Items from the Old Earth

Soprano saxophonist and composer Roberto Ottaviano has involved himself in rather ambitious projects over the years, continually seeking manners and methods to bring his beloved late-20th century jazz into stream with the older traditions of Europe's musical heritage, particularly in art music. Not content to merely attempt to fuse them together by playing traditional songs or compositions with jazz arrangements, Ottaviano has sought news ways for Six Mobiles (whose previous album was a re-envisioning of the works of Mingus) to hear the old music and incorporate that hearing in a manner commensurate with the present day's innovations, in arrangement and improvisation as well as composition. Here, he forms a sextet of all reeds, woodwinds, and brass instruments, and gets his collaborators to compose with the knowledge acquired in playing with Ottaviano over the years. Ottaviano contributes two works, with each member of the band contributing one with the exception of Sandro Caerino, who plays flutes and clarinets here, who offers two. For starters, nothing about this music sounds old or in the way. The arrangements are up to the minute, and the creation of musical space is tempered by keen lyrical sensibilities that still believe in the construction of a harmony with the traditional elements of rhythm and melody. Roberto Rossi's "Myro" is a wonderful example of a seemingly ancient melody arranged for this sextet in a West Coast jazz manner suggesting perhaps Shorty Rodgers, so drawn-out are the timbral extensions over the intervals. Ottaviano's own "Uroboros" is more blatantly in the vein of the old world, with melodies that comes from Sardinia and Sicily juxtaposed against cartoon music and early Beiderbecke-era jazz. There is something here for everyone in that with Ottaviano's arrangements, there are no edges, just seamless, dreamy wonder.