Domenico Caliri, Cal Trio - Aria Mossa (2018)

Among the most important Italian jazz guitarists of the last twenty years, Domenico Caliri, unlike many of his colleagues, is not a very prolific musician in terms of records, especially as a leader. Therefore every new work of his, always long meditated, is rich in content and almost never disappoints his many admirers. In this fourth record for Caligola, the Sicilian guitarist, now almost Bolognese by adoption, dusts off that Cal Trio that made the news in the last decade, when he had Antonio Borghini and Cristiano Calcagnile (then replaced by Federico Scettri) by his side. In the last couple of years – after the tiring, but exciting experience with the expanded ensemble «Camera lirica» (2014) – Caliri is back with the trio, a line-up that he especially feels comfortable with, as he often plays with bass player Stefano Senni and drummer Marco Frattini. Concert after concert, following a few years off, the Cal Trio is now reborn, delineating an increasingly precise and original identity, enough to push its leader to write new music and then record it. All the compositions were written between 2015 and 2018 – Nini G. just before the recording – with the sole exception of My mind on a surf, composed in 2013 for «Dialoghi a corde», album recorded in duo with Ares Tavolazzi (double bass) and published in 2015 by the Onyx Club of Matera. Both the most challenging songs, such as Aria mossa and Serpe, characterized by fast arpeggios and continual changes in tempo, and those seemingly lighter and easygoing, such as the aforementioned My mind on a surf or the latin M ‘usciau’, have in common the search for a melodic cantability and at the same time the irregularity, often unpredictable, of the rhythmic structure. All the songs by the guitarist are at the same time melodic and “crooked”, a well–established feature of his style, and the work done by the solid rhythmic couple formed by Senni and Frattini is especially commendable and precious in the aim of smoothing corners that are often very sharp.