A Piece of the Rock

• Artist: Ellen Christi Fiorenzo Sordini Quintet
• Rating:
• Release Date: 1991
• Total Time: 61:19
• Genre: Jazz

Review

The pairing of vocalist Ellen Christi with the stellar Fiorenzo Sordini Quartet -- thus making it a quintet -- is as natural and right as rain. Their mutual insistence that jazz is a whole music that should not be subdivided into genres works well to their mutual advantage. With Sordini holding down the drum chair and Carlos Actos Dato on saxophones, as well as Japanese trombonist Masahiko Kono and bassist Enrico Fazio, this band already holds down all the corners of a very large jazz tent. Adding Christi's elegant sensual voice to the progressive creative process is like Noah building an ark to house what would be left of the world's creatures after the flood. Elements of jazz rock and funk ("A.A."), vanguard group improvisation ("Banana Split"), straight-ahead blues ("The Count"), and South African jazz melodics ("Dudu") are included. It's not that this group plays these musics as separate entities, but within the larger context of history, tradition, and, most important of all, innovation. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi

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