Kosmopolites Paolo Fresu

"Brass Bang" is the musical formula implying insanely talented musicians, humor and creativity. This album captures the mind of wind instruments. This album gathers eclectic composers such as Rolling Stones, Haendel, Jimi Hendrix, Duke Ellington and compositions of their own.

PAF is made up of three contemporary European musicians, trumpeter Paolo Fresu, pianist Antonello Salis and bassist Furio Di Castri, who have been performing together at various times over the last fifteen years. They are all highly accomplished instrumentalists as well as being talented composers.

These are mature talents, presented to the world by the Italian branch of Blue Note. It isn't necessary though, because Paolo Fresu and Uri Caine already have quite a name among jazz connoisseurs. They recently released the album Think and we can expect them to tap this source extensively.

Virtuosity of those two musicians is incredible to discover. They hitting heavy on beautiful standard "Dear Old Stockholm" with grace and gentleness but having guts to alternate harmony in dignified, balanced way. Uri Caine, as it is my second encounter with his artistry (I've only tried "ThePhiladelphiaExperiment"), astonished me with marvelous and complex technique of phrasing with left hand. The illusion (well…) of whole rhytmic section conveyed in his playing cannot be denied - couple of times I really forgot that there're only piano and trumpet. And this is the most tasteful of this album, how he can focus listeners' attention on his play with this wonderful rhythmic, but also so melodic (and bluesy…) approach.

Within ten years and hundreds of concerts in Scandinavia, Central-, Southern- and Eastern-Europe and the Near- and Middle East, the trio "Mare Nostrum", consisting of the Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu, French accordion virtuoso Richard Galliano and Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren has established itself as one of the most prominent ensembles of "The sound of Europe", drawing inspiration from jazz, classical and folk-/song-tradition - from the northernmost to the southernmost part of the continent.

Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu, French accordionist Richard Galliano and Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren form the trio “Mare Nostrum”. This band forges connections between the discrete musical cultures of its three protagonists. This new album marks the return to the studio of a European supergroup. And they're on top form.

It isn’t fictive folk music, it isn’t jazz, it isn’t classical, it isn’t traditional or world music – it’s simply Sardinian music from Sardinian musicians. The idea emerged through the work of the film director Gianfranco Cabbido, who resides in Rome. While doing research some eight years ago in preparation for his film Bakunin’s Children, he was surprised by his discovery of an abundance of film material covering life in Sardinia from the 1930’s to the 50’s. The film was a reflection of what was even for him, as a native Sardinian, an almost forgotten world. He lovingly restored the material, and soon had developed the idea of putting the material together as a sort of documentary. And what made more sense than to have musicians accompany this visual record live on stage?