Italian jazz is regarded for its highly developed sense of lyricism and elegant sonorities. Soprano and tenor saxophonist Pietro Tonolo is, especially among Italian tenor players, one of the most sophisticated lyricists of his generation -- which is really saying something. The music on this date, with his quartet (Roberto Rossi, trombone and shells; Piero Leveratto, bass; and Alfred Kramer on drums), walks a highly stylized line between the glossy arrangements of West Coast and cool jazz and the modern vanguard. On Monk's "Introspection," they invert the composer's arrangement and change its time signatures so much they are nearly unrecognizable. They are so smooth they slip in the mix. But this isn't a bad thing. Unlike most of the Italian revivalists, Tonolo and his crew open up Monk's harmony to include a specifically European roundedness of tone and color. On Ellington's "West Indian Pancake" they do the same thing, only this time in such a scaled-down arrangement they turn the melody on its ear with counterpoint and shift the harmonics to include a modal stretch in the bridge that alters the entire meaning of the tune. Again, it's wonderfully engaging as the listener is taken for a ride through chromatic reason and sensation. Tonolo's compositions are not without merit, either. On "Antares," a modal ballad with a truly languid and lengthy opening melody line, creates an impressive field for solos by both Tonolo and Rossi. Rossi in particular takes the spaciousness in the track and plays all around it, allowing the rhythm section to dance it home in the middle before the line comes back to fade it. The American revivalists could learn a lot from Tonolo and his band; they seem to know that although the great music of the past is with us always, it can be toyed with, turned over, and examined for new meanings. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
