Gaetano Liguori Collective Orchestra – Gaetano Liguori Collective Orchestra (1976, LP, Italy)

Lato 1

COLLECTIVE SUITE (21:38)

1 Collective (Solo Fiati)

2 Collective 1

3 Tango,Ultimo?

4 Percussione Bitte

5 For Max

6 Two Bassess

7 Flute

8 Collective 2/ Finale

Lato 2

NUOVA RESISTENZA (18:47)

Musicisti

Alto Saxophone – Edoardo Ricci, Massimo Urbani

Bass – Roberto Del Piano

Contrabass – Roberto Bellatalla

Drums – Filippo Monico, Pasquale Liguori

Flute – Sandro Cesaroni

Piano – Gaetano Liguori

Soprano Saxophone – Giancarlo Maurino

Tenor Saxophone – Sandro Cesaroni

Trombone – Danilo Terenzi

Trumpet – Giancarlo Maurino, Guido Mazzon

Registrazione Effettuata Nei Giorni 3/4-2-1976 Negli Studi PDU-Basilica

The Collective Orchestra was a visionary, short-living creative music collective led by Gaetano Liguori, who was one of the main protagonists of Italian free jazz since the early 70s. It was an important attempt to put together young musicians from the two main towns in Italy, and its respective leading figures: Giorgio Gaslini in Milan and Mario Schiano in Rome. Previous attempts to set up anything similar were, in fact, either frustrated by rivalries between the various personalities or were destined to be one-off events.

Liguori's vision is simply wonderful here – even bolder and more expressive than on his previous works for PDU, and the energy which he summons and transmits throughout is just extraordinary. The near-telepathic interplay of the core set of Gaetano Liguori on piano, Roberto Bellatalla on double bass, Filippo Monico on drums, Guido Mazzon on trumpet, and young musicians Edoardo Ricci, Giancarlo Maurino and Massimo Urbani on soprano and alto saxophones, is given a richly expanded sound palette by the addition of Danilo Terenzi on trombone, Roberto Del Piano on Fender bass and Sandro Cesaroni on flute.

There's something really magical about the reciprocity that occurs when he plays these exceptional improvisers - and the album's still has a "sense of the new" feel (after 40 years!) that's as gripping as anything recorded by Italian ensemble around the same time.

The sound is strong and freely exploratory, at a level that's completely fresh and very striking, and handled here with a wonderful balance between playful arrangements and fierce improvisations.

Gaetano Liguori Idea Trio ‎– I Signori Della Guerra (1975, LP, Italy)

Side A

A1. I Signori Della Guerra (8:05)

A2. Garabongo (6:16)

A3. Don Mario Blues (3:49)*

Side B

B1. Tarantella Del Vibrione (6:31)

B2. Inco (5:14)

B3. Viva La Cassa Del Mezzogiorno (5:50)**

Musicians:

Bass – Roberto Del Piano

Drums – Filippo Monico

Piano, Composer – Gaetano Liguori

*Tarantella del vibrione (“vibrio’s tarantella” – in 1973 a huge cholera epidemic hit Naples and other cities in Southern Italy, but the track is actually dedicated to Roberto Franceschi, a 21-year old student shot dead by the police in Milan during a demonstration on January 23rd, 1973)

**Viva la Cassa del Mezzogiorno (“up with the Cassa del Mezzogiorno” – Cassa del Mezzogiorno, “Mezzogiorno’s bank”, was a publicly held bank established in the Seventies to finance development projects in Southern Italy, soon infiltrated by mobsters)

Anni di piombo, anni di paillettes

Gaetano Liguori Idea Trio, I signori della guerra (1975)

(A review by laltritalia.wordpress.com)

Back in the Seventies the existence – and the significance – of a politically engaged, militant jazz could have been pretty obvious in the States, or Africa, or elsewhere outside Italy, but certainly not here, where traditionalist and stiff connoisseurs audiences regarded it rather as a wicked contamination with earthly matters.

Gaetano Liguori – a classicaly trained pianist and composer – was among the first italian jazz musicians to address directly “the heavy human condition of destitutes, deviants and oppressed people at every latitude”, as this record’s liner notes read, bringing jazz to the revolutionary masses by playing thousands of gigs at factories, schools, universities, squatted places and pop festivals.

I signori della guerra (“the lords of war”), credited to his Idea Trio, came after their controversial debut album Cile libero, Cile rosso (“free Chile, red Chile”), and kept on the same path, combining free outbursts with quieter and atmospheric piano tunes and folk hints. The combo featured Filippo Monico on drums and Roberto Del Piano on bass.

In 1976 Liguori recorded, together with the poet-worker Giulio Stocchi, Demetrio Stratos, his father Pasquale Liguori on drums and some other fellow musicians La cantata rossa per Tall El Zataar (“the red cantata for Tall El Zaatar”), which recalled the huge massacre of Palestinian refugees by the hand of christian phalangists happened in Eastern Beirut earlier that year.

A version of “Tarantella del vibrione” featuring Tullio De Piscopo on drums and recorded at the Demetrio Stratos’ tribute concert in Milan, June 6th, 1979, is available in the legendary 1979 il concerto Cramps live album.

Gaetano Liguori / Giulio Stocchi / Demetrio Stratos ‎– La Cantata Rossa Per Tall El Zaatar (1977, CD, Italy)

Demetrio Stratos from Area teamed up with jazz musicians Gaetano Liguori anf Giulio Stocchi for this special album released back in 1976, after the Tall El Zaatar massacre in Palestine. Stratos delivers the sung words (and the guttural excursions) together with Concetta Busacca while bassist Roberto Del Piano and drummer Pasquale Liguori are heads of the jazzy rhythm section. G. Ligouri's piano playing is minimalistic and nice in a contemporary classical way. Sometimes the album even reaches the heights of Pholas Dactylus' Concerto della Menti'

Lato A
A1. Fedayn (1:32)
A2. I 53 Giorni (4:05)
A3. Libertà Subito (8:15)
A4. Amna (2:12)
Lato B
B1. Piccolo Fadh (2:29)
B2. La Madre (7:08)
B3. Sulle Macerie (4:16)
B4. La Cantata Rossa (2:42)
B5. Fedayn (1:35)

Musicians
Demetrio Stratos - Vocals
Giulio Stocchi - Words/ Voice
Roberto Del Piano - Bass
Pasquale Liguori - Drums
Gaetano Liguori - Piano
Concetta Busacca - Vocals

Recorded in october 1976 at Studio Zanibelli, Milan - Italy.
Mastered at Massive Arts Studio.
Originally released in 1977