- Keep Moving Please
- Set me Free (Lament of a Mannequin)
- Goodbyes
- Tickets….Please!
- Spinning Out of Control
- Felix, Gladys & Rover
- Loving Gloves
- Tongue in Cheek
All compositions and artistic production
Tommaso Starace
Tommaso Starace - Alto & Soprano Saxophones
Roger Beaujolais - Vibes
Liam Noble - Piano
Julian Bury - Bass
Jim Hart - Drums
Tommaso Starace was born
in Milan in 1975, he started playing the saxophone
in 1993. He studied at Birmingham Conservatoire,
where he graduated in1998. In 1999 he moved
to London, where he attended the Guildhall
School of Music and obtained a Postgraduate
Degree. He has performed at many of the London
Jazz venues including The 100 Club and Pizza
on the Park. He is therefore well qualified
as a musician and composer having studied
and played with the best.
This is his first CD; he
wrote all of the compositions and produced
what is a very presentable package. The music
is based on his reactions to the photographs
of Elliot Erwitt, the famous American photographer
www.elliotterwitt.com
. His commentary on this for each piece in
the sleeve note I found fascinating.
The group is excellently
balanced and every member seems to perfectly
understand his role in the various pieces,
Tommaso, as you would expect is a very accomplished
musician and his idea of letting his musical
creativity loose on the photographs of Erwitt,
is a good one. In live performances the photographic
images are displayed on a screen whilst the
music is performed. I tried to listen to them
in the same way using the photographs in the
booklet which accompanies the CD.
The music is mostly complex
throughout and I needed to listen to the CD
a few times to understand everything that
was going on! Even now I am not sure that
I do, but I did find it a musical journey
well worth taking. To play pieces of this
complexity with such conviction, means everyone
concerned has to be committed to the work
and these guys obviously are. The rhythm section
is excellent throughout and Roger Beaujolais’
vibes playing provides a great foil to the
leader’s work on saxophone.
I am sure we will hear much
of Tommaso in the future and recommend this
album whole heartedly, it is a fine debut
effort. Just one aside, a lot of us older
musicians would like to hear an album of standards
at sometime. For us, taking in things which
we are not familiar with all the time is hard
work! I know your professors would be sceptical
of this view, but ask yourself, why are they
teaching and not doing?
Don Mather
CD Reviews
FRAME CD QF0553-2
