Paolo Peruzzi is an outsider and a traveler. He left his native Verona to learn about the different languages of jazz. Some of the recordings that ended up on “Songs From The Past And The Holy Spirit” come from a studio in Verona (San Rocchetto Hermitage). The rest of the album was recorded at Wellspring Sound studios in Acton, MA, with a young lineup that includes Fall Raye and Ethan Klotz on saxophones, Ebba Dankel on piano and Fender Rhodes, Nick Isherwood on bass and Nitzan Birnbaum on drums.
“The act of sharing – writes Peruzzi in the album notes – is intrinsic to the creative process, because if music existed exclusively for the artist, it would not exist for anyone else, and therefore it would not exist either. The artist and the music cannot exist without a third entity: the listener. In this album, the listener is you and them”. Where “them” refers to the musicians involved in the recordings.
The focus is immediately on the spirituality of John Coltrane and his extended family. “Into The Labyrinth”, the first track in the lineup, is a slow introduction with the two saxophones in full view chasing each other between the crescendos and pauses of the rhythm section. The intentions are clear: to bring to light the intuitions of the best spiritual jazz of the late 60s and early 70s, that of Impulse and also of Strata East.
The stellar groove of ” starts seamlessly[ [ [ EON ] ]]” and Peruzzi's vibraphone begins its climb towards Olympus. The piano's counterpoints serve to underline the cohesion of the sound that like a river in flood carries each soloist towards the liberating grand finale. The setlist alternates impetuous songs with slow and enveloping ballads. The musicians seem like veterans who have been playing together for decades and not young people just out of the academy.
“Songs From The Past And The Holy Spirit” is a private print, available in digital format only on the artist's website.
01/07/2024
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
