Memories Of Always: the new album by Franco Baggiani

Jazz, funk, rock and serial arrangements: in his thirteenth work as a
soloist, the eclectic Florentine trumpeter leads a volcanic ensemble
between total improvisation and art music
Memories Of Always: the new album by Franco Baggiani

MEMORIES OF ALWAYS
Sound Records
7 tracks,
69.18 minutes

Smoldering, magmatic, swirling sounds: 7 long studio tracks created by
the nods, looks, intuitions, collective flights and solo meditations
of a 7-element ensemble. Memories of Always, Franco Baggiani's newest
work, is an echo of the funky mid-70s sound à la Miles Davis, among
others: "While the overall structure maintains somewhat of a 1970s
Davis-like essence, in this album I looked beyond that-at the 70s in
general, of course, but not only to Davis, also to Ornette and Sun Ra,
and found inspiration listening to Alfredo Casella and to certain
Italian serial composers from the past century. If the starting point
may appear to be Davis-like, the final outcome certainly is not.

Among the most productive Italian jazz trumpet players, and a
one-of-a-kind personality in his genre in Europe given the numerous
activities performed(discography, composition, teaching, education and
art direction), Franco Baggianihas traveled alone down the path of the
eclectic jazz man, finally creating an innovative album, which breaks
away from the others, especially from the earlier My Way Through The
Jungle: "While My Way Through The Jungle was a personal, non-didactic
tribute to Miles' 1969-1974 period, Memories blends all the recordings
made in between, such as the more radical LPs Think, Florentine
Session and The Dead City, in which my horizons came together with
total improvisation and the musicians on them were totally different,
with rather different qualities. What has always remained the same is
the fact that all recordings are live-they are true, genuine studio
improv sessions."

The studio sessions the Florentine artist refers to are particularly
suggestive moments, for atmosphere and conducting. The ensemble
Baggiani directs – made peculiar by two percussionists added to the
drums – experiments with the unusual combination of 1900 serial music
and typically funky groove, under the typical direction that is dear
to Baggiani: "I conducted the sessions borrowing from the
gesture-based directing method used in European art music and
developed in the 50s. I use about 6,7 conventional signs: each one
corresponds to a specific instruction, which may relate to dynamics,
to the exit or entrance of an instrument, to the dynamic contrast
between instruments, to an exact rhythmic representation, to the
movement of the melody towards a precise rhythmic pattern, to an
improvised woodwinds section, etc. It often happens that I whisper
musical phrases and sudden ideas in the musicians' ears, and they must
then play them when they receive my signal. I also have six mouth and
eye signs: they also correspond to specific music patterns…"

Franco Baggiani: trumpet and conduction
Giacomo Downie: baritone sax
Adriano Arena: electric guitar
Lorenzo Forti: bass guitar
Fabio Ferrini: percussion
Alessandro Criscino: percussion
Alberto Rosadini: drums

Info:

Franco Baggiani:
www.francobaggiani.it

Sound Records:
www.soundrecords.it

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