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CD Feature/ Guido Ponzini: "Twilight Town"

  Tobias

There is a point where incredible technical savvy and the ability to touch listener’s heart in a very simple and direct way converge. Whenever that happens, you know you have something special and that is why it doesn’t take the ever-active Dagobert Böhm (who acted as an executive producer to “Twilight Town”) nor Emmet Chapman (who invented the “stick” named after him, which sets the album’s tone) to tell us that Guido Ponzini is made of extremely promising material.

There not too many bassists out there who have managed to catch our eye over the last few years, stand alone keep the attention for more than a few minutes. Ponzini now joins Jeffrey Roden and Trip Wamsley as one of those who can. While Roden fathoms the spiritual resonance of his instrument and Wamsley highlights its melodic potential, Ponzini is looking for fluency and an organic distribution of duties with other instruments. He is comfortable in the limelight, putting Eddy van Halen’s “Erruption” (one of the classic guitar technique finger exercises) to shame in the just over two minute short, floating fontain of notes “Rainstorm upon the harbour”. But he just as much enjoys steering the boat from the back, taking on accompanying functions on many occasions. There is no revolution – Ponzini never breaks through the traditional set-up of a band, but even in the moments, when “Twilight Town” is least obviously a bassists’ record, he is still very much in charge. This beyond-his-age wisdom of allowing the music to choose its own course, follow its own rules and accept the input of colleagues for the piece’s benefit is his most remarkable quality, if one forgets just for one second, that he makes the Chapman stick, always one of the hot contenders for the throne of the world’s hardest to play instrument, sound as easy to learn as a recorder in kindergarten. And thus, pianist Giovani Amighetti and his compositions are allowed in, as are the bamboo flutes of Guo Yue (in the tranquil free fall vision “Snow Temple –April”) or the soulful vocals of Silvia Saccani. Amighetti adds a harmonious and accessible element to the album and this contrasts nicely with Ponzinis more edgy and jazz-oriented experiments.

The result is an ecclectic album of many different moods, which keeps a stimulating pace and develops power through the strengths of its themes and motives and not thanks to hollow virtuosity or roaring amps. That, too, is a sign that something special is happening here.

Homepage: Guido Ponzini
Homepage: Ozella Records