Pericopes - Legacy (2019)

The path of Pericopes + 1 continues successfully, here on the second album after the trio widening of the pianist Alessandro Sgobbio and the tenor saxophonist Emiliano Vernizzi, a trio that had already realized in 2015 the excellent These Human Beings.

This time the three arrive at the Auand label to release a record recorded at Stefano Amerio's Artesuono, the result of an intense live work (over a hundred concerts between the USA and Europe in two years) that also saw them perfect their understanding and repertoire in two long residencies abroad. The result confirms the original figure of the training, which arises from the understanding between Vernizzi and Sgobbio, from their inclination for lyrical narratives and from their use of chamber sounds and styles (for example, listen to the central part of "November Tears" or the piano conclusion of "Zardis"), but which is completed by the connection work of Nick Wight's drums, the rhythmic propulsion and the timbric interventions of which convey the sound of the formation in a very personal universe.

Add to this that in some tracks Sgobbio uses the Fender Rhodes instead of the piano, giving the atmospheres a very different color - it is for example the case of "Reverences," which has traits of transcendent evocation - and which, as already in Human Being , in some others we find vocal interventions in talking - in a particularly significant way in the passage that gives the disc the title - that produce a surplus of dynamic tension and, finally, that are frequent (and well designed) the changes of atmosphere - for example in "Red Sand Town" goes from a narration on fast times to a pause suspended from rarefied sounds, which however starts a progressive crescendo guided by the tenor-impacted tenor sax: in this way the identity of the music of the music can be better understood. trio, to fully grasp which we refer to the highly recommended listening to the disc.

It is hardly worth remembering the value of the three musicians, already appreciated in the previous album (and in the others by the original duo, who has just released a new album, What What) which is particularly appreciated for a careful listening, as put at the service of an extremely synergistic and compact work.