Trumpet star Fresu, with his long running quintet of saxophonist Tino Tracanna, pianist Roberto Cipelli, double bassist Attilio Zanchi, and drummer Ettore Foravanti recorded in November in Udine. Last we heard from Fresu was in the spring of 2013 when the Sardinian’s quartet was tackling ‘[I Can’t Get No] Satisfaction’ taken at quite a lick on Desertico. Fresu was also touring at the time with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra on a Miles Davis-related programme.
Most of the tunes here on a record made by a very experienced unit celebrating 30 years of collaboration and friendship, the exception the beautiful but rather out of context rendition of Henry Purcell’s ‘When I Am Laid in Heart’ (from the opera Dido and Aeneas) adding a certain austere purity to the album momentarily. Apart from this the general style is 1960s Blue Note jazz grounded in Lee Morgan-type hard bop closely arranged and the generic nature of the originals may make this an album that’s hard to distinguish from the crowd. Yet the quality of Fresu’s characterful playing and his band, their quick witted improvisational flair and ideas make the album a big success in the end. SG
