Search - Actis Band :: Garibaldi

Very funny and also stone brilliant

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 01/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Carlos Actis Dato, that crazy Italian reeds-man, has recorded a masterpiece of wildly eclectic jazz featuring a unique soundscape.Let's start in a most unusual place: the liner photos. The back of the disc insert features a photo that immediately gives one access to the zaniness going on here. Dato, clad all in red, with fez-like headgear and matching monklish robe, grasping a handsaw with which he has apparently sawed his bass clarinet in half, looking askance, has the merest hint of a sly grin on his face--which is a perfect visual analog to the wacky aural proceedings. Or take the cover photo, with the band cavorting in faux-anthemic garb, one member bearing a Star Wars light sabre, another a bamboo pole-vaulting implement, being led to war, one suposses, Garibaldi-like, by their fearless leader.The music itself wanders all across the modern post- free- nu- bop landscape, with occasional nods to the blues (via some weird tango-like groove) ("Dulcinea"), flamenco filtered through faux-mariachi ("Viva Zapata"), industrial/ambient jazz ("Miso Soup"), anthemic rock/jazz ("Porci Padani," Vulcano Boro"), neo-Township ("Makeba"), hip Middle Eastern ("Agdz"), a-referential freak-out ("Taihenda"), and declamatory North African ("Polpi d'Otranto").The band, featuring players entirely new to me, demonstrates the reality that jazz is becoming a universal language. Each player exhibits consummate mastery of his instrument with ease of expression and virtuoso felicity found only in the best of North American practitioners. Antonio Fontana on guitar always seems to find the exact tonal and conceptional approach these ambitious yet natural-sounding compositions call for. Dario Bruna on drums sounds like an Italian David King (of The Bad Plus and Happy Apple). Federico Marchesano on electric and acoustic bass pulls out a surprising array of arco and plucked stylings, and Massimo Rossi on alto and soprano sax continually astounds with his range and depth of expression.But it is the leader who shines brightest. Long a member of the Italian Avant Garde, Dato consistently surprises with both the depth and playfulness of his compositional concept and the feral domesticity (?) of his wind playing. It's the wild clashing of styles so naturally pulled off that sets this disc apart. Similar to but actually surpassing such North American efforts as Josh Roseman's Cherry and Treats for the Nightwalker, The Bad Plus's These Are the Vistas, and Brad Mehldau's Largo, Garibaldi plows them under by virtue of its controlled bizarreness, virtuosity lightly worn, and madcap humor. This is the kind of music that Secret Chiefs 3 would make if they had a clue.Bold, brash, hip, nappier-than-thou, Actis Band is where it's at, man. Too cool for words."