Francesco Branciamore & Crossover Ensemble - Remembering B. E. (A Tribute To Bill Evans) (2013)

After almost 35 years of professional career in jazz, after having recorded dozens of albums both as a leader and as a sideman, drummer and composer Francesco Branciamore, born in Syracuse, has become one of the leading figures in the contemporary jazz scene, not only in Italy. In «Remembering B.E.», the fifth record for Caligola, which is completely different from the previous ones (but so are the others among them), Branciamore works exclusively as a director, arranger and composer. The subheading of the record, “A tribute to Bill Evans”, does not leave any room for doubts or misunderstandings. This, however, is not one of the many tributes to the great jazz pianist who died in 1980, but a very special work, which does not include improvisation, is played by a classical sextet, the Crossover Ensemble, and most importantly, sees pianist Marina Gallo perform the full transcripts of Evans’ solos, made by Branciamore, also the author of all the arrangements. No tribute has so far provided a lineup similar to the one used for this recording. A similar experiment, likewise related to classical music, was made in 1986 by the Kronos Quartet with Eddie Gomez and Jim Hall. The leader has therefore worked on Bill Evans’s classical soul, trying to emphasize the influence that Chopin, Ravel, Debussy and Satie exerted on him, but also to highlight the more subtle and varied shades of his music. The album does not only contain songs composed by the unforgettable pianist, but also some of the standard he most loved, as well as two new compositions that Francesco Branciamore wanted to dedicate to him.