil Taylor when he speeds up to
a superhuman pace. Considering that half of this quartet are
relatively unknown, this is still one of the finest free quartet
dates in recent memory. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
Meloni/Dunmall/Dessanay/Sanders
Pictures of a Quartet
SLAM 539
Maroney/Ilgenfritz/Niescier/Drury
Mind Games
OutNow Recordings ONR 011
With the saxophone plus rhythm section such a common configuration in Jazz,
improvisers must resort to new stratagems to bring some originality to the
proceedings. These quartets do so, but in widely different manners. The combo
on Pictures of a Quartet for instance, works on melding variants of atonal
improvisations with compositional impulses that relate to the background of
Italian pianist Sebastiano Meloni. Mind Games on the other hand transforms
the quartet symbiosis by building many of the tracks around the unexpected
timbres generated by Denman Maroney's prepared piano and Andrew Drury unusual
percussion set.
Besides the bassist and percussionist, who have worked with other advanced
improvisers including bassist Mark Dresser and violinist Jason Kao Hwang,
that CD's other contributors are another Brooklynite, bassist James Ilgenfritz,
who has worked with reedists John Zorn and Anthony Braxton among others, and
German alto saxophonist Angelika Niescier, whose Yank associates include pianist
Kris Davis. On Pictures of a Quartet, saxophonist Paul Dunmall, best-known as
a founding member of Mujician, and drummer Mark Sanders, who has seconded many
other saxmen such as Evan Parker and John Butcher, are the London-based part of
the quartet, while bassist Sebastiano Dessanay is a Sardinian who is often in
the United Kingdom. Meloni lives in Cagliari, Italy.
Geographic separation aide, Pictures of a Quartet is notable for both group and
individual creativity. The pianist for instance is spectacular on his own,
specializing in high-frequency Freebop rife with jagged tremolo runs, that
frequently minimizes the distance between McCoy Tyner's and Cecil Taylor's
conceptions. Meloni is equally sympathetic as an accompanist with his strategies
ranging from processional chording to key clipping and sliding. In one case for
instance he matter-of-factly knits a sonic carpet of welcoming textures underneath
Dunmall's breathy, low-register tenor saxophone runs.
Elsewhere a series of "Sketches for Two" show off each band member's facility in
duo formation, as for example piano soundboard quivers meet buzzing bow motions
from Dessanay; or the saxophonist's expansive slurs and twisted vibrato join the
bassist's studied pops and plucks. The defining track is "Sketches for Two – No. 3",
when Meloni and Sanders are comfortable enough in their improvising to suggest earlier
drum-piano partnerships like Taylor's with Andrew Cyrille. Moreover they move into
unexpected areas as the drummer's rolls and pops morph into drags, flams and finally
bounces, while the pianist's keyboard gymnastics encompasses tandem cascades and kinetic
note clusters. Yet all this takes place without either losing the thematic thread.
In quartet formation the widely separated "Movements No. 1", "Movements No. 2" and
"Movements No. 3" demonstrate how profound instrumental blending takes place in spite
of sequences that appear barely fraternal, rather than identical. For example,
"Movements No. 1", vibrates from an exposition of tenor saxophone line slithers,
rat-tat-tat drumming and walking bass lines into an abstract deconstruction featuring
Meloni's splayed and staccato runs, woody bass string plucks plus resounding reed slurs.
With bass string stresses and saxophone accelerations "Movements No. 2" corkscrews the
theme into widening expressiveness. Tellingly, "Movements No. 3" is the jazziest, most
accommodating, but also most atonal line. Meloni's metronomic comping and Sanders' drum-top
recoils give Dunmall license to swallow narrative swaths at supersonic speeds until his
harsh extrusions work their way into a straight line that connects with the other three
players as they improvise with the same intensity.
Even taking into account the pitch of her smaller horn, Niescier is not the dominant
presence on Mind Games that Dunmall is on the other disc; nor is her role the same. While
both quartets aim for dexterous melding, her slurred trills and squeaks more often than
not help fill in the background of the eight compositions, with broader strokes restricted
to the Maroney-Drury interface. Similarly Ilgenfritz's scrubs and plucks are overwhelmingly
bonding, with his only real expansion into stropped and stopped lines the final showpiece,
"Warum Bist Du Gekommen?"
Almost 18½-minutes long or more than double the length of the other tracks, that Niescier
composition is angled towards the mid-range, mixing atonality and so-called understated coolness.
Ilgenfritz is cast in the Scott LaFaro or Chuck Israel role, while the saxophonist's whorls and
twitters link her to Lee Konitz. Maroney's double-time exposition is in the Bill Evans' mode,
but his sharpened chording, as well as the serrated plucking and strumming of his instrument's
prepared inner strings appropriately negates any hint of imitation. Crucially, Drury's clatters,
drags and pops, plus his use of bells, dustpans and other objects makes his playing more upfront
than most percussionists who recorded with Konitz or Evans
The piano-drums duo is also front-and-centre on Maroney's "One Off or Two", a bouncy line
that that sails along on balanced piano keys stops and drum rattling as the saxophonist outlines
the jittery, unpressurized theme. In contrast, the group improv, "Perplexia" finds Niescier's
cascading trills underlined by a variation of dual piano work, with both parts played by the
composer. His instrument's prepared inner strings shudder so that tones from the bars, bowls and
blocks placed upon them create sharp interjections; on the keyboard itself, tone clusters are
sprinkled and individual keys dusted. "Green St.", another group composition finds everyone playing
hotter in the mainstream Jazz sense. The drums pitter-patter, rubato piano strings are bowed and scrapped,
Ilgenfritz outputs steadfast pumps and Niescier's off-centre squealing and tone fluttering alternates
with the pianist's string slaps.
As long as there are musicians willing to deal with an instrumental form in a novel fashion, no combo
configuration can be thought of as clichéd. Eight musicians from four countries prove that truism with
these discs.
--Ken Waxman http://www.jazzword.com/review/128167
SEBASTIANO MELONI/PAUL DUNMALL/SEBASTIANO DESSANAY/MARK SANDERS -
Pictures Of A Quartet (Slam 539; UK) Sebastiano Meloni piano, Paul
Dunmall tenor and soprano saxes, Sebastiano Dessanay double bass,
Mark Sanders drums
On this, his second SLAM CD, Meloni leads an Anglo-Italian Quartet
with his fellow countryman Dessanay on bass and UK improvising
musicians Dunmall and Sanders. Meloni describes his approach to his
music: "My music is completely improvised; I only composed a few
themes for the CD Dialogues. I am not interested in any kind of
meaning apart from that which can be derived from musical expression.
I try to uncover what music can express in itself, as well as the
emotions we could convey with atonal free improvisations. I often
decide which forms, sounds, timbres, or registers I am going to
explore ahead of time. My purpose is to make atonal improvisation a
compositional language, which means strict rules and attention to
form. At the same time, I seek to preserve the inherent joy in the
musical discovery that comes with instantaneous composition."
The album was recorded in the studios of Birmingham Conservatoire,
England, in July 2011.
Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
Severa e rilucente emissione impro (registrata al Conservatorio di Birmingham nel 2011), per uno scattante quartetto anglo-italiano (Sebastiano Meloni,Sebastiano Dessanay/Paul Dunmall,MarkSanders).
Elasticità e rigore.
Segnali, secchi ed essenziali.
Non di meno inebrianti, notturni e sensuali.
Che s'alzano in volo, dove l'aria è più leggera.
Traiettorie collettive e percorsi a due, che s'annodano organicamente, intorno ad un grumo espressivo, praticamente senza tempo.
Come segugi in caccia, di una gioia istantanea.
Dove fra, tradizione, astratto e contemporaneo, il legame è fitta opera relazionale.
Sciolta, coerente e libera da costrizioni.
Richiede appagante, intima attenzione.
Per piano, contrabbasso, sax e batteria.
Qualcuno la chiama arte, altri vita.
MarkCarcasihttp://www.kathodik.it/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=5216
TRANSLATION
Severe and bright emission impro (recorded at the Birmingham Conservatoire in 2011), for a snappy quartet Anglo-Italian (Sebastiano Meloni, Sebastiano Dessanay / Paul Dunmall, Mark Sanders).
Flexibility and rigor.
Signals, buckets and essential.
Never the less intoxicating and sensual night.
That rise in flight, where the air is lighter.
Trajectories and collective paths to two, which s'annodano organically around a lump of expression, with virtually no time.
As hounds in hunting, a joy instantaneous.
Where between tradition, abstract and contemporary, the binding is tight work relationships.
Dissolved, consistent and free from constraints.
Requires satisfying, intimate attention.
For piano, bass, sax and drums.
Some call it art, others life.
Aggiunto:January 19th 2013
Recensore:Marco Carcasi
Voto:
