Seems like every time Blue Note Records decides to release an album by a European act it's some god-forsaken jazz-electronica whiplash--whether the execrable St. Germain and Jazzanova or the slightly less odious Erik Truffaz. I expected more of the same when I saw that Italian trombonist Gianluca Petrella was next on the docket, a guy who's worked with producer Nicola Conte and who lists a bunch of electronic records on his website's "playlist" section. But this guy is the real deal. He's a member of Enrico Rava's band--not one of my fave's, but the trumpeter's earned his bona fides--and he's worked and/or recorded with Hamid Drake, Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Sean Bergin, Antonello Salis, and Gianluigi Trovesi, among others.
His fantastic new album Indigo4 is definitely informed by electronic forms--there's some distinctive drum 'n' bass rhythms and corrosive electronic textures--but they're all pulled off in a wonderfully original way than never threatens to upstage the essential sense of swing and high level improvisation that's going on here. It's a quartet album--with Fabio Accardi on drums, Francesco Bearzatti on reeds, and Dalla Porta on bass--with a solid post-bop aesthetic at its core, although dynamic, adventurous arrangements totally reinvent trusty workhorses like "Mood Indigo." I could go on and on about how swell the record is, but I already did that in forthcoming review for Down Beat so I'll just prattle on about the opening track, a killer take on Monk's "Trinkle, Tinkle." Petrella collected a bevy of Monk piano samples, and throughout the performance they're sampled in chopped-up pieces and laid in an exquisite herky-jerk style that brilliantly hints at the pianist's singular, warped sense of rhythm--jagged, stuttery, and wholly propulsive. No fixed patterns are ever established, so the sample component seems through-composed, constantly providing improv fodder for the live musicians--not that they really need it anyway. It's my favorite piece on the album, but nothing here is shabby, and it's a front-runner for jazz album of the year. For real!
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