The songs on this album often musically blur the lines between what is written and what is not. For the listener, what differentiates the free improvisation from the preconceived compositions is often impossible to distinguish. This is intentional, but not in an overtly "blinding" manner: the composed elements serve as points of stable ground in the midst of all the looser, more spontaneous structures.
The beauty comes from just how much the improvised moments feel like compositions, how they, too, have intent, melodies, semblances of form, grooves established, clear beginnings and ends, etc. Lanzoni and Mehari follow the creative rules of child’s play--no limits, everything is game!—while always listening intently to each other, exchanging and overlaying, allowing each to take the lead when appropriate. The listener participates in the adventure, following the thread of each story as the music drives forever forward, gaining momentum as it goes.
HERMON MEHARI
In the attempt to pioneer a new sound while exploring his Eritrean origins, trumpeter Hermon Mehari composed an album entirely influenced by the harmonies, rhythms, and melodies of Eritrean music. However this work, "Asmara" (Komos), doesn't only come from his musical side-- the songs have an emotional bent and express the different aspects of his perspectives towards his relationship with family and the culture. The compositions are interpreted with personality and fervor by pianist/vibraphonist Peter Schlamb, bassist Luca Fattorini, and drummer Gautier Garrigue. Mehari brings on legendary Eritrean vocalist Faytinga as a guest on two numbers.
Hermon Mehari’s 2020 sophomore album as a leader, “A Change For the Dreamlike” (MiRR), takes on a more personal tone. Written and recorded in a barn in the French countryside during le confinement, it shows only hints at the aesthetic set by his previous debut album. The project features a number of incredible musicians: Tony Tixier, Peter Schlamb, Ryan J. Lee, Kae Dilla, DeAndre Manning, Hugo LX, Karl McComas-Reichl, Jeff Hill and Zach Morrow. Although he already had a growing reputation, the success of Mehari's debut album ,"Bleu", put him concretely on the musical map in 2017. “Bleu” includes ECM recording artist Aaron Parks on piano, Blue Note recording artist Logan Richardson on alto saxophone, Peter Schlamb on vibraphone, Ryan J. Lee on drums and Rick Rosato on bass.
Mehari was the winner of the 2015 Carmine Caruso International Trumpet Competition and a semifinalist in the 2014 Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition. In 2014 he released the CD "Our Journey" with Diverse, his second with the group. Mehari maintains a touring schedule around the world with his own group and as a sideman. Mehari was also the winner of the 2008 National Trumpet Competition and placed 2nd in the International Trumpet Guild competition in Sydney, Australia. As a founding member of Diverse, whose eponymous debut album on Seattle-based Origin Records reached the Top 40 on the Jazzweek Radio Charts, he has performed professionally with noted saxophonists Jaleel Shaw, Logan Richardson, Bobby Watson, Ben Van Gelder, and Tivon Pennicott. He has also performed with Aaron Parks, Joe Sanders, Hubert Laws, Randy Brecker, Tony Tixier, Dave Pietro, Clay Jenkins and many other great musicians.
Hermon Mehari received his BM in Jazz Performance from the University of Missouri - Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance in 2010. In addition to performing, he dedicates himself to being a serious educator, runs a weekly musical radio program called "The Session" on the NPR-affiliated station KCUR 89.3, is an artistic director of the Collectif MiRR and has participated in arts related clinics and panels around the world.
ALESSANDRO LANZONI
The award for “Top Jazz 2013” as best new talent of the year, decided by the most qualified Italian journalists on behalf of the Musica Jazz magazine, recognizes Alessandro Lanzoni as one of the great personalities of Italian jazz . With his impressive curriculum, having experiences of absolute prestige, Alessandro has for a number of years now come to the attention of the world of music.
Alessandro, already at a very early age, showed himself to also be a successful leader and he can by now be proud of important international experiences in Europe, Latin America, Israel and the USA, where he has received very gratifying reviews otherwise not so common for a foreign artist. (Ira Gitler, after having heard him in Piano Solo at the UN Building, stated from the heights of his seventy years’ of pure jazz history in his column for Jazzimprov. NY:” He shouldn’t be judged as a young musician. He is already exceptional and with every probability he will become even more so”).
The new album “Dark Flavour”, produced together with his Trio, recently released by Cam Jazz, has been received by critics as proof of artistic development, making the epithet of “enfant prodige” out of place. This “title” was acceptable when it referred to the initial period of a career which started at the early age of just 14, confirmed with the “Premio Massimo Urbani “(2006) and then reconfirmed with the “Primo Premio” dedicated to “Luca Flores” of Florence (2008), until being awarded the “Best Young Soloist” at the prestigious “Martial Solal” of Paris (2010) competition.
His training as a musician is the result of an intense journey, developing in two directions:
His “classical” studies, leading to his Diploma of Piano obtained in 2012, gaining the highest marks, namely Distinction and Honourable Mention at the Cherubini of Florence Conservatory with Giovanna Prestia as the music instructor. After this came a period of further jazz studies under the watchful eye of L. Pieri and M. Grossi, which was followed by summer courses of Siena Jazz and those of Berklee at Boston and the two-year course In Jam, also part of Siena Jazz, where he was able to take advantage of high level teaching by Masters of the caliber of Danilo Perez, Kenny Werner, Aaron Goldberg, Steve Kuhn, John Taylor, Franco D’Andrea, Stefano Battaglia, Danilo Rea.
Also, as proof of an unusual versatility as a musician, Alessandro took up the study of cello and composition which will lead to a specialist Degree in Composition and Jazz Arrangement at the Conservatory of Florence.
Visible from a very young age in the posters of the most important Italian music festivals (Umbria Jazz, Ravello Festival, Roma Casa del Jazz, Moncalieri Jazz, Roma Auditorium Parco della Musica, Metastasio Jazz , Dolomiti Ski Jazz, Umbria Jazz Winter, Finestra Jazz, Pescara Jazz Festival, Musicus Concentus, Ancona Jazz Summer Festival, Forma e Poesia nel Jazz (Cagliari), Festival Letterature di Roma, Sudtirol Jazz Festival Alto Adige, Bologna Jazz Festival, Padova Jazz Festival, Grey Cat Festival, Festival Pianistico di Trieste, Music Pool Network Sonoro, Estate Fiesolana, Novara Jazz, Festival Mundus, Etruria Jazz, Chianti Festival, Odio l'estate Festival -Roma Villa Carpegna-, Vicenza Jazz, Festival Crossroads....), his career has lead him to play side by side with the most prestigious musicians such as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Lee Konitz, Aldo Romano, Roberto Gatto, Jeff Ballard, Larry Granadier, Ambrose Akinmusire, Aaron Goldberg, Miguel Zenon, Michael Blake, Barbara Casini, Ares Tavolazzi, Nico Gori, Walter Paoli, Lello Pareti, Cocco Cantini, Maria Pia De Vito, Fabrizio Bosso, Fabrizio Sferra, Gianni Basso, Renato Sellani, Tiziana Ghiglioni, Nick Myers and many more.
Abroad he has already been able to show his talent in Germany, Austria (Porgy and Bess Jazz Club-Wien), Israel (Haifa e Festival Internazionale di Eilat), Colombia, Panama Jazz Festival, the USA (Morgan Library Auditorium New York), France (Parigi-Sunset Sunside, Savoie Jazz Festival, Les Mans....), and recently in Spain, where he played Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Oviedo Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Marzio Conti.
Alessandro collaborates on a regular basis with Roberto Gatto, with whom he has recorded together with his Trio, the album Replay for the Auditorium Parco della Musica label (and in Otteto the album “Pure Imagination”, Albore), and with Aldo Romano who asked him to participate in his group “New Blood” (together with Michel Benita and Baptiste Herbin) so as to produce the “Connection” CD (Dreyfuss), and for a long series of concerts in the most important French Festivals.
After the first albums recorded with Philology (“Should I care”, “On the Snow” and “Poetical Lee” with the participation of Lee Konitz), the recent release of “Dark Flavour” for the CAM JAZZ label, recorded together with his Trio (Matteo Bortone double bass and Enrico Morello drums), has created interest on behalf of the Press and music critics. They have defined this production a “crystalline beauty” (Jacopo Cosi – L’Unità)in which “the pianist masters and controls the structures with creativity, he shapes the musical material and he forms it again following the fertile inspiration of his very own sensibility”.(Paola Parri . Pianosolo.it)
His activity is followed with attention by the Media: his partecipations in Rai radio programmes are frequent (“La stanza della musica”, “Piazza Verdi”, “Doctor Djembé”, Radio Tre “Radio3 Suite”, Radio Due “Rai Tunes”).
Lots of newspapers (Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, Il Tirreno, Il Resto del Carlino, La Nazione, L’Unità and so on) have dedicated him several articles and the eminent, specialized magazines (Jazzit, Musica Jazz, Jazz Magazine, the American “Jazz Times”, the French “Jazz Hot” and the German “Neuen Musik Zeitung”) have reviwed his recording production. The monthly “Jazz Magazine” dedicated him its cover and a long interview.