Antonio Flinta Quartet - Cycles and Rhymes (2019)

I like melody, I like to compose melodies, and I believe a melody by itself can bring you to unknown places. Cycles and Rhymes is a song based entirely on its melody. It is very songful, even if it is made up of two 12 note phrases that use each one of the 12 notes just once.

I composed There is always a different tale while I was reading Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology, and I really believe there are more stories behind the ones we know about the people we think we know. To say it with W. H. Auden: …”there is always another story, there is more than meets the eye.”

What do you wish for, peace of mind? Peace for the world? No frontiers or better, no countries at all? Or your country be so rich you had not to leave and die? Health for your dearest? Somebody gone forever be here back just for a little while? One more sunny day? Wayne Shorter’s words “try to play what you wish for, play how you wish the world to be” inspired me to write this song…and may your wishes all come true.

Truth is always there somewhere and can never be destroyed. However, to unveil the truth one needs patience, persistence, endurance… and dedication, faith and love. The song is in E minor but actually E major is there somewhere, hidden.

Pablo Neruda’s verses: “…me sentí parte pura del abismo, rodé con las estrellas, mi corazón se desató en el viento” are the last lines of his poem “La Poesía” from “Memorial de Isla Negra”. The same poem inspired me to write the song La Noche Arrolladora on our previous album, so this song of cycles, rhythms and space is its natural following.

And to close the album we played Yellow meets Blue, a blues where sax and bass play a double melody.

Antonio Flinta piano,
Luciano Orologi tenor sax, soprano sax on Cycles and Rhymes,
Roberto Bucci double bass,
Claudio Gioannini drums and the four of us sing on Unveil the truth.