Riccardo Chiarion feat. John Taylor, Julian Siegel, Diana Torto, Alessandro Turchet & Luca Colussi - Waves (2015)

More than a year after its recording and a few months from the untimely passing of John Taylor, the third work as a leader of the guitarist Riccardo Chiarion, from Gorizia, is finally released, perhaps the most important of his fruitful artistic career so far. At forty years old, he proves to be not only an original soloist, but also a refined composer, a skilled arranger, a mature and complete musician, worthy, despite his reserved nature, of greater attention than the one he has been given so far. The sextet of «Waves» works with empathy and fluid synergy, and the notes of the musicians, primarily Taylor (his piano in Acquarello is sublime), seem to flow like the waters of a crystal clear mountain river, rich and flowing, but contained in safe banks. Slow and contemplative compositions alternate with others at a medium or even more sustained pace. The opening is particularly successful, with the short Ogni stella po 'ncantà , capable of turning into a much more lambent Voce. Although Diana Torto is present in all songs, there are only four of them with lyrics. Of these, three bear the signature of the singer, while I have lost is taken from an Emily Dickinson's poem (Where I have lost, I softer tread). There was the risk that the group would become the sum of two trios, the one of Chiarion, for over a decade accompanied by Turchet and Colussi, and the equally close - knit one of the three guests, given that Taylor and Julian Siegel (his sax is particularly inspired in Waves and Babele) in the recent years had flanked several times Miss Torto, who here confirms once again those qualities for which she is justly famous. Her voice is in fact the sixth instrument of the band, with all due respect to those who do not believe it is possible to renew the scat. Finally Chiarion has the merit of being able to make homogeneous and unified a project that could risk otherwise to appear extemporaneous or only linked to the strong personality of the guests."