Lullaby For Emmeline

Debut album on trio for the young and talented bass player Dario Germani accompanied by excellent musicians: Stefano Preziosi on alto sax and Luigi Del Prete on drums, embellished by the soloist and the overwhelming personality of the prolific tenor saxophonist Max Ionata. Is a clear need of the trio to create a bridge between the various periods. As evidence of this the choice of Villa D‘ Este (residence of the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt) as location for the recording session. From a strictly musical point of view it denotes a clear interest in the compositions of the period Bebop (Crepuscule with Nellie, Little Willie Leaps; Bud on Bach) to Cool Jazz (Late Lament) and the blues form of Yusef Lateef (For Life). The three original songs have different characteristics but share the same melodic originality-expressive while remaining in traditional forms.

Tim Warfield, a big-toned, swaggering titan of the tenor saxophone, has decided to make his contribution to the jazz organ group tradition with One For Shirley. The lady of the title is Shirley Scott, the late queen of jazz organ, with whom Warfield often played in the 1990s, and this set pays tribute to her style of bop-laced soul-jazz. Warfield’s tenor (and soprano) is joined by Terrell Stafford’s trumpet and Pat Bianchi’s organ in a simmering, groove-heavy update of a Scott original as well as swing era and ‘60s pop classics-plus some nifty Warfield originals to put the icing on the cake.

Heikki Klemetti (1876–1953) was one of the most important figures in the Finnish music of his day: author, organiser, musicologist, editor, educator, folksong collector and, above all, choral composer. His work as an organist and composer for the organ has largely been forgotten, an omission this first-ever album of his organ music seeks to correct. The influence of Ostrobothnian folksong can readily be heard, and there are obvious points of contact with the musical language of Sibelius, not least in the unemphatic dignity and nobility of the style, with the modal harmonies occasionally calling to mind another of Klemetti’s contemporaries: Vaughan Williams.