Album Notes

MIKE TURK - Harmonica

Paolo Birro - Piano

Paolo Ghetti - Bass

Alessandro Di Puccio - Vibraphone

Alessandro Fabbri - Drums

Liner Notes by Ira Gitler - 2010

THE ITALIAN JOB/MIKE TURK
In the May issue of Jazz Improv NY (before it morphed into Jazz Inside NY) I wrote about Mike Turk’s The Nature of Things, naming it CD of the month and recognizing Turk as “someone who has flown under my radar--and apparently a lot of other people’s, except perhaps in his home city of Boston...Mike Turk makes the harmonica sing and swing like a masterful saxophonist...”
I was also taken by his choice of material that included songs by Jimmy Raney, Elmo Hope, Johnny Mandel and Irv Rochlin that don’t show up that often, and material from Ellington, Gillespie and one of his own. It isn’t every day, especially these days that the real deal comes along seemingly out of the blue.
I got in touch with Mike with the intention of helping to make more people aware of him. He told me of a session he had recorded in Italy at the end of 2007 and asked if I would be interested in writing the notes. I fully expected I would like it and upon its arrival I did and immediately said yes......
...................“With all these musicians there is a bonding thread that connects everything to the music and the memory of Luca Flores, a pianist who died too young. However, my project is strictly from an American perspective and jazz approach.”....................
Vibraphonist Alessandro Di Puccio has an impressive dossier of bands and musicians that he has playeed with, including Mal Waldron, Sal Nistico, Enrico Pieranunzi, Massimo Urbani and Stefano Bollani.
Paolo Birro, an impressive solo pianist, he also leads trios and has either recorded with or played gigs with such musician as Enrico Rava, Claudio Fasoli, Pietro Tonolo, Lee Konitz, Art Farmer and Johnny Griffin, among many others. A valued teacher at the Vicenza Conservatory, he also takes part in the annual Siena Jazz seminars.
Bassist Paolo Ghetti, born in Forli, 1966, first studied clarinet and bass guitar. He has appeared at the major and minor festivals in Italy as well as fests in Madrid, Barcelona, Istanbul, Lisbon. Paris, Sweden and Norway with musicians such as Pat Metheny, Lee Konitz, Cedar Walton, Christian Escoude and Marco Tamburini.
Alessandro Fabbri drummer, worked with both Italian and American musicians from Massimo Urbani to Paolo Fresu; from Harry “Sweets” Edison to Steve Lacy and Dave Leibman. Fabbri is also a teacher on the conservatory level and a notable writer and arranger. The Italian Job contains two of his pieces............
...The group’s repertory is not your usual roster of tunes (American Songbook or jazz standards) but a varied mixture that ranges from “Old Man River” to Gabriel Faure’s “Pavane” and Hank Mobley’s “Funk in Deep Freeze.”