Customer Reviews

Indigo4

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These guys prove that lots of exciting things are going down in the European jazz scene. Besides ESB, Thomas Stanko, his Trio, lots of other ECM stuff, and Bugge Wesseltoff, there's a thriving, forward-looking community of improvisers in Italy, whose music is faithfully documented on avant-garde labels like Splasc(h) and occasionally finds its way to more mainstream outfits such as Blue Note.

This quartet disc headed by trombonist Gianluca Petrella showcases the Italian New Thing in a very attractive setting. Using such devices as delays, live electronics and samples, and jazz-punkish approaches to sound engineering and imaging (a la the Bad Plus), Indigo4 lays down an attractive, modern soundscape. Map onto that some very attractive reworking of standards (Monk's "Trinkle Tinkle" and Ellington's "I Got It Bad," a bass-trombone duet that astounds, and "Mood Indigo," also highly creative but in a more conventionally deconstructionist way), some killer original tunes, and brilliant playing from the four band members (Petrella, trombone, live electronics, and samples; Francesco Bearzatti, tenor sax and clarinet; Paolino Della Porta, bass; and Favio Accardi, drums) and you have a jazz disc to be reckoned with. The only stumble, and it's a slight one, is the tune "Sacred Whale," which tends to lumber, drag, and meander, although it almost comes together about midway through with a stinging tenor solo over some quite evocative whalelike electronics.

All in all, I'm very taken by this effort, and I look forward to hearing more music from this distinguished and original outfit.

Most of the album might be of a style of jazz that is an 'acquired taste', shall I say. However, 'Stockholm 64' is fantastic - one of my favourite jazz tracks.

Gianluca Petrella is an impressing Italian artist in the jazz scene.
Indigo 4 is an awesome example of his original ideas and great talent in execution.
I highly recommend to listen to his music in a live performance. He is just incredible.
Monica

This album has its moments but the for most part is overrated. The highlights of the CD are remixed samples taken from Monk's legendary session w/ Coltrane (Trinkle, Trinkle) and some snippets stolen from a Sun Ra CD (A relaxing place on Venus). For sure there are some brilliant highlights on this album. The cover of Tony Williams' There comes a time is top notch. However, much of the album just seems to drag. I think Gianluca has a lot of potential to be the next big avante garde trombonist, but there just isn't enough here yet to make it interesting. If you really love the avante garde, and especially if you are a Grachan Moncur fan and are looking for someone who might be his next generation predecessor, this is a must have. For everyone else, it's not worth picking up. This CD is not bad. It's just that it had such high reviews everywhere (here on Amazon, all music, and downbeat magazine) that I was expecting much more.