Gaspare Pasini - Ball & Boss

Ball & Boss opens with Kurt Weill's 1942 classic "Speak Low" whose journey from Broadway to Billie Holiday, Norah Jones, and countless jazz artists mirrors Pier Paolo Pasolini's debut Friulian poems in Casarsa that same year. Over eight decades, "Speak Low" became a jazz icon.

Leader Gaspare Pasini (b. 1958, Pordenone) channels that legacy on alto sax, his near-tenor timbre blending with vocalist Shawnn Monteiro's mezzosoprano. Discovered by Mongo Santamaria, Monteiro travels the Atlantic sharing jazz and blues as dialéghestai--dialogue through music. Their interplay exemplifies the nitore nell'esposizione del tema: crystal-clear thematic statements shaped by precise vibrato and tonal control, forging an intimate, living language.
Slow-tempo highlights like "Only Trust Your Heart" and "You're Looking at Me" halve Nat King Cole's medium swing, revealing the near-shamanic art of ballad interpretation. Anchoring the session, Dave Zinno (double bass) and Steve Langone (drums)--decades-long collaborators also on Monteiro's To Carmen with Love--form a rock-solid rhythm core. Tim Ray (piano), a John Patitucci sideman, weaves dreamlike harmonies that feel both novel and intrinsic.
Pasini's own Minor Thursday and Tess entwine with centuries-old forms, their Ball(ads) and Boss(anova) moods encapsulating two days of recording as a vision of a loftier world. Two finale gems, "I Told You So" and "Never Let Me Go," aren't mere outtakes but masterclasses: solo alto statements, Zinno's arco then pizzicato chorus, and Ray's closing reprise deliver the session's most thrilling moment.