★Rearward
Night In Fonorama
*2022 stock* Night in Fonorama. And it was a night in the real meaning of the word, that the five jazzmen spent at the Fonorama, one of the most important studios in Milano. It was the night of May the 31st 1964. They met at nine o’ clock in the evening, and they saw the day-break on a working Milano while they still were trying to perfectionate the last tune.
We said they «met»: and no word is more significative to indicate the meeting of the five musicians at the studio. There was nothing deci…
Our Kinda Strauss
**CD Digipak issued with 28 page book and a slip case** This album of waltzes by the Clarke-Boland band is a compilation of pieces from four different sessions, the first of which, in February 1966, produced the album Swing, Waltz, Swing. This LP was one of a series of recordings made by the Philips company, under the direction of label manager and jazz producer Siegfried Loch, to be sold with twen, the Cologne-based magazine for young people, published by Hans Hermann Koper.
Says C-BBB founder …
Clap Hands Here Comes Charlie
"Clap Hands, Here comes Charlie Drewo, the most famous of all the Viennese tenorists! – Well now, without exaggeration – Karl Drewo, 32 years of age – or Charlie as his American friends like to call him – is undoubtedly one of those rare specimen of European jazz talent. He plays as if he were born in the US and raised right in one of the darkest neighbourhoods of Harlem, possibly somewhere near the old Cotton Club where Duke Ellington used to excite his audiences for more than almost a quarter …
At Her Majesty's Pleasure
Inspiration in jazz has many sources. Who would have thought that British prisons could have inspired a Belgian-born composer, arranger, co-leader of a truly international band? The fact is that when the Clarke-Boland band came to this country at the beginning of 1969 for their memorable booking at the Ronnie Scott Club tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin was, to quote the sleeve “whisked off to Pentonville”. It was nothing worse than a question of outstanding income tax from a previous visit and G…
Summer Dawn
*2020 small repress* Here is music for your strange mood. The piano starts the first track, slow tempo beat, a strict beat, a swinging beat. Lillemor—here minor harmonies give the tune a rural, romantic feeling of some place in Spain or France. The tempo changes to medium fast—the flute solos. Light phrasing contrasts beauti¬fully to the earthy, swinging beat of the rhythm section and the repeating piano figures. The trombone adds a new color, a counterpoint of sound and phrasing, backed by the…
Handle With Care
It’s no news, really, that jazz has spread throughout the world, especially to those of us who are hung up in this business for love or money or both. But sometimes it does come as a surprise that the players in other countries can be as good as they are and can sit there and play with the genuine U. S. article so well that just from listening you would never know they had not been born and brought up a block from Birdland.That’s the way it is with this album and with its predecessor, “Jazz Is U…
Jazz (Now) in Italy
*2022 stock* At the Jazz Festival which took place in Sanremo in March ’66, out of the seven bands present only one was Italian; that is of course if you exclude Guido Manusardi, an Italian pianist that has been living in Sweden for years. What I’m talking about is Franco D’Andrea’s piano trio with Giorgio Azzolini and Franco Tonani: an excellent trio that I think would have been able to obtain a bigger interest if Eraldo Volontè and Dino Piana had been added to these three excellent musicians. …
My Point of View
Rearward presents Eraldo Volonté, “My Point of View” – remastered. All the tracks, recorded - from May to November 1963 - at Durium Studios, Milan are now released with liner notes by Arrigo Polillo.
Afrodite
**2022 stock** Originally released by Armando Sciascia on his Vedette label, it also features Sante Palumbo, Oscar Rocchi, Giorgio Azzolini and Tullio De Piscopo. Telling Oscar Valdambrini and Dino Piana's story could be pointless for those who have been dealing with Jazz for years here in Italy. They are two of the most esteemed senators in our Jazz scene; two musicians who could cut a fine figure anywhere. The older is Valdambrini (turinese, born 1924), who was first noticed as a valued trumpe…
Free and Loose
*2022 stock* A rare bit of 'early' free jazz from Italy – featuring a group led by soprano/tenor sax player Eraldo Volontè, and featuring trumpet, trombone, drums, and a piano-less double-bass rhythm team that gives the record a really unique sound! At some level, the feeling of the material is like ESP avant jamming – except for the fact that the freedom of the players is also firmly tethered to an ability to swing, as one of the bassists always seems to be working the rhythm, even when the oth…
Tribute To Someone
*2022 stock* 1999 Release. A lost Italian gem from the 60s! Bassist Giorgio Azzolini was one of Italy's best players during the postwar years, and this handsome reissue brings to light one of his rarer sessions from the 60s. The record's a lyrical septet session, with Azzolini's warm round basslines right up front, and beautiful solo work by a young Gato Barbieri on tenor, Franco Ambrosetti on trumpet, and Renato Sellani on piano. The session has the warmth and sensitivity of some of Horace Silv…
Zamboni 22
Climate- atmosphere is what we say. Soul with beautiful expression, is what they say in the modern jazz scene in the US. It’s a necessary component for good jazz, as well as for swing. But to achieve an organic atmosphere which is therefore vital and alive, a relationship of intentions and views, and a congeniality of thoughts are needed. When Tommasi was in Rome for a few days and had Santucci and Scoppa listen to the latest pieces he had composed, the three musicians ideas, aspirations, …
Da Roma A New York ("10)
Remastered from the original master tapes with superior sound quality, replica of the original RCA 10"(with bonus CD) in a limited edition of 500 copies. This is one of the most important albums in Umiliani’s career. There are ten original tracks, an ambitious project that surprises and captures jazz lovers. The reviewer of Musica Jazz magazine, who usually writes about American artists, in the issue no. 11 dated November 1957 writes: “I can’t remember what other ambitious and successful attempt…
Smog
*2022 stock* Remastered from the original master tapes with superior sound quality, replica of the original RCA LP (with bonus CD) in a limited edition of 500 copies. One of the best scores signed by Piero Umiliani, a unique soundtrack settled in an immense Los Angeles as it has never been shown in an American movie.Piero Umiliani was contacted in 1958 by Mario Monicelli to compose the soundtrack of the movie “I Soliti Ignoti” (Big Deal on Madonna Street). It was not the usual kind of soundtrac…
I Soliti Ignoti
Replica of the legendary 1958 EP, this is Piero Umiliani at his best: groundbreaking modern jazz music soundtrack with top jazz italian musicians and guest star Chet Baker on trumpet. Umiliani was the first Italian to bring jazz to the big screen and experimented by using legendary trumpeter Chet Baker; a collaboration and friendship that gave life to a fine collection of recordings.