Monochrome Blues by Mario Rusca

In early 2001, Rocco Pandiani, then hosting the Mono Jazz radio show on WorldwideFM in London, made a pivotal decision: to launch a new label under the Right Tempo umbrella, inspired by the acclaimed 4-year experience of the radio program. Given Mono Jazz's commitment to delivering jazz of the highest artistic standards, Maestro Mario Rusca, a luminary in the Italian jazz scene with a long career, was approached to helm a new album. Rusca's extensive collaborations include luminaries such as Chet Baker, Curtis Fuller, Lou Donaldson, Art Farmer, Gerry Mulligan and Stan Getz, among others. Collaborating with his esteemed trio, Rusca meticulously crafted the album 'Monochrome Blues,' the culmination of his musical vision and legacy.

It's rare to find, in 2021, Italian jazz musicians from the old guard still deeply enthusiastic about imprinting their creativity over time. Mario Rusca's name can certainly be counted among this select group of heroes. He learned from the compositional abilities of Ellington and the brilliant sound of Hampton Hawes, enchanted by the harmonic inventions of the great pianists of the fifties and sixties: from Bud Powell to Bobby Timmons, to Wynton Kelly and Bill Evans. "That's jazz, right there," he tells. "Jazz should entertain you," he continues to repeat, "it should make you tap your foot!" "If you're having fun, you'll make those listening to you have fun too," he states.

You can immediately visualize Mario on the stage of Capolinea – the most important Italian jazz venue of the seventies and eighties – stirring up the audience with his magnetic enthusiasm during fiery jam sessions. In front of that smoky Milanese audience of dixieland and hard bop enthusiasts, university students, and bourgeois couples, from 1971 to 1977, Mario performed with ever-changing lineups, crossing solos with the cream of the crop of national and international jazz.

Maestro Mario Rusca, we were saying, has collaborated with a multitude of prestigious names: Chet Baker, Curtis Fuller, Gerry Mulligan, Lou Donaldson, Art Farmer, Bob Berg, Lee Konitz, Dusko Gojkovic, Al Gray, Kay Winding; and then again: Enrico Rava, Tullio De Piscopo, Kenny Clarke, Stan Getz, Jimmy Owens, Toot’s Thielmans, Gianni Basso, Pepper Adams, Steve Lacy, Steve Grossman, Franco Ambrosetti, Woody Shaw, and Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis. Each of them has left, in small or large doses, a mark on the pianist's jazz journey towards a greater awareness of instrument usage and negotiating variations with style. None of them should be overlooked because, as Mario tells me, "they were all important to me."

The piano, double bass, and drums trio is the combo Mario chooses to traverse the lights and shadows of "Monochrome Blues," a leisurely jazz journey in sixteen stages supported by the solid rhythmic accompaniment of Tony Arco and Riccardo Fioravanti, lifelong friends before trusted collaborators. As Mario says: "In jazz, you always choose companions with whom you have more dialogue... there must be an interplay, there must be a... a way of feeling, so you choose musicians because they feel like you, or at least follow you."

Just listen to the choruses of "Tempo Blues" or the title track: Mario runs focused on the piano like on an obstacle course, effortlessly jumping from one key to another, lifting a timeless sense of joy with each stride. A relaxed and captivating interplay, indeed, that continues without losing a drop of enthusiasm even in the performance of the most dynamic standards. I refer to "Blues for Gwen" by McCoy Tyner, "Blues Walk" by Lou Donaldson, "Blue Minor" by Sonny Clark, "Turnaround" by Ornette Coleman, "Bass Blues" by John Coltrane, and "Super Jet" by Tadd Dameron. You can't help but imagine yourself in a convertible, smiling and light, as you traverse the solo progressions of "Turnaround" and "Super Jet." Or not perceive a vaporous excitement from a cocktail bar in the Latin arrangement of "Blue Minor." And you truly travel, with sparkling softness.

I think of the misty double bass line of the opening piece, "Blue Dream": that mysterious gait, suspended and subdued, could be perfect for soundtracking a film noir, I tell Mario. Or the fourth novelty, "Double Horn," where the crooked and indolent theme à la Monk vividly recalls a twisted and staggering walk. Practically a cinematic continuation of the previous track: after the soft blues dream, we awaken, bewildered, in the aftermath of a disorienting reality.
"You're right," he replies, "I also see these things. 'Blue Dream' is evocative, in music and in imagery. [...] Sometimes I try to develop 'technical' pieces. In this case, I was playing Chopin, and there's a movement in Chopin's 'Polonaise' that starts with just a bass note. And playing around with that, I spontaneously started looking for a movement for a piece, but I hadn't thought of doing the blues yet." And he continues: "‘Double Horn,’ on the other hand, comes from a harmonic search, teaching. A deliberately complicated search. Moreover, it was born from a fingering, in which the dominant fingers are two-five and one-four. Try to combine these two fingers, two-five and one-four: they're two horns! It's a harmonic exercise, where I realized that I only used these four fingers, alternating them."

Finally, clouds come over the heart: the ballads. From Petrucciani (a thick and dreamy version of "Rachid"), to Wayne Shorter ("Infant Eyes," ethereal and extremely delicate), the dense still blue of "Fall," also by Shorter, performed with the Fender Piano, to the magical lyricism of "Body And Soul," "In a Sentimental Mood," and "I Love You Porgy." Timeless pieces, with an ineffable taste of nostalgia. You step down from the convertible and watch the sunset, with a cigarette consumed amidst one melancholy and another.

Jazz, Funk, Soul & Acid Jazz label from Milan, Italy.

Right Tempo is a community of dedicated people with an uncompromisable passion for music. Since 1993, we deliver timeless releases with a focus on outstanding quality of sound, artwork and packaging. In times of increasing impersonality and conformation, we see music as a medium for self-expression and collective growth.

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