Piero Bittolo Bon is one of Italian Jazz’s youngest and most acclaimed rising stars. A mostly self-taught player, he mainly plays alto but is also at ease on baritone, bass clarinet, contralto, clarinet and flute. Passionate and vibrant, his music reverberates with echoes of the best of free jazz, “fire music”, torrid improvisations, sharp attacks and continuous inventions bar after bar.
Member of El Gallo Rojo collective, he collaborated with some of the best italian creative musicians (Danilo Gallo, Zeno de Rossi, Beppe Scardino, Enrico Terragnoli, Stefano Senni, Francesco Bigoni, Tiziana Ghiglioni, Tiziano Tononi, Daniele Cavallanti, Francesco Cusa, Domenico Caliri, Giovanni Maier, U.T. Gandhi, Simone Massaron, Silvia Bolognesi among others) and with overseas stars like Anthony Braxton, Uri Caine, John Tchicai, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Jessica Lurie, Vincent Davis and Ernest Dawkins, and he also is in the berlinese avant-garde jazz scene, often playing in the city with musicians like Gerhard Gschloessl, Christian Lillinger, Tristan Honsinger and many others.
Piero has always had a long-standing affair going on with the electric bass, which he played at the beginning of his musical journey in funk, reggae, and rock bands, before totally committing himself to improvised music.
Given these premises, it seemed natural that sooner or later he would somehow connect his various passions on his new project, “Mucho Acustica” a totally improvised and powerful session by Piero’s new band “The Original Pigneto Stompers”, with double drums, electric guitars and special guest electric bass giant Jamaaladeen Tacuma.
Tacuma, defined by guitar ace Marc Ribot as a “funk hurricane”, has a glorious past in Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time band, where he contributed to the music of legendary albums as Body Meta or Dancing in your Head. With his heavy recipe of funk and groove oriented bass lines and free music, he has taken part over the years in many other musical projects, not just jazz and funk.
The rest of the band is completed by guitar player Simone Massaron, and drummers Federico Scettri and Max Sorrentini, young but experienced musicians on the forefront of the best Italian jazz and avant-guard scenes.
“Mucho Acustica” is definitely filled with many moods and strong musical statements. The good feeling among the musicians was immediate and the energy was running from the very first takes.
There’s a dominating vibe, which is a mix two sources. First there’s Piero his sounds are proud and fierce, dark and austere, always serching even physically for his limits and the way to go beyond them. Then there are the thunderous hypnotic electric grooves of Tacuma. These sounds set the base for some layers of “Electric Miles” oriented jams, but with an overall self-abandon more typical of free jazz, with a double drum and guitar interplay that often even moves rhythmically into Afro territories, heavy and light at the same time. What dominates is “Black Music” and some of its more visceral elements and expressions, with furious electric rides and blues and funk meetings. But there are also abstract moments of delicate instrumental dialogues, that suddenly move into rhythmic explorations and long trancey pedals, dry and raucous.
You can also enjoy Max and Federico’s respective finesse in mixing their jazz and rock improvisational roots and skills, and their dexterity in avoiding clichés and keeping the beat precise and fresh, and Simone’s endless tone and harmonic ability in delivering mind blowing solos and various unexpected turning points over many tracks.
“Music is a universal language” says J.Tacuma about this pleasant session, and on his “conversations” with these players from another country he’s absolutely right!
