This post is by Dan
Recorded October 6 and 7, 1987
Among the benefits of Soul Note's prolific recording schedule in the 1980s was my discovery of Italian jazz artists. Giorgio Gaslini was one of the most significant Italian musicians working across genres beginning in the 1960s and continuing until his death in 2014 at age 84. Of his 82 albums, 24 appear on Soul Note between 1981 and 2008. These range from solo outings (e.g., Gaslini Plays Monk, 1981) to orchestral works (e.g., Urban Griot, 2008).
Multipli is a favorite of mine for several reasons. First, the musicianship is top level. Each member of the quintet is a virtuoso, and Gaslini is as great a pianist as he is composer. Second, most of this music does not sound like American jazz, even the lone cover of a Jelly Roll Morton tune. It doesn't sound like Nordic jazz either. However, there are some cleverly delivered sly tributes to American jazz as noted below. Finally, this album is simply fun to listen to.
Side one of the LP (Tracks 1-4) consists of three pieces, including Jelly Roll's "Chicago Breakdown," that are structured around vamps and little thematic figures that come and go. It's hard to consider these to be "songs" because they are not strong melodically and don't follow familiar chord changes. For me, that separates Gaslini's compositions from other jazz traditions. It's still jazz, of course, but done differently.
Side 2 (Tracks 5-8) opens with a pair of tunes that are march-like. "Piano Sequenza" is a splintered march whereas "Corteo" is more measured and does rely on melody and chord sequences. It's a very nice mysterious procession. "Ornette or Not" brilliantly mimics Ornette Coleman's music and gives Roberto Ottaviano great blowing space on alto. He's my favorite Italian reed player and the subject of a future post. The album closes with a hilarious tune called "La Risata," which means "the laughter" in Italian. "La Risata" begins with a walking bass line, something we've not heard on the previous seven tracks. Suddenly, alto and tenor burst into something that might belong in the Lennie Tristano song book! The two horns sound exactly like Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh doing their Tristano thing while generating horn-like laughter. If the point was to get the listener to laugh, I got it!
Anyone who thinks that European jazz borrows too heavily from classical music should listen to this album. Gaslini spans classical/orchestral genres but was also Italy's most prolific and popular jazz artist in the 1980s. Multipli puts several styles on display and is very entertaining as well as challenging (in a good way). This might be a good choice for anyone looking for fresh ways to appreciate jazz music.
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