Monday, August 22, 2011

Claudio Scolari Defies Expectations with "Colors of Red Island"


Colors of Red Island (Principal MISV04) has what you might not expect to find. It's a disk by two drummers (Scolari and Daniele Cavalca) plus a trumpet (Scolari Simone). OK fine, you think, I can imagine what this will sound like. Well it does not, to my ears. First off, the drummers play other instruments as well (Scolari on flute, piano and synths; Cavalca on vibes and bass; both on percussion). So you get a chamber jazz-rock sort of ambient music.

It's a well sequenced and contrasting series of miniature sound worlds of a post-ECM sort. There is a minimalist shimmer without a lot of repetition; there are occasions where there is something vaguely African about it; there is some fine drumming (and you WOULD expect that) often in a pulsating quasi-rock context. And there is a balance between improvisation and a compositional-conceptual attention to structured eventfulness.

It's wide-ranging and consistently attention-getting, in spite of its 79-minute length. And with the various instruments unleashed in the course of a particular segment, it never sounds thin. It's almost orchestral.

Recommended if you are looking for a different spin.

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