EMILIO SOLLA

LA INESTABLE DE BROOKLYN / HANDMADE

Club 253 Records

Percussion opens this album with excitement. Facundo Colman is featured percussionist on this track.  Rogerio Boccato is drummer & percussionist throughout the production. During this arrangement, Tim Armacost makes a soulful statement on bass clarinet and also is the soloist in the 3^rd part of this Suite featuring his tenor saxophone. This Emilio Solla “Suite de los Abrazos (A Hugging Suite)” is a musical picture of the 2020 pandemic. It contains three movements. The arrangement is based on a twelve-tone musical approach. Sara Caswell’s violin is a lovely addition to the mix, as well as Rodolfo Zanetti’s distinctive bandoneon instrument. The third (III) movement is one of my favorites.

Track #2 celebrates “Joni Mitchell” who happens to be one of Emilio Solla’s favorite songwriters. He has incorporated two of Mitchell’s originals into his own creation and asks us (in his liner notes) to see if we can spot them.

This nine-piece orchestra of highly respected musicians, led by the genius of Emilio Solla, was nominated for a Grammy a decade ago. Solla is no newcoming to the music scene.  He blends jazz with world music in a smooth and beautiful way.

Solla composes music that reflects Argentinian music, other Latino music, and jazz, like a tight ball of yarn.  When you knit them all together, it makes a very emotional sweater that everyone wants to wear.

“Bird Song” is a composition about a bird who lives in both San Antonio, TX and the Gulf of Mexico.  The violin of Sara Caswell brings the bird alive in an amazing way.

“I thought about writing the song of an imaginary bird who lives on both sides of the border, because it did not know anything about borders. In this remake for ‘La Inestable,’ Sara Caswell is in charge of the bird character and man, does she sing!” says Emilio Solla in his liner notes.

The tenderness captured by Edward Perez on double bass during this ballad arrangement of Suite de Los Abrazos II, is absolutely lovely, followed by a declaration from the trumpet of David Smith during the “Miles Tango.” Emilio’s tasty improvised piano solo is wonderful and passionate.

This is music for all seasons, all cultures, all ears!  Emilio Solla mixes European classical music into his arrangements, blending in jazz (America’s only original classical music) like salt and pepper. Just one spoonful of these spicy and delicious songs will have you coming back for more.

THE BAND: Emilio Solla, piano/conductor/composer/arranger; Edward Perez, double bass; Rogerio Boccato, drums/percussion; Facundo Colman, percussion; Rodolfo Zanetti, bandoneon; Sara Caswell, violin; Tim Armacost, tenor saxophone/clarinet/bass clarinet; David Smith, trumpet /flugelhorn/ Alejandro Avilés, soprano & alto saxophones/flute; Sofia Tosello, vocals.

 

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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