7 February 2009

Colombo, Mancini, Mariani, Vittorini - I VIRTUOSI DI CAVE -RED Record VPS 131


Another unbelievably OOP vinyl from the italian RED Record catalogue.
Once again, as still well pointed out by sotise in a previous italian music post, this missing reissue underlines the musical limits of the RR producer. To better say underlines mostly his choice of definitely more traditional, conventional and, at least to me, boring improvised music.But how much more e
asy to sell in Europe and Outside of it?
Here is an italian saxophone quartet (all the members are multireed players) leaded by the greatly underrated Eugenio Colombo, at least in my opinion, who recorded in 1977,in Rome, an astonishing and still fresh today album. The first Rova recording dates to july 1978 (Cinemè Rovatè) and the first WSQ to june 1977 (Point Of No Return). It seems to me almost unbelievable that in the provincial Italy some genuine musical talents could record in december 1977 such an unpredictable, fresh and compelling attempt. Tecnichal mastery (especially by Colombo), a very fine and mature balance of written and improvised parts, deep reference to mediterranean traditional music (Colombo is an expert of mediterranean music and of circular breath technique), a subtle irony, the fun and joy of playin togheter, all this contribute to the success of this music. This is, to my knowledge, the only document of a seminal group. Even the Colombo recordings aren't so easy to find. His partecipation to the Italian Instabile Orchestra isn't his first and most important outcome but an important arrival point of a deep and uncorrupted musical mind.

Translated from the liner notes:
The VIRTUOSI DI CAVE is a group of four young sax players that for since some years gather themselves in an old house in Cave near Rome. There they study and try new musical shapes in which improvisation and composition can blend givin such way life to a new music. That music stand in the traced field of european and italian classical contemporary music, but distinguish for its originality and the totally new ensemble of four reed players. The tracks here are mostly written with clear references to the mediterranean and oriental folklorical musical tradition but using an european avant-garde composing method. The collective playing, the counterpoin, the timbrical and harmonical choices, the playing and interpreting techniques all those musical facts are used for a control of the improvised parts as planned by the compositions. Colombo, Mancini, Mariani e Vittorini all take part to the activities of the Testaccio's Music Popular School in Rome.
Chicco Tagliaferri



Colombo, Mariani, Mancini, Vittorini
I Virtuosi di Cave, RED Record (It) VPA131

Eugenio Colombo (as, bar, kazumba)
Roberto Mancini (as, ts)
Alberto Mariani (ts, sop, kazumba)
Tommaso Vittorini (ts, bar, sop)

Rome, December 1977

  1. Il granchio verde [19:35]
  2. Ethnomusicology [11:00]
  3. Zanzare immense [01:45]
  4. Pottosfera [5:25]
All compositions written by Eugenio Colombo


ENJOY THE MUSIC!

Links in comments




15 comments:

LYM said...

Here the links to I VIRTUOSI DI CAVE. Lp ripped with PRo-ject box and Goldwave software in WAV format. Front and back covers shots.
An error occurred cutting the tracks from the original file.
I've missed the short track titled B2 "Zanzare Immense"[01:45] that is now in queue of the B1 "Ethnomusicology" [11:00].
Sorry for the error!!! I don't tihnk to re-post immediatly the album but if everyone here needs for a re-posting I'll do it without problem.

SEE YOU. :-) LYM

Colombo,Mancini, Mariani, Vittorini - I Virtuosi Di Cave - RED Record VPA 131.part1.rar

http://www.mediafire.com/file/izzzwzcmnnj

Colombo,Mancini, Mariani, Vittorini - I Virtuosi Di Cave - RED Record VPA 131.part2.rar

http://www.mediafire.com/file/oyj5ybftzvc

Colombo,Mancini, Mariani, Vittorini - I Virtuosi Di Cave - RED Record VPA 131.part3.rar

http://www.mediafire.com/file/dnktn4gtmiw

plato said...

Great, thanks! The Italian avant-jazz is usually interesting and I love saxophone quartets.

I created for myself a flac version of the files with the insignificant error fixed:
http://www.mediafire.com/?exxajloyrmq
http://www.mediafire.com/?9bi3lzmmvjj

LYM said...

@plato thanks for the appreciation and for Your work! Everytime I post a record from italian free or post free improvised I feel like no one can be really interested and everytime very good appreciation persuade me to go on even this way.
SEE YOU. :-) LYM

Anonymous said...

Thank you.
Please, go this way!

Andrej
Germany

Anonymous said...

thanks for the music,
I was looking for this Lp since
many years, Colombo has produced
very good music recently but this
one is a sort of legend in
Italian Jazz
cheers
lorenzo

SOTISE said...

Lym...thanks a lot for this ,its wonderful!
check your email..i sent you one a week ago.
cheers and thanks again!

Nigel said...

Thanks to both of you, LYM and Plato. I love the sax quartet sound, though I don't yet have a much of a sax quartet collection...just two versions of Bach's Art of the Fugue and a disc by the World Saxophone Quartet. I need to dig deeper. Thanks.

Wallofsound said...

LYM, thanks for posting this. I'm being guided by your usual good taste and the reputation of RED records here, as this is new to me. There's a bit of a biog on Sergio Veschi -- RED's founder -- at www.ijm.it/whos-who/sergio-veschi

Although the Italian free music is less well known to me, it is of great interest. LYM do continue to educate us.

Sardo said...

grazie tante!

Anonymous said...

First of all, many thanks LYM for remembering this great and under recorded sax quartet; then a little contribution : IVDC recorded live in Florence on July 7th, 1978 (my recording) - flac

http://rapidshare.com/files/195702499/IVDC_Florence_07_07_1978.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/195901352/IVDC_Florence_07_07_1978.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/195907782/IVDC_Florence_07_07_1978.part3.rar

a hug
riccardo

plato said...

Thanks riccardo. Truly great music and the sound quality is good, sounding like a recording from an fm broadcast. Again, this is great.

I found this piece of information on Eugenio Colombo and IVDC: "With the cooperative saxophone quartet I Virtuosi di Cave he recorded several of his compositions in 1977 for the eponymous Lp on Red Records. The self-ironic name of the group came from the village not far from Rome where the four gathered to rehearse in a old country house; the italian word "cave" means stone quarries."

LYM said...

Hi Riccardo THANKS for the appreciation and for Your invaluable gift! I'd never thought that someone in 1978 would record this asthonishing group so givin us another audio documentation! Thanks again.

It would be nice if someone could attribute a title to those 4 new tracks.

SEE YOU. :-) LYM

Anonymous said...

Never heard of this quartet before but they sound great. Thanks for the post.

noteworthy said...

This is a new group to me, but as your impeccable taste is usually spot on, I'm more than happy to give it a listen. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Sorry for posting anonymous, but I am in a rush.
Must point out, though, that "Zanzare Immense", the short track without improvisation, has been composed by Tommaso Vittorini, member of the quartet in 1977, and not Colombo as stated above.