“Rings Of Fire”, the new cd by Tononi and Cavallanti, is now available.

Special guest: acclaimed violin player Jenny Scheinman, and the best from the Italian jazz/avant scene: Giovanni Maier, Achille Succi, Emanuele Parrini and others.

Two long suites. 80 minutes of adventurous and creative music.

The Project:

Tenor/baritone/composer Daniele Cavallanti and drummer/percussionist/composer Tiziano Tononi, from Milano, Italy, have been playing together for the last thirty years. Since 1980 have been co-leading the band Nexus. Considered an historical avant garde Italian band, Nexus has been voted a number of times best band by critics in the annual jazz magazine Musica Jazz “Top Jazz Referendum”. They are also founding members of the celebrated Italian Instabile Orchestra. Both with Nexus and the Italian Instabile Orchestra, Cavallanti and Tononi performed all over Europe, United States, Canada and Japan and during their career they have been playing and recording with some of the most representative Italian jazz musicians such as: Enrico Rava, Gianluigi Trovesi, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Giorgio Gaslini and with a number of international jazz masters such as: Raphael Garrett, Radu Malfatti, Barre Phillips, Oliver Lake, Leroy Jenkins, Glenn Ferris, Mark Dresser, Herb Robertson, Steve Lacy,  Dave Liebman, Stuart Copeland, Andrew Cyrille, Maggie Nicols, Dewey Redman, Muhal Richard Abrahms, Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Roswell Rudd, Nels Cline, Elliot Sharp, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Willem Breuker, Wolter Wierbos, Jerry Granelli, Evan Parker, Paul Lytton, Jean-Jacques Avenel, Oliver Johnson, Michel Godard.

On this brand new CD, produced by Fabrizio Perissinotto, who originally conceived and commissioned the project to the two musicians, Cavallanti and Tononi present two long and ambitious suites (“Faces” by Daniele Cavallanti and “Phases” by Tiziano Tononi) for an extraordinary high level octet that features American violin rising star Jenny Scheinman, Emanuele Parrini on viola, Achille Succi on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, Massimo Mariani on guitar, Giovanni Maier on double and electric bass and Pacho on percussion.

FROM FABRIZIO PERISSINOTTO, PRODUCER:
I’ve always appreciated in the past the works by Daniele and Tiziano with extended ensembles, but at the same time I had my own precise concepts about how I would eventually organize one of theirs on my label. So one day this idea came to me of an octet with two horns, two violins (I’ve always wanted to collaborate with the lovely Jenny Scheinman, and this was the perfect chance) and two guitars plus a rhythm section. Then one guitar would be substituted by a percussion set and the focus would be more on the interplay possibilities between the two violins and the two horns, which surely are infinite. The starting point was to first build a mix of strongly composed and arranged material, with lots of harmonisations and “symphonic” elements where all the eventual solos and improvisations would  always be anchored to this base and be a part of the whole instead of  dominating it. Tiziano and Daniele were “challenged” by my exact suggestions on how to create something that had to be full of lyrical tension, drama, power but at the same time always under control. Like a gigantic, fascinating, almost frightening, steam train running fast but always well placed on its rails. In the end we got two long, complex and adventurous suites , displaying many of Cavallanti and Tononi musical influences and proving once more their great ability to write beautiful music and get the best out of the musicians they play with, who were all fabulous during the sessions.

The final result went way beyond my expectations and I’m very proud to have produced and released this music, that embodies a lot of this label’s visions

Fabrizio Perissinotto, July 2008

FROM TIZIANO TONONI:

Phases/Faces is Tiziano Tononi at his core-composing…extended forms or suites have always been a trademark in his production, and date back to his work for his historical group Nexus as well as for his celebrated and prize-winning solo projects (dedicated to giants of Black Music, are meant to be a reflection on the past to become the future of the present day…), on top of all of them “Awake Nu – A tribute to Don Cherry” and “We Dit It, We Did It (Rahsaan and the None)” dedicated to Rahsaan Roland Kirk. His music embraces many different elements – folk music (jazz), minimalism, 20th Century western contemporary tradition (quoting Ornette “music that guys can read…”), post-rock – all blended together by his view of music as one, a mysterious big alchemic/sonic picture that contains it all…have fun.

FROM DANIELE CAVALLANTI:

About “Faces”: more than any particular musical reference, besides the ones that, in general, have always been inspiring in his composing and playing (Trane, Ornette, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Orchestra, Keith Jarret’s American quartet and many more) Daniele Cavallanti says that the music and movements of this work have mainly been inspired by certain movies atmospheres and directors, whose names are clearly indicated as title tracks.

“RINGS OF FIRE”, il nuovo cd di Tiziano Tononi e Daniele Cavallanti è finalmente disponibile.

Special guest: l’acclamata violinista Jenny Scheinman, e il meglio della scena jazz/avant italiana: Giovanni Maier, Achille Succi, Emanuele Parrini and others.

Due lunghe suites. 80 minuti di musica avventurosa e creativa.

Scrive Fabrizio Perissinotto:

Ho sempre apprezzato in passato i lavori di Daniele e Tiziano con ampi collettivi di musicisti, ma allo stesso tempo ho sempre avuto le mie precise idee su come avrei eventualmente organizzato e prodotto un loro progetto del genere. Così un giorno mi è venuta in mente per loro un tipo di formazione a ottetto con due fiati, due violini (ho sempre voluto lavorare con la favolosa Jenny Scheinman, e questa sarebbe stata l’occasione perfetta), due chitarre e basso e batteria. Una delle due chitarre è stata poi sostituita da delle percussioni e il tutto si è focalizzato maggiormente sulle possibilità di interplay tra fiati e archi, che sono sicuramente infinite. Il punto di partenza quindi scelto doveva essere per me un mix molto d’impatto di parti scritte e arrangiate, con parecchie armonizzazioni ed elementi “sinfonici”, dove tutti gli assoli e le improvvisazioni si sarebbero ancorate a questa base, come una parte dell’intero corpo musicale, piuttosto che dominarlo dal di sopra.
Tiziano e Daniele sono stati quindi “sfidati” dai miei precisi suggerimenti su come creare qualcosa che fosse caratterizzato da tensione lirica, dramma e grande forza esecutiva, ma che allo stesso tempo rimanesse sempre ben controllato e ricco di energia spesa con lucidità. Se possiamo usare un metafora efficace e suggestiva: come un gigantesco, affascinante al punto di incutere quasi timore, treno a vapore, che corre possente e fumante ma sempre ben saldo sui suoi binari.
Alla fine abbiamo ottenuto due lunghe, complesse e avventurose suite, che meritano molti ascolti per essere apprezzate a fondo, e che mettono in mostra le sempre numerose influenze musicali di Tononi e Cavallanti (a Voi il piacere di scoprirle o riscoprirle), e danno prova ancora una volta della loro capacità di scrivere bellissima musica e di ottenere il meglio dai musicisti con cui lavorano, che sono stati tutti favolosi durante le session di registrazione.

Quasto lavoro è andato ben oltre le mie migliori aspettative, e sono estremamente fiero di averlo pensato, prodotto e reso disponibile: rappresenta alla perfezione molte delle visioni musicali della Long Song Records.