Personnel:
Laura Simó (vcl), Tete Montoliu (p), Horacio Fumero (b), Peer Wyboris (d)
Reference: SWIT41
Bar code: 8427702900414
The recording includes the live performance of Tete Montoliu's usual trio during his last fifteen years, with Horacio Fumero and Peer Wyboris, and the singer Laura Simó, with whom they used to tour in those years. The concert took place at the Calella de la Costa festival in September 1994 and is the only recorded testimony that remains from those tours. In it we can hear Montoliu with his characteristic sound, playing between the generosity and constant creativity of his ideas, as well as the tension of the silences and the surprises of his harmonic interventions that remind us a lot of his admired Monk, with whom he identified. both in his later years.
Along with him, the singer Laura Simó emerges with great confidence and strength, demonstrating that at that moment she was already mature enough to take on the challenge of playing with this trio.
The recording also allows us to hear widely from the late drummer Peer Wyvoris and double bassist Horacio Fumero, with opportunities for both to shine. The repertoire is made up of standards selected by Montoliu and Simó and includes, as a bonus track, a duet version of Billy Strayhorn's “Lush Life,” recorded live in Oviedo in July 1995, which we wanted to include, since it was the condition that Montoliu placed on Laura to be able to sing jazz with him.
Journalist Pere Pons, author of the book “Round About Tete”, is in charge of carrying out the production of the concerts to present “Together Again”.
"… I have played on many occasions with Laura Simó, who, in addition to being a magnificent individual, is a very good singer, and a very versatile one. Laura is able to do everything from jazz to rock and is always ready to learn new things; she is one of the few who actually listens when you suggest a recording for her to listen to. Too bad she lives in Barcelona; in the United States everyone would already be talking about her."
—Tete Montoliu
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"Tete Montoliu's previously unreleased album, published to coincide with what would have been the pianist's 90th birthday. Recorded in September 1994 at the Calella Jazz and Blues Festival and the Oviedo Summer Festival, it is a magnificent opportunity to discover the vocal quality of Laura Simó at the best moment of her career, with her elegant and precise diction."
—Pere Pons
https://www.enderrock.cat/
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"Years ago, the singer Laura Simó had the idea of releasing some of the recordings she had made between 1994 and 1997 with the pianist Tete Montoliu and her usual trio, formed by the double bassist Horacio Fumero and the drummer Peer Wyboris. Thanks to the intermediation of the journalist Pere Pons -author of the very recent and highly recommended book 'Round about Tete- and the complicity of a disciple of the aforementioned jazzman, the pianist -and also blind- Ignasi Terraza, who has released the album on his label Swit Records, Together again has been released just as it marks ninety years since the birth of Montoliu, who died in 1997.
Together again has more value for being a historical document that includes one of Tete's last works than for the technical quality of the record, which was made at a festival in Calella de la Costa. But despite its deficiencies, which in fact are negligible, that concert was a delight in which the pianist gave a new lesson in his knowledge of the blues-tinged be bop that dominated his entire career. And at his side, Laura Simó stands out as one of the most competent and versatile vocalists in the country, playing with her voice as if it were the fourth instrument in the group.
The album's repertoire opens with an instrumental song by Tete himself, Calella's Blues, but then delves into rather classical territories, with versions of songs by Cole Porter -Love for sale-, Bill Evans -Waltz for Debby-, Harold Arden and Johnny Mercer -Come rain or come shine-, and even Kurt Weill -Speak love-, to end with a composition that was the one that the pianist demanded from the singer as proof if she wanted to perform with him: Lush life, by Billy Strayhorn. This last song, which closes the CD as a “bonus track”, was recorded at a concert that took place in Oviedo."
—Ferràn Riera (October 20, 2023)
http://www.diariofolk.com
