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Giovanni Guidi Trio: City of Broken Dreams

By Dan McClenaghan
July 6, 2013
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Giovanni Guidi Trio: City of Broken Dreams

Italian pianist

Giovanni Guidi

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Giovanni Guidi's ECM Records leader debut, City of Broken Dreams, fits in as a very fine addition to the label's ongoing introduction of a new guard of the art of the piano trio, European style. Recent entries into that elite club include

Benedikt Jahnel

piano
b.1980

" data-original-title="" title="">Benedikt Jahnel's Equilibrium (2012),

Stefano Battaglia

piano
b.1965

" data-original-title="" title="">Stefano Battaglia's The River of Anyder (2011), and

Stefano Bollani

piano
b.1972

" data-original-title="" title="">Stefano Bollani's Stone in the Water (2009), and The

Marcin Wasilewski

piano
b.1975

" data-original-title="" title="">Marcin Wasilewski Trio's Faithful (2011)—excellent examples all, of piano players of a reflective approach, with deft touches, interactive trios and searching ways of taking on the form, as well as unabashed affinities for sonic beauty.

Guidi debuted on ECM, as a sideman, on

Enrico Rava

trumpet
b.1939

" data-original-title="" title="">Enrico Rava's Tribe (2011), which is, perhaps, the Italian trumpeter's finest recorded outing, due in no small part, to his rhythm section, headed up by the pianist. With City of Broken Dreams, the young pianist gets his chance to step out front— in the context of a very democratic piano trio—with a set that stands amongst the best of ECM's recent piano trio outings.

Guidi's compatriots here are the recently prolific (ECM-wise) bassist

Thomas Morgan

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Thomas Morgan—who has contributed to Polish trumpeter

Tomasz Sta��ko

trumpet
1942 - 2018

" data-original-title="" title="">Tomasz Sta��ko's superb Wislawa (2013) and pianist

Craig Taborn

piano
b.1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Craig Taborn's edgy and modernistic Chants (2013)—along with Portuguese drummer

João Luis Lobo

drums
b.1964

" data-original-title="" title="">Jo?o Luis Lobo, who played on Guidi's earlier Cam Jazz recordings.

The music this trio makes shimmers on the gentle and pensive journey of the opening title tune, explores a stately, calming mood on "Leonie," and then plucks into a prickly intro on "Just One More Time" before Morgan and Joao drift into a timeless reverie, sans piano, until Guidi glides back in with the fairytale melody.

The trio alternates between the pensive and the angular avant-garde, specializing in understatement and intricate interplay. "The Way Some People Live" features a spare and pretty melody underscored by Morgan's perfectly placed notes, Joao's minimalist and almost covert percussion accents, setting a dream-like mood.

It's recordings like the Giovanni Guidi Trio's City of Broken Dreams that are a reminder of the endless potential of the piano trio for offering up unalloyed beauty and intrigue.

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Track Listing

City of Broken Dreams; Leonie; Just One More Time; The Forbidden Zone; No Other Possibility; The Way Some People Live; The Impossible Divorce; Late Blue; Ocean View; City of Broken Dreams, var.

Personnel

Giovanni Guidi

piano

Giovanni Guidi: piano; Thomas Morgan: double bass; Jo?o Lobo: drums.

Album information

Title: City of Broken Dreams | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: ECM Records

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