Bruno Nardo Metodologia

The Concord Jazz Guitar Collective was a 1995 project that united Howard Alden with fellow guitarists and Concord artists Jimmy Bruno and Frank Vignola. For Concord, a three-guitar date was hardly unprecedented; back in 1974, the label had brought Barney Kessel, Charlie Byrd, and Herb Ellis together as the Great Guitars. Despite the fact that they all play the same instrument, Alden, Bruno, and Vignola prove compatible on this outing, which also employs Jim Hughart on upright bass and Colin Bailey on drums. Although Bruno tends to be more aggressive and forceful than Alden, he can be quite lyrical when he wants to; and while Alden isn't as hard a player as Bruno, he definitely swings. The two have a strong rapport on uptempo numbers like Charlie Parker's "Ornithology," Sam Jones' "Bittersweet," and Benny Goodman's "Seven Come Eleven," as well as on more relaxed performances like Django Reinhardt's "Song D'Autumne"…

Founded and directed by the Franco-Hungarian conductor Bruno Kele-Baujard, the Ensemble Zene has made a specialty of daring and off-the-beaten path programs. Its evocative name - "zene" is the Hungarian word for "music" - inclines it towards the Magyar-speaking repertoire, and it is therefore quite natural that it devotes its second recording to the a cappella works of Bartók, Kodály and Ligeti, whose centenary is being celebrated in 2023.

Giuseppe Bruno graduated with honors in Piano, Composition and Conductorship with Professors Specchi, Zangelmi and Taverna. Maestro Bruno specialized in piano with Paolo Bordoni and in conductorship with Leopold Hager. He has attended a seminar in composition at the IRCAM in Paris. Performing for several years as a pianist in many different chamber ensembles as well as a brilliant soloist. He has played with many important orchestras in Italy, USA, Greece, Romania and Germany in a repertory that goes from Mozart to Dallapiccola. From 1987 to 1992 he participated in the “Due Mondi” festival in Spoleto Italy and in 1988 in the Charleston festival in the USA.

In something of a departure, guitarist Jimmy Bruno leaves straight bebop largely behind on this release, cultivating a more funk-oriented, electric sound instead. He is joined by the well-regarded fusion bassist Gerald Veasley, as well as pianist Dave Hartl (who doubles on Rhodes and Hammond organ), saxophonist Ron Kerber, and drummer Marc Dicciani. Bruno's intention was to get away from playing standards, although he opens with a retooled "Secret Love" and ends the session with "Perdido," "Stella by Starlight," and "Impressions." The bulk of the remaining material is written either by Bruno or Kerber, with Veasley contributing the straight-up funky "Philly Joe." Some of the music strongly recalls early George Benson and Pat Martino, although the chorus-treated sound that Bruno uses on several tracks has him sounding a bit like John Abercrombie or Vic Juris…

Bruno Cocset, an eminent ambassador of the Baroque cello, here makes a teenage dream come true: to record the Beethoven sonatas. ‘When we rediscover it from the inside, this music overwhelms us: its art of the mise en abyme, its ability to deviate from the formal scheme, to dare to go as far as the uncontrolled surge of frenzy or the break in tempo. On the part of a champion of the metronome (Beethoven took a hand in its creation), this imperious seizure of freedom creates immeasurable spaces, thrusting performer and listener into unknown, unforeseen depths. The piano and the cello are bound together throughout the narrative by a fertile, pungent, exhilarating complementarity.’ At the fortepiano, a longstanding musical partner, Maude Gratton, plays two different instruments, chosen according to the character of each sonata: a Viennese piano after Johann Andreas Stein and an original John Broadwood from 1822, a model that circulated in Vienna and which Beethoven himself played. In order to tackle this repertory at the cusp of Classicism and Romanticism, Bruno Cocset commissioned a new cello from another faithful partner.