Max De Aloe Baltic Trio presents VALO
Max De Aloe_chromatic harmonica and accordion
Niklas Winter_guitar
Jesper Bodilsen_double bass
Valo, the Finnish word for "light", is the name of the new CD and project of Max De Aloe Baltic Trio in which the Italian musician plays with two champions of North-European jazz: the Finnish guitarist Niklas Winter and the Danish double-bass player Jesper Bodilsen.
The sound of the trio is influenced by the rarefied atmosphere of the Nordic jazz, but it is mixed with the authentic melodic flavor that has always characterized Max De Aloe's music.
The idea in Valo is to blend original tunes, composed by the three musicians, with revised early music tunes. Among the last ones we can find Claudio Monteverdi, Henry Purcell but also some musical gems found in the Finnish cathedral in Turku on Graduale Aboense, a music score composed using neumes, dating back to the XIV and XV centuries.
The rarefied and magic Nordic jazz meets the music of the past and the great Italian melody. A musical journey through surreal and dreamy atmospheres, in which the listener is ravished by the idea of the light of the Great North expressed in music.
Max De Aloe, histrionic and visionary artist, leader of original and sophisticated musical projects, is considered one of the most active harmonicists in Europe.
Niklas Winter is an eclectic and original musician. He studied at the well-known Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has an intense activity in Northern Europe and Japan, where he has organized 17 tours in the last few years.
Jesper Bodilsen Who has been playing with Bollani Nordic Trio for years, won the Django d'oro jazz prize in 2004 as the best European musician. This is by far the most important Award in jazz world in Europe
LINER NOTES BY MAX DE ALOE
Valo, from the Finnish for "light", comes from a desire to fuse the rarefied character of Nordic jazz with the Mediterranean flair for melody. A love of such melody has been the stylistic hallmark of my work for years. In Valo, I wanted to include early music pieces readapted for this ensemble, connecting jazz to early music via a 400-year-old bridge, or, better yet, approaching early music as if it were contemporary jazz. Alongside the best known melodies of that period, like those of Claudio Monteverdi and Henry Purcell, you’ll hear two musical gems from the Graduale Aboense, a manuscript in neumatic notation dating from the 14th-15th Century, discovered in the Cathedral of Turku, the former capital of Finland.
In giving life to this project, I thought of the great Nordic light as a filter which lent a particular texture to the musical material, imagining how directors, screenwriters and directors of photography work on a film.
The connection between the contemporary scores written specifically for this work and the early music pieces is far from unintentional, as are the five unaccompanied musical fragments that blend into the flow of the tracks. Valo is my dreamlike film transfigured into music. For this film, two important musical “actors” played crucial roles: Niklas Winter and Jesper Bodilsen. The "film editing" genius was provided by Marti Jane Robertson, who mixed the CD with the same talent and grace that have long distinguished her work.
My personal image of Finland and the north was pieced together in my mind and heart as I clambered through the films of Aki Kaurismäki, to whom I’ve dedicated the song Aki, the works of young Finnish poets (Pauliina Haasjoki, Kaisa Ijäs, Sanna Karlström, Anni Sinnemäki, etc.) and, above all, through the novels of Arto Paasilinna, Leena Lander, Tove Jansson and Bo Carpelan. For this, I’d like to thank the publishing house Iperborea and the visionary genius of its founder, Emilia Lodigiani, who for thirty years has made it possible for Italians to enjoy such wonderful Nordic literature. Enjoy, Max De Aloe - February 2017
Max De Aloe Quartet presents
Lirico incanto
Max De Aloe, chromatic harmonica
Roberto Olzer, piano
Marco Mistrangelo, double bass
Nicola Stranieri, drums
"Lirico incanto", which is also featured on CD, the harmonicist and his quartet reinterpret known opera arias: music which disorients, but fascinates at the same time, striving for a personal point of view on the interpretation of melodies by Puccini, Verdi, Leoncavallo. A crossover project with the potential to surprise both radical melodists and down-right jazz fans, which in reality features both a passionate and modern take on opera music which also appeals to an average audience.
In the liner notes of "Lirico incanto", Paolo Fresu writes:
“Max De Aloe has understood that jazz and opera are tied together by that thin thread made of history and culture, of migrations and parlances that united the continents well before trumpets and saxophones invaded the streets of New Orleans. For this, together with his companions on this stupendous musical journey, he grasped in the beautiful melodies of Leoncavallo, Verdi and Puccini the essence of a music that sets out, as always, to speak to the world of an aTOUR and dynamic humanity. Humanity that has carried music beyond the Italian borders and that today sends it back to us filled with echoes and reverberations of America. lirico incanto is music as limpid as air. It is exquisite and coherent music that smacks of lyricism and melody, the same that for several centuries has magnificently represented what we are beyond genres and styles”.
Max De Aloe Quartet presents
Björk on the moon
Max De Aloe, chromatic harmonica
Roberto Olzer, piano
Marco Mistrangelo, double bass
Nicola Stranieri, drums
Special Guest: Marlise Goidanich, baroque cello
A visionary and eclectic project in which this harmonious jazz quartet engages in the compositions of Björk's musical universe, an all-round artist, able to fascinate as a singer, musician, composer and even as an actress.
Björk and her music, fluctuating among so different, apparently incompatible genres, are re-intepreted in this project embrancing a contemporary jazz that will enchant all listeners, even those less accustomed to jazz and to the Icelandinc singer's music
Björk on the moon has the charm and the magic that always characterize the musical projects of Max De Aloe and his quartet
The sound of the group is enriched by the talent of the Brazilian violoncellist Marlise Goidanich, guest in the album and in concerts
Pop harp
Max De Aloe, chromatic harmonica
Marcella Carboni electro-acoustic harp
A unique, virtuoso and amazing duo, even for those who are not much into jazz, and with the ability to move with nonchalance from A. Piazzolla to G. Fauré, or from the Brazilian composer Jobim to the Beatles. Also Pixinguinha, Pascoal, Berlin and even Sting are included in their CD (POP HARP, April 2013, Abeat Records, Italy), as well as their own compositions. In this way their performance ranges from jazz, tango, bossanova to pop and also classical music with a sometimes melancholic sound that however includes moments of light and movement.
Marcella Carboni Italian jazz harpist and composer , her performance is often defined to be a balance between jazz and European music, writing and improvisation, played with impeccable technique and enchanting sound. Still, her dedication to Afro-american music hasn't stopped her from exploring all contemporary stiles. The encounter with the NY harpist Park Stickney revealed to her the potentiality of the jazz harp and inspired her to develop an original style. Since then Marcella Carboni has been participating, with her electro acoustic harp, in seminars, workshops, jazz and postgraduate studies in Italy and abroad. Certainly, seeing her blue harp in the jazz environment seemed really unusual at that stage. Despite this and due to her musical abilities, important and well known musicians like Enrico Pieranunzi, Bruno Tommaso, Paolo Fresu, Riccardo Zegna, Roberto Cipelli, started to collaborate with her. This is the history that precedes the creation of “Trame”, which is her first solo’ CD. She took part in movie and theater projects and manages without fatigue to suit her instrument to the requirements of soul, pop o electronic music. She collaborates with numerous musicians of the Italian jazz scene. Even today, she is still the only harpist who has appeared in the ranking of the Italian Top Jazz musicians. Besides her intense musical activity she is also engaged in teaching the jazz harp in the musical state academy and in Italian harp schools.
