2023-06-25 16:00:00
It takes courage to try your hand at being a musician in a foreign city. And it takes skill to actually gain a foothold there. Guido Spannocchi has succeeded: the native of Vienna has been working as a jazz saxophonist in London for years and presented his new album at Ronnie Scott’s – a prestigious address in the city’s pulsating jazz scene.
Guido Spannocchi Quartet
Live at Porgy & Bess Vienna
(audio guide)
© Daniel Domig
The recordings were made a year earlier at Vienna’s Porgy & Bess: Here in June 2022, Spannocchi underlined the timeless hipness of his sound with an amazingly compact quartet. Numbers like the opener “Don Ron” are prime examples of jazz that relies on powerful, magnetic grooves combined with a harsh saxophone sound and allows the action to steer towards lustful climaxes within the framework of expansive solos: energy escalations in the spirit of John Coltrane. Spannocchi not only skilfully builds up his solos, increases his improvisations over wild sheets of sound to hot, hoarse top notes, he also proves to be a clever composer throughout: the ballad “Das ist diefrage” hypnotizes the ear with overcast, enigmatic piano chords, the 5/4 groove of “Ganbatte” gets the legs tapping, and with “Nighttime in Soho” Spannocchi serves up a surprisingly catchy, soulful bouncer.
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#Jazz #Guido #Spannocchi #Timeless #Hipness
