Zorro

Jazz is the music of liberation, of resistance to injustice, of romance and adventure, and sometimes of conflict. Its true identity has always been double rather than singular. At around the same time early jazz was thrilling audiences, readers were gasping at the adventures of a masked man called Zorro who had been called up out of the darkness of oppression to set things right [leaving his mark on the wall each time].  On the centenary of Zorro’s creation, saxophonist Francesco Bearzatti and his Tinissima 4et present CAM JAZZ’s latest contribution to widescreen jazz drama. Zorro is a wild suite of big cinematic themes, romantic interludes, sweeping landscapes and breathtaking chases. If the cliché about jazz as a cinematic experience ever meant anything it is this. With trumpeter Giovanni Falzone, bassist Danilo Gallo and drummer Zeno De Rossi, the saxophonist who once declared, with Woody Guthrie, that “this machine kills fascists” restores jazz’s association with the redress of injustice. Zorro isn’t a political lecture, though; it’s an entertaining and deeply moving journey across a dreamed landscape that we all secretly share.  And remember that “jazz” ends with not one swept “z” but two… (Brian Morton)

Recorded in Cavalicco in February 2020 at Artesuono Recording Studio Recording engineer Stefano Amerio

Photos by Elisa Caldana

Cover: Wall art by Jas

Liner notes by Brian Morton