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The quartet led by the Welsh Andy Davies opened their Spring Italian Tour at Ueffilo–Cantina a Sud jazz club in Gioia Del Colle (Ba), The band is the perfect synthesis of European unity in that all the musicians come from different regions of Europe, although joined by the same musical matrix. Two of them attended the prestigious Trinity College in London. Joining Andy Davies, trumpeter, is Swedish pianist Eivind Lodemel; on the electric bass from Italy, Lorenzo Bassignani; and on drums, Reinis Axelsson from Norway. This multiethnic formation is evidenced in the sound offered by the interesting quartet.
This evening The Andy Davies Quartet kicked off their tour by presenting their first CD released by Coffee and Apple Records (to which the last piece on the recording is devoted). Seven very intense and different pieces, both from the stylistic and essential point of view are heard on the CD. It must be said that there are no standard jazz classics on this recording and therefore, one isn't able to adequately measure the capacity of the quartet, but the compositions are all very interesting, saturated with a certain, ‘very British' melancholy.
Shibuya Blues and Baby the Night Has Come have some suitably jagged webs, rich with seductive rhythmic changes. The pieces move within the coordinates of mainstream neo-bop. The harmonic passages and the creative changes were a dominant characteristic of the concert and, obviously, of the album. Obese with Rejection is a pleasant surprise with its atypical lyricism.
The second set began with a brief JAM. Andy Davies called American singer (now in Italy for some time), Chrissie Oppedisano, to the stage. The Californian vocalist introduced two pieces to the set, the first being the classic Route 66. The harmonic cadences and rhythms of the piece livened up even more the flow of ideas from the quartet who performed it with great authority. Oppedisano's voice transmitted great versatility during the execution, deeply interplaying with the piano and the trumpet.
Oppedisano's captivating voice interweaved with every single instrument extolling every single note in perfect harmony with feeling and professionalim. The slanting phrases of Bulgaria, the soft and ambiguously blue melody of Spin the Guinea Pig and the fascinating Coffee and Apple, koinès of British and Scandinavian sounds, closed the quartet's performance. The encore, requested fervently by the crowd, was a standard: Cherokee, whose strength was loaded with expressive positive tension was performed at an elevated tempo with extreme professionalism. Lodemel's solo was played at an advanced level, his fingers moving on the keyboard with decision and to accelerated rhythms exalting Davies' phrases freeing sounds in the air demonstrating an uncommon rhythmic control. A group with a strong, notable understanding and distinguished interplay. The public's applause was decisive and convincing.
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