Personnel:
Esaie Cid (as), Clément Trimouille (g), Kim Baiunco (b), Lucio Tomasi (d)
Reference: SA 054
Bar code: 8427328450546
In recent years, my discography has been marked by the choice to present my work as a composer and/or arranger. For this album, I wanted to give the members of my quartet more freedom, and to that end, the writing has been kept to a minimum.
It was the discovery of a fascinating piece that triggered this new recording. The piece is Balzaquiana, a carnival march (marchinha) recorded in 1949, which was a huge hit at the Rio Carnival in 1950. The music is by Antonio Nassara—a composer who wrote several major titles in this genre—and the lyrics are by Wilson Batista. The lyrics are intended to evoke the subject matter of Balzac’s novel La femme de 30 ans (the Thirty-year-old women). The melody and character of the theme completely captivated me, so how could I resist the desire to make it my own, especially since it was conceived under the auspices of my favorite writer?
Once the spark had been ignited by the piece in question, I couldn’t help but expand on Balzac’s atmosphere. This session mainly consists of titles—some of them rare—from the jazz repertoire. Nevertheless, I wanted to add two compositions that are, in a way, portraits of two characters imagined by Balzac: La Torpille and Bixiou.
La Torpille, whose real name is Esther Gobseck, lives up to her nickname as she flashes like lightning through the quagmire of her tribulations in the novel Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes (The Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans). As much as possible, I worked to recreate in music the spell she seems to cast on anyone who approaches her. As for Bixiou, omnipresent in the Human Comedy, he is the very embodiment of Parisian causticity, so funny and so cruel.
The opening track is Neal Hefti’s Flight of the Foo Birds, one of the themes featured on the album The Atomic Mr. Basie, where we have the rather exceptional opportunity to hear Frank Wess perform as a soloist on the alto saxophone. Frank Wess’s style on the tenor saxophone and flute has been a major influence on me. The day I had the chance to meet him, I immediately told him how much I admired his phrasing and my desire to transpose it to the alto saxophone. He kindly replied, “The key is: control!” This is a tribute to one of my heroes, a wonderful man and a perfect gentleman.
Richard Rodgers’ famous My Favorite Things has inspired many recorded interpretations, including one of John Coltrane’s masterpieces on soprano saxophone. For our version, we wanted to develop the solos on the harmonic chords of the theme, which are often replaced by modal improvisations in many other recordings.
Full Moon & Empty Arms is a melody written by Rachmaninoff at the dawn of the 20th century. The song rose to No. 17 on the Billboard charts in 1945 in its version by Frank Sinatra, after being adapted to American tastes by Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman. Golden Earrings was written for the film of the same name, which features a wild Marlene Dietrich as a devastating gypsy. Although this song is usually performed at a medium tempo, we preferred the effervescence of the prestissimo (fast tempo). The song’s very airy melody lends itself wonderfully to this tempo.
To anyone who has never had the opportunity to hearthe crooning voice of the great guitarist Kenny Burrell... I would advise you to remedy that situation without delay. His rendition of I’ll Buy You a Star prompted us to add this song to our repertoire. Also, it was after hearing Lew Tabackin’s masterfulrendition of Gloria that Irushed to study this captivating ballad, composed by Don Byas... Another master of the tenor saxophone to whom I owe a great deal. I sincerely hope that the discerning alto saxophone community will not hold it against me too much.
To those of you who honor me with your attention, I would like to invite you to listen particularly to the clarity and depth of the drumming.It is the work of Lucio Tomasi, who, at only 28 years old, passed away two months after this session. It was such a joy to have Lucio with us, to make music with him, that his unexpected passing literally devastated us. His invaluable talent lives on through this music. The memory of his luminous presence remains with us forever.
—Esaie Cid
