Paolino Dalla Porta - Esperanto (1996)

Has there ever been a bassist like Paolino Della Porta in Italian jazz? Della Porta is a more rounded musician than many of his contemporaries, in that his interests in folk music, particularly that of Southern Italy, South Africa, and Latin America, borders on the obsessive. Della Porta has assembled a band for this recording that digs deeply into the roots of all those musics and comes out sounding like an Italian jazz record nonetheless. Featuring Antonello Sallis on accordion and piano (in that order), Massimo Manzi on drums, Ricardo Luppi on saxophones and flute, and guests Bebo Ferra on guitar and Frederico Sanesi on tabla and other percussion in places, Della Porta has created a world-class ensemble to explore his restless musical visions in a variety of settings, textures, and colors. "Mbira," which opens the set is part tango, part South African jive street jam, and part zydeco, with perhaps the finest accordion solo on record in the last 20 years by Sallis. His rattling though the changes and bassline arpeggios is breathless. On the title track, Luppi's soprano saxophone lilts and preens the blues sparely and sweetly until the rest of the band kicks in and he goes modal with his horn walking through Eastern scalar territories with the ease of flowing water. Upheld by the augmented minors of Sallis' piano and Sanesi's tables, it's almost like hearing the band Oregon play jazz -- but far more glorious. Della Porta gets his own solo on "San Galgano," where he makes the instrument sing with a deep mournful yet pastoral lyricism. The set closes with "Game 7," a completely improvised vanguard thing, and one wonders why it was placed on the album at all let alone as the last track, but even this works because of the superb musicianship and determined flair of Della Porta to lead this band through all the music is in his head. This is a wonder of a record, full of delight and surprises.