Clairvoyance

Giuliano/Bechini/Verniani
L’attimo fuggente
Setola Di Maiale SM4380

Shading the textures of a reed instrument with those from an acoustic piano and a double bass is what absorbs these Italian trios. Both engage with the challenge in a series of shorter improvisations with crucial differences in performance.

L’attimo fuggente is first-time meeting between veteran pianist Giuseppe Giuliano, who has played with Giancarlo Schiaffini and two younger players, bassist Amedeo Verniani, who has recorded with Emanuele Parrini and clarinetist Gabriel Bechini. The other disc changes the situation with Gianni Mimmo’s soprano saxophone timbres prominent as Silvia Corda adds toy piano tinkles to her regular piano explorations. A working group, Clairvoyance also includes bassist Adriano Orrù, who like Corda has also played with Schiaffini, Mimmo, who has worked internationally with a variety of creative musicians.

That said, Giuliano’s focus on L’attimo fuggente’s dozen tracks is on the piano’s low end. Throughout his pressured thumps and stop-start expositions often move in double counterpoint with string slaps or arco swells from Verniani’s bass while Bechini’s output ranges from clarion trills on the clarinet to chalumeau tongue stops on the bass clarinet. Trio interaction ranges from super staccato and allegrissimo with bouncing piano bent notes and col legno slaps, to distinctive andante patterns encompassing a walking bass line, keyboard clips and subtle reed flutters. At points as on the three “Dedica A Cardew” and “Marsha” themes slide between dark and light tones, with pedal point emphasis, key stopping and piano wood smacks contrasted with reed trills that move steadily upwards with expressively jolly split tones. Bass strings buzz below both at the same time. Moreover deep bass thumps direct the unrolling of “Black Twiggy” Giuliano/Bechini/Verniani’s most extended and defining track. The clarinetist creates clarion calls that laugh as they expand, while the pianist shakes soundboard echoes, strums ringing tones from his keys and begins with a brief instance of toy-piano-like plinks. The climax bicycles narrowed timbres from one instrument to the next.

More obvious on some of Transient eight tracks, but used with taste, Corda’s toy piano asides are judiciously paired with regular keyboard excursions on tracks such as “Transient Clouds”. The contrast between music-box-like tinkles and the piano’s percussive low notes sets up dual contrasts to Orrú’s sul tasto sweeps on one hand and Mimmo’s sweeping tongue stops and flutters on the other. These types of divergent challenges and harmonies are used to effect on many other tracks. Mid-range tongue stops are opposed by thick, powerful and pedal-directed keyboard sweeps until the reed extrusions flutter back onto themselves. Mallet-like pops from the toy piano meet up with woody twangs and repeated strums from the double bass. Or fidgeting reed vibrations are pushed into mellow vibrations by inverse jangles and patterning toy and regular keyboards efforts. Furthermore in spite of the exploratory nature of the program, pivots to simple swing characterize tracks like “Those Telegraph Poles” and the concluding “B&W Vanishing Train”. While the initial movement of the former is deconstructed with squeaky altissimo pitches, the groove is reasserted following integration of Cord’s comping and Orrù’s subtle thumps. Operating in reverse, “B&W Vanishing Train” finds Mimmo’s smears and vibrations embellishing the simple melody first projected by the piano’s reflective string plucks. Eventually gushing keyboard glissandi and bowed bass timbres bring back the cheerful intro, energetically joined by reed flutters to the end.

Simple affiliations give the members of these trios exactly the textures with which they want to work. And it’s the listeners who benefit.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: L’attimo: 1. Miss New York 2. Miss Boston 3. Twiggy 4. Miss New Orleans 5. Black Twiggy 6. Dedica A Sylb 7. Dedica 1 A Cardew 8. Dedica 2 A Cardew 9. Dedica 3 A Cardew 10. Missy 11. Marsha 12. Tender Love-

Personnel: L’attimo: Gabriel Bechini (clarinet and bass clarinet); Giuseppe Giuliano (piano) and Amedeo Verniani (bass)

Track Listing: Transient: 1.  Last Cranes In The Pond 2. Transient Clouds 3. Shinjuku 4. Those Telegraph Poles 5. Tilting At Crazy Angles 6. Rippling Lake 7. Garden Maze 8. B&W Vanishing Train

Personnel: Transient: Gianni Mimmo  (soprano saxophone); Silvia Corda (piano and toy piano) and Adriano Orrú (bass)