Ernst Reijseger & Franco D'Andrea - I love you so much it hurts| Musicians |
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Compositions |
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Ernst Reijseger [cello];
Franco D’Andrea [piano] |
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1. In a sentimental mood [Ellington]
2. Night and day [Cole Porter]
3. Two colors [Franco D’Andrea]
4. Ma l’amore no [D’Anzi, Curci]
5. Afro abstraction [D’Andrea]
6. Hi there [Sean Bergin]
7. Amore baciami [C. A. Rossi]
8. You do something to me [Porter]
9. Complex eight [Mengelberg]
10. Reflections [Thelonious Monk]
11. I love you so much it hurts [Floyd Tillman]
total
time: 55:35 |
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We owe it to chance that Ernst Reijseger and Franco D'Andrea ran into
each other three years ago. The paths of the two masters of their
instrument (cello and piano), both of them long time protagonists on the
European jazz scene, had never crossed before. But a short encounter
was all it took to make affinities manifest and to convince the two
musicians to pursue their collaboration. Their telepathic understanding,
which only the sensibility of jazz allows on such a high level, can be
felt from the first measures of I love you so much it hurts, which is
the result of a series of recent live performances by the duo. The age
old relationship between cello and piano is reinvented by Reijseger and
D'Andrea as they go along, bowling over our expectations;
identification with a classical, or even jazz, "repertoire" is
proscribed as they zigzag across their sound realm, free of prejudice,
full of irony and lyrical abandon.
The musicians' path is marked by aesthetic adventure, by the breach
of all linguistic conventions. Since the beginning of the 80's, Ernst
Reijseger has been one of the most appreciated cellists on the
improvised music scene. Having fallen at a young age into the cauldron
of Dutch free-jazz, he perfected the music of Sean Bergin, Guus Jansen
and Michael Moore and was the backbone of the ICP Orchestra as well as
the Trio Clusone (with Han Bennik and Michael Moore). He works with many
groups, among which the Gerry Hemingway-Quintet and the Amsterdam
String Trio. And in-between as a soloist. Several Reijseger productions
have already been published by Winter & Winter: "Colla Parte" (N°
910 012-2, for solo cello), "Colla Voce" (N° 910 037-2), in
collaboration with Alan Purves and the Sardinian choir Tenore e Cuncordu
de Orosei, as well as the Amsterdam String Trio's "Winter Theme"
(N°910 060-2).
Franco D'Andrea is a depositary of the heritage of modern Italian
jazz, has been ever since the avant-garde of the early 60's with the
Modern Art Trio, as the preferred pianist of American soloists passing
through, as a member of the Perigeo and, from the 80's on, as an
all-round composer and improviser. In more recent times, D'Andrea has
formed the orchestra "Eleven"; he leads a quartet and has just brought
out eight CDs with piano improvisations.
The repertoire from I love you so much it hurts plays on several
fronts, without ever losing sight of the leading strand, a sober yet
playful approach toward the sound material. It seems as though the two
are constantly challenging each other with the most varied combinations
of timbre, color and rhythm which the selected themes have to offer.
Surely, "Night and Day" was never before played in such an unusual
arrangement. Reijseger's electrifying arpeggios make up the harmonic
foundation to D'Andrea's minimalist playing with fragments from the
theme, bringing "Night and Day" to peaks of intensity. The two Italian
songs "Ma L'Amore No" and "Amore Baciami" were rarely performed in such
lyrical and melancholy versions. Reijseger displays all of his
instrument's polysemic potential: with the complex "Afro abstractions",
the cello turns into a set of drums and at times, through a broadening
of the range of the timbri, into a guitar. And in D'Andrea's piano
playing style, swing jazz and African polyrhythms, polytonal structures
and the essence of blues all come together.
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Stefano Merighi, August 2002
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