SLAMCD523 Sebastiano Meloni, Nicola Cossu & Roberto Dani – Dialogues

Italian improvising jazz trio featuring pianist Sebastiano Meloni, bassist Nicola Cossu and experienced drummer Roberto Dani.

Sebastiano Meloni says: “Our music is almost completely improvised, apart from a few themes. We try to uncover what music can express in itself, as well as the emotions we could convey with atonal free improvisations. We often decide which forms, sounds, timbres, or registers we are going to explore ahead of time. Our purpose is to make atonal improvisation a compositional language, which means strict rules and attention to form.”

Sebastiano Meloni has recorded a CD, ‘Improvised Pieces for Trio’, with Tony Oxley drums and Adriano Orrù double bass. Roberto Dani recorded more than 60 CDs; he has played, among others, with Annette Peacock, Louis Sclavis, Kenny Wheeler and Dave Liebman.

Sebastiano Meloni: piano
Nicola Cossu: double bass
Roberto Dani: drums

“An Italian piano trio that operates in a more specialised world of melodic but ominous music that draws from the fragmented minor key vibe of Ran Blake and the dark bluesy impulses of Paul Bley…The overall sound of this music is dreamy and disorienting with just enough familiar hints of melody and rhythm to keep you intrigued. It’s creepy but a pleasure to listen to.” – Jerome Wilson, Cadence

“This is very much a performance for the chamber music lover. The title track opens in a quite static manner and Meloni takes a meandering gait on piano. His more dashing personal sound is heard on New Theme and Cossu fashions her own bass message on In The Night. Sleeplessness is a free three-voice exercise, while Another Quiet Place accommodates a distinctly apt conversation. The title track is the most intriguing, taking perhaps a jazz-like exit and doing so in a way that embraces all three musicians.” – Barry McRae, Jazz Journal

“This music is superbly recorded and often haunting in its sound. “Shadows” is an appropriate titled restrained piece which is elegant and flows like a refreshing swim in the ocean. “Waking Up” reminds me of rain storm as it approaches and then passes us by, flooding our senses with watery images before it fades into the horizon. This music has a most organic, natural vibe. Roberto Dani sounds as if he is using knitting needles on “Snowfall”, where he is featured rustling around the drums most carefully. The trio ascends into more eruptive wave at the beginning of “A New Theme”. Each piece develops a different vibe as if it were describing a different scene. The entire disc is like a collection of short stories that add up to a short novel or film of the same name. There is not one spurious note or excessive moment found on this fine disc – it feels quite perfect in substance and execution.” – Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

“Meloni is an avocational pianist…Certainly the 26 performances on these two discs show an original stylist who deserves more exposure…Since Cagliari is hardly a capital of improvised music such as New York or Berlin – let alone Milan or Rome – Meloni’s undoubted talents haven’t been properly exposed to the (Jazz) world at large. Perhaps these fine sessions will help rectify this omission.” – Ken Waxman, Jazzword

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