(Contemporary Jazz, Modern Creative, Free Jazz) [WEB] Ajar - Ajar - 2015, FLAC (tracks), lossless

Ajar, partially open or nearly closed, refers to the artistic sensibility shared by the four musicians of the group that formed in 2011. Here, opening suggests movement towards an encounter as much as it implies closed in retreat. A threshold whose door is ajar is a boundary that is neither fixed nor categorical . Melodic flows start in the mediterranean and spiral up to northern Europe with an air that recalls the jazz contaminations associated with ECM. The lyrical mediterranean compositions of the Neapolitan pianist Luigi Esposito meld with the improvisational concept of Charles Ferris and with the sound and abstract space of Umberto Lepore and Marco Castaldo, who are also joined by Davide Maria Viola on a couple of pieces. From Chopin to Morricone, with glimmers of Richard Galliano, Esbjorn Svensson, Charlie Haden, Pat Metheny, Bill Evans, Brad Mehldau, Keith Jarret, Bill Frisell, Bobo Stenson, John Taylor, Anders Jormin, Brian Blade, Miles Davis, Michael Brecker, Gary Burton, Kenny Wheeler, Christian Scott: these are the expressive refererences that bring compositional inspiration to the cardinal points around which the composer’s search for new forms and melodies is based. In the quartet’s free collective improvisations, the classical roles of jazz are overturned but guided by a collective sensibility nourished over the course of a long collaboration and the mood of the specific compositions in which they emerge.

Luigi Esposito - pianoforte
Umberto Lepore - contrabbasso
Marco Castaldo - batteria
Charles Ferris - tromba, flicorno
Davide Maria Viola - violoncello