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artist · nicola conte
release · other directions
year · 2004
genre · lo-fi
label · blue note
catalogue · 4738192
date · 06-sep-2004
quality · aps/44,1khz
source · compact disc
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01 sea and sand 3:58
02 wanin' moon 4:55
03 nefertiti 6:20
04 impulso 4:30
05 a time for spring 3:56
06 kind of sunshine 5:41
07 aphrodite's dream 4:32
08 several shades of dawn 3:36
09 the dharma bums 4:50
10 all gone 4:09
11 other directions 5:54
12 the in between 4:03
13 le depart 4:05
playtime · 01h 00m 29s
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following nicola conte's route is almost like going back in time
to the late fifties, not only because that's one of the music eras
that he particularly likes but also because at that time jazz
started being perceived in a different way. musicians were being
discovered, the first records from abroad were being listened to,
there was a different atmosphere about, the atmosphere that later
got recreated at bari's fez, a real source of ideas, a true
breeding ground for people, a place for cultural interchanges.
that's where and when nicola conte's first productions originate
and develop, giving notoriety, in the midst of the acid jazz
movement, to bands like paolo achenza trio, quintetto x, fez
combo, intensive jazz sextet. a few of these bands referred to
that scene, others, like balanτo, evolved in the search for sounds
that were strictly linked to movie soundtracks, rediscovering
italian composers like, for instance, morricone and piccioni,
veritable sources of inspiration; while others, like street jazz
unit, vocally revisited the typical blue note sound. all this goes
to show nicola conte's versatility and intelligence, while he was
pouring in a measured way into each of these productions his true
love: jazz. in detail, his way of feeling jazz is strictly bound
to the music of the late fifties/early sixties, music of different
origins, such as for example all those brazilian trios and
quartets that, mainly from the rhythmic and melodic point of view,
had a unique freshness, even if at the end of the day it was all
based on very simple melodies, like blues. then, leaving aside the
big icons like davis, coltrane, silver, blakey, conte draws a lot
on modal jazz and he made it the object of his research, both
because he's a fan and because he's a record collector and that's
why he dives into the search for bands and characters who are less
known to the general public, because maybe they didn't have the
chance to record for big production companies or majors, so that
they didn't enjoy a wide international visibility.
his passion for jazz leads him into the second, crucial phase of
his career. we're in the late nineties now and in this period his
productions more strictly connected to afro-american music are
born. here come the jazz convention, quartetto moderno, rosario
giuliani quartet and schema sextet. in these productions, that
keep being recorded in the same studio in bari, those musicians
who, incidentally, are still playing with him today are featured.
they play his compositions, perform his creations and we're
talking about, among others, fabrizio bosso, gianluca petrella,
lorenzo tucci, pietro ciancaglini, gaetano partipilo, pietro
lussu.
fortified by these experiences, nicola conte decides that it's
about time to make an album in his own name, jet sounds, released
in 2000, elegant symbiosis of typically italian sounds, with
connections to the world of cinema and influenced by jazz, bossa
nova and psychedelia. with this work, nicola carries on, beside
his activity of producer, his business as dj, that takes him
playing a huge amount of clubs all over the world. under these
circumstances, his importance as composer and musician grows and
the turning point is the single new standards, written together
with petrella, a true statement on his immediate future.
through his remixes, he developed his research on sounds obtained
through real instruments: the goal was to make music that, though
having the same impact as electronic music, was played
acoustically with the finesse of the sixties' jazz. he achieved
that and was undisputedly first at it: pure jazz rhythms that turn
into club music, obtained by having his musicians to play the
music over and over. his works for people like greyboy, eli
goulart, yoshinori sunahara, trueby trio, re:jazz, koop, the dining
rooms, sunaga t experience, five corners quintet and others are
fundamental to understand nicola conte's opus. these are the new
standards for modern jazz, with italian musicians whom nicola,
together with schema records, the italian label that releases his
records, has always believed in and invested with passion on their
music competence.
and now he'll be thinking of the times when he turned over in his
hands the old historical vinyl albums on blue note and he'd never
dream that in the future one of those jackets would show his own
face ...
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