Diversions

The Piano Series

Through his two latest, most successful records, “Dark Flavour” and “Seldom”, released on CAM JAZZ in 2013 and 2014, respectively, Alessandro Lanzoni has conclusively developed his own features as an artist who puts his talent to good use in an unceasing musical exploration, to meet his inborn communication needs that are funnelled into narrative paths, both fanciful and logical, where form and imagination are strongly balanced.  A performer so willing to explore could not but find piano solo as a favourable environment, in which he is able to release his creative energy most genuinely and subjectively: this is how Lanzoni’s latest album, again to be released on CAM JAZZ, was born. Its title, “Diversions”, conveys Alessandro’s ability to create ever-changing sonic landscapes through free improvisation, places where the listener is led confidently by an expert who knows how to manoeuver the roughest paths, mastering the most varied musical languages.  For his stylistic versatility, Alessandro Lanzoni perfectly represents a contemporary aesthetic theory that leads the artist to express the many different stimuli of today’s world. But all this is supported by the young pianist’s strong background of classical studies, skilfully absorbed formal patterns and own genuine “jazzy” nature that induce the famous Scottish music reviewer, Brian Morton, to say: “Lanzoni’s music is not so much washed on the banks of the Arno as dipped in the waters of the Mississippi”, joking about his name, oddly sounding like Manzoni, the Italian author of “The Betrothed”.

Recorded in Ludwigsburg on 8 - 9 September 2015 at Bauer Studios Recording engineer Johannes Wohlleben

Cover Artwork by Robin Clerici

Photos by Andrea Boccalini

Liner notes by Brian Morton