New Jazz from Italy part 3 - Gianni Mimmo & Daniel Levin [Amirani Records]

Gianni Mimmo - soprano saxophone
Daniel Levin - cello


co-produced by Amirani Records and Teriayki Records 2012

There are many ways to look at improvisation and many metaphorical ways to describe it. Like the similarities it presents to the art of pottery. Allow me to cite Bill Shoemaker's liner notes to the cd by Carnival Skin*:  "Artists who work with viscous materials like clay and grass are acutely aware of turbulence and how it may turn a potentially bold form into a worthless heap. They push the material right up to the line, allowing a smoothly flowing centrifugal force to do its thing without compromising the integrity of the material".

New Jazz from Italy part 1 - MAGIMC [Amirani Records]

I've dedicated recently a few posts to a new jazz music coming our way from Russia, thanks to the continuous dedication and commitment to great music presented by Leo Feign. 

Over the next few posts I'd like to present a some releases that I believe provide an insight into Italian free jazz/improvisation scene, whose input into the European free-jazz community is often overlooked. It might be argued that the romantic tradition of opera and belcanto provide a much better environment for lyrical, mainstream jazz. 

Think on other hand of Italian Instabile Orchestra or the entire catalogues of Soul Note or Black Lion labels. There's a lot of creative buzz going on in Italy these days, Leo Records is again one of the accomplices, but there are others as well. 

You can consult some previous posts presentind records released by Stefano Ferian's dEN label (Nido Workshop, Claudio Guida & Marcello Testa or Ferrian's Nutimbre), two rock-jazz oriented trios presented by Leo (Swedish Mobilia and Telegraph) and Andrea Bolzoni & Daniele Frati duo released by Setola di Maiale. All three of the lables mentioned above will appear in the cycle but let's start with a new one - Amiriani records directed by the saxophonist Gianni Mimmo.

MAGIMC - Polishing The Mirror

Edoardo Marraffa - tenor sax, sopranino sax
Thollem McDonas - piano
Stefano Giust - drums, cymbals, objects

Amirani Records 2012

Amiriani records is directed by Gianni Mimmo and claims one of it it's artistic goals to create projects that will cross national and artistic boundaries. MAGICMC is a fine example, a trio featuring italian sax player Edoardo Marraffa and the drummer Stefano Giust alongside american pianist Thollem McDonas, for a series of spirited improvisations.