The Claudio Scolari Project is a hard-to-pigeonhole electro-acoustic jazz combo from Italy that in recent years grown from the original Claudio Scolari/Daniele Cavalca partnership, when both handled drums and some synthesizer programming. Before long, Claudio’s son Simone joined on trumpet and more recently, Daniele’s brother Michele came on board to relieve Daniele of bass duties. And Daniele himself has expanded his role on keyboards as his prowess on them has expanded.
Cosmology (Principal Records) is the fifth release by this CSP, coming just a couple of years before their first album as a two-family quartet, Upside Down. CSP’s standard operating procedure hadn’t changed over all these years, however. They enter the studio with sketches of songs from Claudio and Daniele — sometimes one-chord vamps — and within their loosely-defined constraints proceed to play whatever comes to mind at the moment and let instinct take over. Electronics and technology play a big part in their sound but improvisation remains the foundation for everything they play; Scolari both keeps time and plays free as most of the dialogue up front is occurring between Daniele’s acoustic piano and Simone’s trumpet. But none of their jams ever gets dissonant or cluttered, making this a very listenable kind of ‘free’ jazz.
Scolari concocts a slinky groove for “Dark Matter” that sets the table for everyone else, as each of the other performers enter in single file. Simone takes the harmonic lead but the Cavalca brothers are freestyling all around him.
Daniele cuts loose a “Baba O’Reilly” styled programmed synth pattern for “Magnitude” and it’s Claudio who roams free this time. Daniele’s acoustic piano is improvising alongside Simone’s trumpet for a while as the synth figure emerges as the only thing everyone can tether on to, and each are responding to each other’s cues.
“Hyper Galaxy” is based on a loosely-defined melody which is enough of a bedrock upon which Daniele on piano, Simone on muted trumpet, and Michele on electric bass pour out creative ad-libs alongside each other. A prepared synth figure forms the basis for “Aurora,” too, and the Claudio/Michele rhythm section forms a groove behind it.
“Zenith” sounds like Jan Hammer loosening up and creating on the spot. Daniele and Simone again have dueling solos, with Daniele on Rhodes this time. Michele’s pensive bassline and Daniele’s Rhodes provide a cool noir feel to “Blue Shift.”
Daniele adds more texture than usual to his synthesizer backdrop for “Collision,” and Claudio’s drums comes in and out of the beat as he pleases because it’s already strongly implied. “Nebula” has a — ahem– nebulous melody, where Daniele’s pianisms imply one thing and the background synth chords seem to imply another. Combined, the ambiguity creates an alluring mysterious effect.
As is always the case on a Claudio Scolari Project album, the looseness in their approach on Cosmology guarantees a freshness and fluidity in the music that refuses to be stifled by rigid structures.
Cosmology is available now on Bandcamp.
- Peter Van Huffel, Meinrad Kneer + Yorgos Dimitraidis – ‘Synomilies’ (2024) - December 20, 2024
- Emily Remler – ‘Cookin’ At The Queens, Live In Las Vegas 1984 & 1988′ (2024) - December 9, 2024
- Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin – ‘SPIN’ (2024) - December 8, 2024
