For his fourth album on the Norwegian Losen label, pianist, composer, arranger, producer’ Lorenzo De Finti is working with an astonishing craftsman of the trumpet, Fabrizio Bosso. I must admit, shamefully, that I didn’t really know Bosso’s playing and have tried to put that right.
Take a track like “Close (As Two Stars)” from this album. Bosso does everything with absolute control, clarity and beauty of tone. It’s just a fabulous sound. He first states De Finti’s tune, then improvises briefly on it, then returns it, but what he has done is to dignify and to give it real scale and heft.
Dig through Bossi’s massive back catalogue of recordings, and that is, in essence what he does. If there is a trumpeter anywhere in the world who just “nails it” quite like Bosso, then I’d love to know who she or he is. To hear him in large hall/ featured soloist mode, try “Enchantment – L’Incantesimo Di Nino Rota” where he steps out in front of the London Symphony Orchestra. But he is also speed merchant. To hear him at insane velocity taking the curves at Monza with plenty of track to spare, try out an extraordinary Kenny Dorham “Lotus Blossom” in a two trumpet set-up with Flavio Boltro on YouTube HERE.
Lullabies From An Unknown Time is a controlled, gentle album. De Finti is a thoughtful rather than flamboyant player. As a composer, I like the way he takes a motoric idee fixe in his piano part. The stand-out track where he does that might be “Will You Still Be There”. The less-is-more fade to end it is delightful and beautifully controlled from both players.
Pseud’s corner moment. The phrase from Dante that T.S. Eliot uses to dedicate “The Waste Land” to Ezra Pound comes to mind: “Il miglior fabbro,” (the better craftsman). Here are two players seeming to vie for that title, playing the game at the highest level… but in music there doesn’t actually need to be a winner, that’s absolutely not the point of doing it…