https://jazzsyndicatepromotions.wordpress.com/2018/06/12/fabio-tullio-tales-from-within-a-ma-records-by-benjamin-ital/

So if you have read any of my previous reviews of whole albums, the first track for me is quite important. It sets the mood for the listener, and the direction for the artist.

This album starts with one of its strongest tracks, but then again it could have started with any of the songs apart from the last two, and the only reason neither of those could have been the first track is not a quality thing, but a style thing. As both are different to the rest of the album but not in a bad way, as track 7 ‘Gea’ is probably my favourite on this album.

With this in mind you now know that Fabio Tullio has provided the modern/straight jazz world with a wonderful piece of work. In a time when some things that get called Jazz are so very very not, this album coming out of Italy can restore any lost faith in what is Jazz.

That starting song, ‘Mr Crohn’ is uptempo enough to make you want to immediately turn up the stereo and enjoy it for it is a masterful track. With great sax work Fabio is on point all the way through this first track, and indeed the album, and I am not a big sax fan but I liked the whole thing from start to moody end.

Again this album came to me without any record company pdf notes, something I do not mind as I can listen without those buzz words in mind, but the sleeve of the album also fails to mention what instruments are played by who, we just get three 

extra names on the front cover. After a bit of internet searching I think that I know what is what now with this, though I have to say it was a negative for me the cover art. It is dull and missed out that important info. From finding out what is played by two of those three names I believe the drummer to be Massimiliano De Luca, whos playing on track 2 ‘Qwerty’ is quality. As it has a nice solo, not over the top fireworks or to technical, but one that fits perfect with the whole song with a wonderfully trashy china cymbal sound that I found very enjoyable. In fact his playing through out the album is nice, again never over the top but always fitting right.

I might as well just say that the other players in this traditional style Quartet of Bass, Drums, Piano & Sax are all quite good. Alessandro Gwis – Piano, and Luca Pirozzi – Bass. It seems like they are all playing well together here as a unit, and when I was listening to this on headphones I turned around a few times thinking someone behind me was calling, but it was the sound of the musicians on the album making verbal noise of pleasure at parts being played while recording. This always makes me smile to hear on any recording.

There are plenty of good parts and whole songs on this album, but as mentioned before my personal favourite is track 7. Here the quartet move away from the traditional acoustic stylings and into more electronic groove, but only in the sense of electric bass and electric piano. Giving a more fusion direction that is a pure delite, starting with insect sounds that lead into a nice riff that leads to some of the best bass playing of the whole album. This track is now on my personal repeat playlist for personal listening all the time. This track would have been the last track on the album, but we do get a bonus track, track 8 ‘Buio Pesto’. This track is a soft piano and sax only piece, that ends the album very nicely. Why it is a bonus track I do not know, naming a track a bonus with no explanation of why does bother me though not enough for it to spoil my enjoyment of listening to it.  

As I said before there are plenty of quality tracks and parts on this album that I will leave for you to discover, like the great angular feel of track four, or smoothness of track 3, or the fireworks of track 6 to the pleasure of  just listening to this whole album. It is a pleasure to listen to, one that any fan of true jazz and modern jazz will like as a whole. Them guys from the continent have produced a good thing here.