Special Notes:

4-page colour booklet with liner notes by Piero Umiliani / Limited to 500 copies

Cinedelic’s CD (and LP) reissue of the original “strictly limited edition” CAM LP brings back into circulation (albeit on a limited basis) a rare treat – Italian maestro Piero Umiliani’s big band score for Una bella grinta, featuring Gato Barbieri on tenor sax. During the sixties, Umiliani wrote a ridiculously huge volume of music for westerns, peplum, comedies, spoofs, and dramas, but what makes Grinta so special is the relative intimacy of the performances in spite of the score being performed by a medium-sized jazz orchestra.

The opening cue is a robust big band arrangement of the main theme, whereas subsequent arrangements tend to detail different instrumentation and styles, such as the somewhat chromatic brass within “Brass Fugato,” or groovy electric guitar and organ in the swinging “Treno di Notte.” The brilliant rays of brass within the brief “Ballata della Bassa Padana” is equally memorable, and Umiliani creates sharp, contrast colours which drift from total harmony to near-dissonance.

Grinto is monothematic, but Umiliani’s extrapolations of figures, bass lines, and melodic sections and reinterpretations for very specific regroupings ensures the album is never monotonous. Some cues are designed to showcase specific solos – like the muted trumpet in “Treno” – or they blend light jazz with classic ensembles, like the flute & harpsichord in the rhythmic chamber combo for “Jazz alla Vivaldi.” One of the issues with American jazz scores from the same era is the lack of improv, and not building cues to allow the soloist to comment on characters & scenes; in most cases, any genuine improvisations tend to be isolated to source cues.

Many of the Grinta cues also run more than 2-3 minutes, allowing the listener to get into a theme’s variation, become sated by its distinct qualities, and be surprised by the next effort.

In terms of star Barbieri, he gets to muscle out from the band in very select instances, such as the hard bop rendition “Una Bella Grinta,” sharing time with pianist F.D. Andrea and E. Rava on trumpet; and “Ballata della Padana (3)” with Barbieri’s solo progressing from romantic to intense. More than prior improv-based cues, the third variation of “Padana” echoes the chord progressions of John Coltrane’s Blue Note recordings, but each musician manages to show his own finesse.

The album’s final cues are a great mix of little dramatic statements, ranging from Barbieri’s short solo lament (“Lontananza”) to his streaming counterpoint against a furious rhythm track (the epic-sized “Sequenza Autostrada”) pushed by bassist E. Munari. “Free Theme” is mostly a looped theme rendition with soloists backed by heavy drums prior to a sudden pause for quiet electric guitar, whereas the fourth variation of “Padana” gives pianist D’Andrea a short cue to provide some slight improv work. The final cue – also under 2 mins. – features the Hammond organ, which is a suitable ending for the CD, given Italian jazz wholeheartedly embraced the wild sounds of the electric organ in so many jazz, lounge, and rock-fusion scores of the era.

The original tape source has some wear, but it’s a warm mono recording with good bass, and clarity for brass and woodwinds. Cinedelic’s reproduction of the original LP art is another plus, showing off the simple yet striking geometric design and photo inserts.

© 2012 Mark R. Hasan