Gang of One

Saxophonist Bruno Romani is not one of the best-known players on the European scene, but he should be. This debut by his quartet on Splasc(h)'s Summertime in Jazz imprint is a ferocious debut. With a band who includes Saverio Tasca on vibes, Giovanni Maier on bass, and drummer Hermes Ghiorardini, Romani mixes a program that is mostly original with Dominic Modugno's theme from "L'avventura" and Solomon Burke's "What's New." On the opener, Romani takes the elongated piano and melody lines of the "L'avventura" theme and chops them into tight bursts of bluesy energy, swinging deep on the changes and moving into the mode just enough to shift the harmonics off minor into dissonance and be countered by Tasca with large augmented chords. On the title track, Romani follows Jan Garbarek's tone down the open-toned melodic path into knotty rhythmic and pitch changes, particularly in Tasca's solo. And Tasca's "Elva Mama Mia!" is an interesting piece of Tuscan folk music laced with post-bop and West Coast jazz. And it's this folk theme so prevalent in the Romani quartet's music that makes them so original. Unlike most of the Italians, who are engaged in a staunch defense of the jazz tradition via their own wonderfully lyrical means, or the rest who are staunch experimentalists, this group digs deep into the country's folk roots for their inspiration and pours them into the jazz idiom so that what comes out sounds fresh, new, and full of excitement. This is indeed an auspicious debut.