Three Duo Albums

Here is the latest chapter in my online autobiography. To read the whole story click on the link above left.

Three duo albums.
(Writing in 2025)
The Lonely Cool CD was meant to be my last album, in that CDs were becoming difficult to sell and no new format was presenting itself as the next thing. All that remained was recording and uploading to the various digital platforms and packaging the compilation of recordings as a “digital album”.
For some years I have been using a studio in Sulmona to do promo recordings and videos, working with the Studio owner and producer. Andrea Tiramacco, who is very capable of doing quality video recordings too. His studio also has a Yamaha C3 piano, which is very useful
So, between 2024 and 2025 I set out on a series of duo “album” recordings, destined for digital upload as well as videos for YouTube.
The duo idea was partly chosen for the simplicity of coordinating the projects, but also because I wanted to do put on show some aspects of my work I felt were missing from my on-line profile.
Playing in duo in a jazz (or crossover) context is always something special. It gives you new freedoms but requires a greater sense of responsibility. The dynamic with the three duo partners was different in each case.

Essenze (In English- “Essences”) with Pino Petraccia.
Pino is a specialist in African percussion. I had worked with him mostly in situations with numerous djembes clattering away, and me playing either solos or little riffs over the top. But on other occasions we had worked in duo, maybe just one drum and a flute, creating short dialogues, building up a groove, taking it somewhere, and then bringing it to a close. I particularly didn’t want a “multi percussion” situation, I wanted one instrument to dialogue with my flute. On just one of the recordings, we added an extra track of a shaker, but all the rest is strictly duo: just the two “voices”.
We had one rehearsal in which I asked Pino to identify some rhythms he wanted to work with. Pino didn’t just offer drums though, he also used the “Handpan” a sort of sonic saucepan, for some of the tracks, and on a couple of others he used the Kamalengoni, a sort of African harp, giving us a chance to establish a simple harmonic cycle.
The recordings are short. as they are intended to be, and ,my parts are totally improvised. This was not a project for concerts of an hour long, but just short interventions.
In the Summer of 2024 we played at the Estatica Festival in Pescara, just doing a ten-minute set, merging together three of our pieces.
Here we are:

I called the album and the project “Essenze” because I liked the idea of each piece presenting a flavour, or an atmosphere.
You can find the whole album on digital platforms and various videos on my youtube channel.

La Fonte with Raffaele Pallozzi
The idea for these recording came about from the various times I had done a duo concert with Raffaele during my Summer course in Borrello. People kept saying “you should record something together, just the two of you” and so the time eventually came.
But I wanted to be slightly different, or at least, to give the “album” a slant. I decided I would use only the alto flute. Usually the alto flute in quartet situations is a little penalised by its lack of penetration, compared to the C flute, whereas in the duo situation it finds its space more easily.
So, I wrote to Raff saying wanted to do all the pieces on the alto- In Italian: “al contralto”. Raff read “al contrario” – meaning “backwards”, and was somewhat confused as to why I wanted to make an album of pieces played backwards. The misunderstanding was soon sorted out, and maybe we’ll come back to that idea one day.
We each chose some tunes we’d like to do and in the end most of them turned out to be compositions by pianists – Chick Corea, Thelonius Monk , Kenny Kirkland. I wanted to include one original, and the next Summer course on Borrello was going to be the 25th anniversary of the cultural association, La Fonte, that sponsored my course. So, I wrote La Fonte and also used this as the album title. Fonte can mean source (literally or figuratively), and Borrello is known for its ancient water fountain. So, I wrote a slightly folksy melody with the idea of having the possibility of going open, and maybe even a bit chaotic. I should thank Raffaele here for the opening piano vamp which is exactly what was needed to set the atmosphere.
In studio we did all the pieces with total separation, to make editing possible, but we also did a few “live” versions for some videos.
Here we are doing La Fonte.

Capestrano with Giuseppe Continenza
This is a live album from a concert in 2025 in Capestrano (Province of Aquila, Abruzzo region) with Giuseppe. The location was a beautiful medieval oratorio, and fortunately the whole gig was recorded and filmed by professionals.
Working with Giuseppe is a dream. His choice of voicings is always inspiring, and his ability to keep developing ideas in the accompaniment means I can “solo” or just sit back and provide fills. On this recording he doesn’t actually take many “solos” but he’s always creating.
We don’t play together that often but somehow once we start it seems like we’ve been playing together always.
The concert was part of a festival called “A Love Supreme”. Here’s the video from the organisers
https://youtu.be/l5zr41vYaIE

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