Elsden Music EM11
Katie Patterson (drums & vocals); Charlie Pyne (double bass & vocals); Ilario Ferrari (piano, piano effects & vocals)
Appearing as footnote beneath the musician’s credits is the statement that “All sounds are produced by acoustic piano, double bass, drums or human voices. Sound effects are generated using pedal effects on the instruments.” This immediately indicates that the music that you are about to listen to is not (quite) a straight ahead piano trio album.
The resulting music is melodic, beguiling and sometime confusing by turns. That is not to say that there is not much to enjoy, there is plenty, it is just that the album as a whole seems a little disjointed and ambiguous as if it cannot decide quite where it wants to be.
There is no disputing that Ferrari is a fine jazz pianist, and his credentials include a First Class Degree with Honours Jazz Piano from Licino Refice Conservatory in 2015, but it seems as though initially his primary musical direction was in composing and arranging for strings and orchestra and writing pop/funk and more recently soul/rock songs.
With all the members of the trio having strong singing voices, Ferrari has set to incorporate their irrefutable abilities as a contemporary piano trio with his gifts as a songwriter with the result that the music falls somewhere between the two camps.
The opening ‘Earthrise’ and ‘Morning Samba’ capture the sound of the trio perfectly, and the harmonised voices that were recorded after the instrumental parts were laid down work really well. The sparing use of effects on ‘Beyond the Horizon’ is also particularly effective, but less so on the title track. With its lovely melody and arrangement for the Soli Strings Quartet’ it would have worked well as an instrumental for trio and string quartet.
A similar fate falls on ‘Walking on the Yellow Line’, but works wonderfully on ‘Leah Meets Laika’, a beautiful ballad for the trio that draws the listener only to surprise and delight with the unexpected entry of the Children’s Choir. Continuing with the focus with the trio, ‘Chai or Coffee’ in a driving and commanding performance.
The final piece, ‘Summer Lullaby – Vocal Version’ is a pleasant way to close the album, but does bring home the fact that at times the vocals on occasion dilute the impact of some strong compositions and equally strong playing from all.
