Nicola Conte - Other Directions

This record, produced with an admired respect for the classic jazz tradition yet innovative at the same time, originally licensed to the legendary Blue Note in 2004, is now reissued in a new luxury edition. It includes an extra CD featuring the tracks previously released on vinyl ("Other Directions" SCLP 386 Vol.1&2), plus some unreleased ones. Always in balance between Jazz and Bossa Nova, "Other Directions" reveals a Nicola Conte's compositive soul bounded to accomplished acoustic atmospheres. Furthermore the composer's intention is to communicate not only through the music but through the lyrics too, showing a talented and learned songwriter. Inspired both by the beat literature (The Dharma Bums is a true homage to Jack Kerouac) and the English one (Wanin' Moon is inspired by a Percy Shelley's poem), also the cinema and dramaturgy influenced the composer: Le Depart is a reassessment of the piece written in '67 by Krzysztof Komeda for the namesake Jerzy Skolimovsky's movie, and All Gone is a homage to Joseph Losey's "Il Servo," a '60s black-and-white movie directed by Harold Pinter. Together with a line up of Italian and international artists such as Gianluca Petrella, Daniele Scannapieco, Pietro Lussu, Lorenzo Tucci, Fabrizio Bosso,Nicola Stilo, Till Brönner, Nicola traces with great skill the sensuality of the dialogue between the winds and the piano, he beats and emphasizes its rhythms, and adds some extremely elastic voices, the most remarkable of which belongs to Cristina Zavalloni. The bonus CD contains the unreleased Danubian, Teardrop Painted Blue and Quiet Stars; the cover of Charade, a brilliant and innovative reinterpretation of the classic by Henry Mancini; Bohemian's Dilemma, Waltz Of The Sirens and the extended version of Kind Of Sunshine, all taken from the vinyl release; the alternative take of Wanin' Moon, chosen by Gilles Peterson for his compilation "Worldwide Exclusive", and a new version of Nefertiti, released on the Schema compilation "Freedom Jazz Dance". "The music of "Other Directions" buds from the fascination which '50s-'60s jazz influenced me for a certain period, thanks to musicians of the calibre of Horace Silver, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Yusef Lateef and many others. It represents the heart of my artistic choices as it is reflected in my way of feeling. My intention was to offer to this Afro-American tradition a European key of reading and I believe I have given a more romantic interpretation to those atmospheres."