Conte Candoll

The Italian guitarist and bandleader Nicola Conte has recorded his first album for the legendary, recently re-established MPS records. Conte has brought with him his cosmic-cosmopolitan ensemble of stars which includes trumpeter Theo Croker, saxophonists Logan Richardson and Magnus Lindgren, and singer Zara McFarlane. For the most part recorded in Bari, Italy and Johannesburg, South Africa, it is a sensitive work of art that crosses the border between soul and spiritual Afro-jazz.Nicola Conte has cast his vision of cosmic jazz into a seamless tonal design – without restricting his players' freedom, leaving them open to the influences of the diverse cultures.

This recording brings back an obscure session from the long defunct Andex label that was probably recorded around 1956. The emphasis is on Latin jazz with altoist Art Pepper, trumpeter Conte Candoli, tenor saxophonist Bill Perkins, pianist Russ Freeman, bassist Ben Tucker, and drummer Chuck Flores interacting with the percussion of Jack Costanza and Mike Pacheko. With arrangements by Bill Holman, Johnny Mandel, Benny Carter, and Pepper, the music is quite jazz-oriented if a touch lightweight. Worth investigating by fans of the idiom.

New music forms contaminated by various genres characterize our globalized world’s recent history; the intertwining of individual experiences creates new collaborations, as in this specifc case. Sixteen years after the release of “New Standards” (2001, SCEP336) Nicola Conte meets again his friend and colleague Gianluca Petrella, an eclectic Italian jazz scene talent, open to new experiences and collaborations: this encounter let to the publication of three new 12” EP’s in only three years, plus the recent single “The Higher Love” and the release of “Let Your Light Shine On” by Nicola Conte & Spiritual Galaxy.

Rosario Conte, Baroque music specialist and virtuoso instrumentalist, has here recorded compositions from Francesco Corbetta's instructional manual, "La Guitarre Royal", (1671) along with two pieces by his (probable) student, Robert de Visee. As guitarist and teacher in the courts of Louis XIV of France and Charles II of England, Corbetta almost single handedly popularized the 5 course Baroque guitar in both countries at a time when the lute was the dominant parlour instrument.

[From this exceptional event, of enormous historical and performative proportions, the documentary film "Paolo Conte alla Scala, The Maestro is in the soul" was born.
The historic concert is both its predominant fulcrum and a pretext to enter the soul of the Maestro, observe him behind the scenes and during rehearsals, and question him in his relationship with music and musicians, with words and his passions. The voice of today's Maestro then mixes with that of the young Paolo Conte, through repertoire images from the family archive that tell "under the stars of jazz, how much night has passed".

Guitarist Nicola Conte's sixth recording as a leader is a vocal tour de force, as five different singers split up duties on select tracks. With a substantial horn section pulled from the jazz ranks, Conte takes on the role of producer more than instrumentalist, while exploring various strains of Latin jazz backings for his words and music that are mostly from his personal book of tunes.

Trumpeter Conte Candoli and pianist Lou Levy had only occasional opportunities to work as leaders before this 1955 session they recorded together for Atlantic Records. Both made the most of the chance, fronting a quintet that also included tenor saxophonist Bill Holman, bassist Leroy Vinnegar, and drummer Lawrence Marable. The group got out of the gate quickly (following a contemplative piano intro, that is) on a quickstep bop reading of the Sigmund Romberg operetta tune "Lover Come Back to Me," which quickly established that a commonplace of jazz ensembles would hold - no matter whose name is in large print on the cover, it's the group that's performing, and other people will get their chance to shine, too…