Monsterosa – ‘The Seasons in the City’

I love the work of Italian, Cuba-born author Italo Calvino (1923-1985), so I was immediately drawn to a new piece of music inspired by his work. He has inspired many artists, composers, and film-makers; wrote libretti for operas by Luciano Berio; wrote cabaret song lyrics for a satirical vaudeville show in the 1950s, with the strikingly modern title L’Inamorata Ellectronico (the electronic lover); and wrote his more well known novels, short stories and essays.

The specific inspiration for jazz quintet Monsterosa’s new album The Seasons in the City is Calvino’s set of short stories from 1963, Marcovaldo, or The Seasons in the City, which follow the adventures of a poor former country man and his family who now live in a big city. The themes of these stories seem remarkably contemporary, considering that they were written in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Calvino deftly describes the passing of the seasons in a Northern Italian industrial city, with all its chaos, noise, pollution and consumerism in direct contrast with the main character Marcovaldo’s nostalgia for the rural life. The translation of the Marcovaldo stories by William Weaver, published by Secker & Warburg in 1983, is still available.

The music, lyrics and arrangements on this album are all by Edinburgh-based saxophonist Graeme Wilson. This is his take on the subject:

“The stories follow a man trying to recapture country life in an urban setting, and the music follows the joy in each moment of possibility he finds: sleeping outdoors, or gathering firewood, or eating well.”

Wilson has an interesting career – he has performed with Marilyn Crispell and Julian Siegel, recorded with his own Quartet (reviewed by Adrian Pallant here), and has composed for jazz orchestra, for silent films and for a collaborative sculpture project. He is also a visiting fellow in Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, researching improvisation, community music and allied fields. Here he plays saxophone, all woodwinds, piano and balafon.

What Wilson has composed is a themed jazz suite, with a nod towards contemporary art music. The music plays to the strengths of the varying interests of his band, including elements of soul, folk and Latin music.

I was not surprised to learn that Monsterosa’s The Seasons of the City emerged from a lockdown project. Many of us became hyper-aware of the changing seasons during those strange months of sequestration, even hardened city dwellers. Marcovaldo’s often thwarted attempts to find the natural world in the city strikes me as an excellent choice of subject matter.

The band are terrific. Rebecca Hollweg, a songwriter from South London, provides crystalline vocals for the six vocal tracks. She conveys the joy and the poignancy of these tales, of the bewilderment when appearances which seem so promising turn out to be deceptive. She sounds equally assured across the differing genres, whether it is the bouncing samba of ‘Awake in the Park’, the folky ‘Domitilla’, or the lovely ballad ‘Into the Billows’.

Scottish guitarist and composer Ross Milligan plays all the guitars – he is another versatile performer. Here, his intricate playing (often in counterpoint to Wilson’s reeds) is a joy to listen to.

Bass player Andy Hamill, Rebecca’s husband, has played double bass & bass guitar with loads of other stars across the genres, from Eska to the Carthys via Nitin Sawhney and Tracey Thorn. Tom Gordon has been drummer for the BBC Big Band since 2002, and has played in big bands, jazz and classical orchestras. His percussion works perfectly with this more intimate jazz chamber outfit, and Gordon and Hamill are a great pairing. There is a delicacy to their playing, but they also can be a rambunctious, driving jazz rhythm section where required.

The Seasons of the City stands alone as a beautiful jazz collection, but I feel it could also work well as incidental music. I asked Wilson about the band’s name, which is also one of the song titles on the album. The song is inspired by one of the tales in which a sad, uncared-for office pot plant is rescued by Marcovaldo who takes it out into the rain. You can hear the pattering rain in the song (that balafon!), and the ascending chords as the plant recovers and then flourishes and grows. I won’t give away the ending. Wilson told me:

“The plant in the story is never named but I pictured it as a cheese plant, which I thought had the scientific name Monsterosa. I have since had it pointed out to me that it’s actually got a shorter name, Monstera, but by then, that was what the track was called.” The band decided to take this new word Monsterosa as their name.

Inspired by the Marcovaldo stories, Wilson has written his own lyrics. Calvino would have heartily approved of his approach. According to Adam Pollock, who worked with Calvino on a Mozart opera project:

“Calvino felt that adaptations of literary works for other media need not, indeed should not, be totally faithful to the original. He argued that every art form has its own priorities.”

In a late set of essays written just before he died, Calvino wrote about two qualities which he considered to be essential in art. One is “lightness”, and in my opinion this is a characteristic which is often overlooked. A light work may be unfairly judged as being slight, and not taken seriously; take bossa nova, for example. Because such music has pretty tunes and an agreeable combination of instruments which are easy on the ear, the subtlety and profundity of a work may be missed. Monsterosa’s The Seasons in the City has a pleasant lightness to it, and the whole ensemble play with a deftness and sensitivity appropriate for the charming but actually quite troubling subject matter.

The work also has “consistency”, Calvino’s other cherished characteristic. There are no longueurs; the music drives forward with fascinating variety until its charming conclusion. You don’t need to read Calvino to appreciate this finely crafted album, but I would recommend that you do.

CREDITS:

Music, lyrics and arrangements by Graeme B Wilson.

Musicians:

• Rebecca Hollweg – vocals
• Graeme Wilson – saxophones and other woodwinds, piano, balafon
• Ross Milligan – guitars
• Andy Hamill – double bass & harmonicas
• Tom Gordon – drums, percussion
• Ruby Hamill – backing vocals (track 9)
• Julian Ferrareto – violin (tracks 1, 2, and 4)
• Chris Letcher – organ (track 6)

Tracks:

1. The Seasons In The City
2. Awake In The Park
3. Domatilla
4. Monsterosa
5. Venti Secondi
6. A Forest
7. Brains For Turnip
8. Into The Billows
9. The Damages
10. The Seasons In The City
11. A Moment In Midstream