Arancina (Chronograph Records)
The David Restivo Trio
Released January 2021
Juno Award Nominee Group Jazz Album of the Year 2022
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kelIFYK4bV_1l8AxDrkAomLLrAI7-ySC4
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/intl-pt/album/4vgKLuwCPqGdsEqjtJAQ50?si=nfJxIl4pRVmFbZqpxZiXmQ
About:
Spanning a lifetime of travels and tribulations, this album
explores the transitivity of home in all its forms. With each track, Restivo
illustrates his journey through a diverse landscape of food, language, and
culture, all the while discovering how these elements have come together to
form his own sense of self. As expertly crafted as they are distinct, these
works will have you flying over the Northumberland Strait one minute and
dancing through the streets of Sicily the next.
“Train to Catania” pulls us in with soothing, rolling harmonies that blend
together as seamlessly as pastels on a canvas. Down the tracks we go, through
the spicy streets of Palermo and on to a moonlit Modica, rich with colours that
lull the ear into a hypnotic tranquillity. We awake to the long-awaited taste
of “Arancina”, a treat lush with joyful flavours. The sly modulations and
energetic drive of “Raven’s Wing” take us in a refreshingly new direction, and
are balanced out by a wandering, sultry take on Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”. Fawn
Fritzen’s vocals lend a ray of sunshine to “Bittersweet Goodbye”, and the album
closes with a reassuringly upbeat and sizzling finale, alive with the
electricity of Bebop.
Track Listing:
1. Sicilian Suite: Train to Catania 06:16
2. Sicilian Suite: Palermo Street Scenes 04:27
3. Sicilian Suite: Moonlight in Modica 05:28
4. Sicilian Suite: Arancina 05:32
5. Kintsugi 04:12
6. Raven’s Wing 05:48
7. Baby Steps 04:53
8. Bittersweet Goodbye 04:10
9. It’s You Or No One 05:53
Personnel:
David
Restivo: piano, background vocals (5)
Jim Vivian: bass
Alyssa Falk: drums
Fawn Fritzen: vocals (5, 8)
Review:
The David Restivo Trio’s Arancina is all about
“home,” whether it is pianist Restivo’s ancestral home in Sicily,
projected with a beautifully-painted homage on his four-part “Sicilian
Suite,” or his brief home in Nova Scotia with “Raven’s Wing,”
inspired by the dark birds soaring over the Northumberland Strait which
separates Nova Scotia from Prince Edward Island. Then there is Restivo’s coming home to his
bebop roots with “It’s You Or No One,” the Jules Styne-Sammy Can song
from the 1948 movie Romance On the High Seas, a tune turned into a jazz
classic thanks to saxophonist Dexter Gordon’s version, on his 1961 Blue
Note Records album Doin’ Allright.
Restivo’s trio, with drummer Alyssa Falk and bassist Jim Vivian,
is a propulsion unit. That aspect of their artistry shines on
“Train To Catania,” the first part of the terrific “Sicilian
Suite” which opens the set. The suite itself celebrates the diversity of a
land set apart from the surrounding continents, positioned adrift in the
Mediterranean Sea, where it has been subject to the influences brought about by
historic invasions and migrations, a unique cultural mish-mash that, coming
through Resitvo’s prism, makes for a sound with a vivacious momentum and
unvarnished beauty—the clamorous joy of “Palermo Street Scene,” the
ruminative cerebralism of “Moonlight in Modica,” the crispy
ebullience of “Arancina.”
“Baby Steps” is a
Restivo tune based loosely on John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps.”
Given the sound that inspired it, the tune is surprisingly introspective,
featuring a time-stands-still vibe, with drummer Falk displaying a
fitting Billy Hart-like flutter percussion.
The set includes a pair of vocal interludes, with Fawn
Fritzen sitting in with the trio. The singer co-wrote both pieces with
Restivo; “Kintsugi” and “Bittersweet Goodbye” are both intimate,
like serious conversations across a kitchen table, over cups of coffee;
like Gordon Jenkins’ “Goodbye” or Elvis Costello’s “Baby
Plays Around,” both are heartbreakingly sad in an eloquent way, like the
best of sad songs.
Dan McClenaghan (All About Jazz)
