Giovanni Palombo - Taccuino di Jazz Popolare (2019)

A project that represents a crossroads between jazz, Mediterranean music and popular traditions that in a purely acoustic dimension also embraces classical music. This is the essence of Popular Jazz Notebook, a new album by guitarist and composer Giovanni Palombo that comes out on September 11th 2019 for the Emme Record Label. A fresh and original work that brings together the most recent compositions of the leading band and that well sums up the artistic ideas of a versatile and refined musician. The notebook is, in fact, a real notebook made of musical notations, ideas and scraps of songs that over time have become real compositions. Jazz is popular because all these songs draw on a wide musical heritage that contains elements of different music implanted in a jazz content. The songs, all original (except for one small exception) are performed both by the Chamber Ensemble quartet that sees in addition to the guitarist the presence of Gabriele Coen (sax-clarinet), Benny Penazzi (cello), Francesco Savoretti (percussion); that from the guitar-organ duo with Alessandro D'Alessandro and the one with Pasquale Laino (guitar-sax, electronics). The musical ensemble of the quartet is expressed in a chamber style, with arrangements that become the real meeting point between the sounds of instruments that blend perfectly: the strings of guitar and cello, the winds and percussion refer to European and Mediterranean sounds with a strong melodic and cantabile component, but also with the presence of improvisational spaces and jazz textures that place Palombo's music in the context of Italian jazz.

The album opens with A Touch of Oregon, a track that represents a real tribute to the Oregon and in particular to the band's guitarist Ralph Towner. Scarborough Fair is instead an ancient folk song that is interpreted in a folk-jazz key. Barbiere's Retrobottega is a tribute to the master Gino Palombo where the story of all those musicians who, in the past, earned their living doing crafts like the Barber, turning the backshop into a real rehearsal room. Folk Dance is an interpretation of Italian folk dance, for accordion and guitar, while Meltemi is a musical rendition of the Aegean wind. The Prayer of the Mother is a passage dedicated to the author's mother from which she exudes a timeless love. A Li Santi Vecchi Nun Se Dà Più Incenso is another popular piece whose title is inspired by an old proverb from the dialect of Rome which means that "Nobody honors the old saints". Tango scene, is a composition that clearly draws from the Argentine musical tradition, while Luna Rossa in Istanbul represents the photograph of a moment in which the Moon, during a lunar eclipse seen precisely in Istanbul, turns bright red.

Giovanni Palombo plays acoustic and classical guitar, using the fingerstyle style, that is the touch of the fingers of the right hand without a pick. The concerts of Palombo as well as in quartet, often occur even for acoustic guitar alone, or in duo, as evidenced by some CD tracks that see him in an original guitar-barrel formula (with Alessandro D'Alessandro, exponent of music popular, but innovator and master of his instrument), or in the duo with Pasquale Laino, eclectic saxophonist and live electronics user. The record was recorded in a "live studio" formula, as is almost always done in jazz. The songs are performed live by the musicians in different takes, of which we then choose the best versions. This shows the tracks recorded the potential and the actual sound of the live performance.