STEFANO LEONARDI - E-RAY (2008)
Leonardi Stefano flauto
Turella Matteo chitarra
Ghetti Paolo contrabbasso , basso
Canevali Carlo Alberto batteria
Basin Street Este
Gershwin goes to Rio
Tel Aviv
Batida diferente
Afro Blue
more tracks can be heard on Vinilemania's Radio Channels
Review by Paul J. Youngman - KJA Advocate for VINILEMANIA.NET
Stefano Leonardi is an Italian flutist, he is based in Trentino, the northern part of Italy, an area rich in culture and art. He joins forces on his new CD, E-Ray with acoustic bassist, Paolo Ghetti, drummer Carlo Alberto Canevali and guitarist Matteo Turella. Together they smoothly and conservatively, traverse the varied landscape of the eight diverse compositions presented on this debut performance. A few originals by Mr. Leonardi, a couple of Herbie Mann flute inspired tunes and a few Afro Cuban sounding tunes, such as the closer “Afro Blue” by Mongo Santamaria.
The band can swing as indicated clearly from the first track, an original song by Stefano Leonardi, “Abrib’s Circle” one of the highlight songs of the recording. The title track is another Leonardi original and it takes things in a completely different direction, with Middle Eastern rhythms in a ballad format. A very laid back, trippy number that focuses on the flute and leaves lots of room for soloing. There is one more Leonardi original song on the album, “The Jackal” the song features a nice guitar solo by Turella, very smooth lines with fast runs and lots of notes, the guitars tone is somewhat lacking in purity, in other words a little muffled, intentional or production problems, it’s not clear and it’s not consistent. Leonardi responds with his own solo that is crystal clear, his tone is splendid, and he lays out a very exciting solo with flute playing con passione.
On Herbie Mann’s “Tel Aviv” Leonardi plays the song with a melancholy feel, on the Herbie Mann song “Basin Street Este” Leonardi plays it with a Latin swing feel, a spirited number that highlights some festive party style flute playing. A bouncy little number with clean flute, very distinct melody lines in a single note smooth style of play. The song also features a guitar solo that kicks it up a notch, with gritty sounding Basin Street runs that are played low down and dirty, fast licks that are screaming and delightful.
“Afro Blue” another highlight tune, closes out the session with a long drum solo introduction, the song blasts off when the melody kicks in, the flute lifts the song into a very joyous vibe, the bassist Ghetti has an inspired solo midway through the song, flute brings the melody back with some exceptional playing, Leonardi communicates with fluid patterns that are well thought out, although somewhat reserved. The band is led by the drummer Canevali who swings with Latin passion, the guitarist Turella maintains a strong rhythm with powerful chord progressions and smooth runs.
