I've known Roberto Magris for many years, dating back to the early days of this blog. In fact, I first interviewed him in 2008 by email (go here). The Italian jazz pianist is enormously gifted as a player and composer, and I love his feel on the keyboard. He swings, and his chords are always hip, not to mention his breathtaking runs. Now he's out with an album of trio and duo recordings made in 2012 and 2019, respectively. It's called Roberto Magris: Duo & Trio.
The duo recordings feature Roberto with the late Mark Colby on tenor and soprano saxophones. The trio recordings are with Elisa Pruett on bass, Brian Steever on drums and, on two tracks, Pablo Sanhueza on congas. The duo session was recorded in Chicago, home of Roberto's long-time label, JMood Records. The trio recording was made in Lenexa, Kan.
Chicago is where Roberto first met Colby, in 2016, and the two hit it off musically. They recorded seven tracks in a few hours in 2019 with the expectation of doing additional recording. But Colby became ill and died of complications from cancer in 2020. [Photo above of Mark Colby and Roberto Magris]
The duo tracks with Colby are Roberto's Cool World!, Leonard Bernstein's Some Other Time, Roberto's Papa's Got a Brand New Rag, the standard Old Folks, and Roberto's In the Springtime of My Soul and Blues for Herbie G. The G stands for Geller. Alto saxophonist Herb Geller, an expatriate living in Germany, and Roberto were close and recorded Il Bello del Jazz, a fabulous album released in 2006, and An Evening With Herb Geller & The Roberto Magris Trio: Live in Europe 2009.
Aware that the duo material wasn't enough for a complete album, Roberto and JMood dug into the archives and found trio tracks from another unfinished project. So the two were combined, with the duo pieces occupying the even-numbered tracks on the album's playlist and the trio works occupying the odd-numbered slots. The trio tracks are Elmo Hope's Bellarosa, Sonny Clark's Melody for "C," the standard Cherokee, Andrew Hill's Samba Rasta and A Rhyme for Angela by Kurt Weill. Listen as Roberto turns Cherokee into a completely different song using the chord changes.
Roberto and Colby on the duo tracks have enormous synergy together and remind me of the musical relationship Roberto had with Herb Geller. On this new release, you can hear Colby's Stan Getz influence. The trio material is even more spectacular, with Roberto's firm bop attack reminiscent of pianist Hampton Hawes.
Roberto's new album is truly special, particularly the way in which the two different formats were combined, leap-frogging over each other. And Roberto's playing is lush and on point and his technique stellar, shifting from bop to a more introspective and moody feel. As Roberto wrote in his letter to me, "Marc, I hope you'll like to have a listen, review and share it with your friends, readers and listeners." You bet, Roberto. Too lovely not to share.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Roberto Magris's Duo & Trio (JMood) here.
JazzWax clips: Here's Cool World!...
Here's Bellarosa...
Here's Cherokee...
And here's Old Folks...
