MAXOPHONE

A great demonstration of academic lucidity, reflected in the solid and intricate structures of their pieces, in which nothing seems to be left to chance. Such is "Maxophone" (1975), a debut album of admirable maturity by the band of the same name, one more born in the prolific Italy of the first half of the seventies under the influence of the expansive British progressive rock.

Framed in a broad sonic spectrum, the album ranges in its moments of greatest intensity from the hot jazz of "C'è Un Paese Al Mondo" embellished by Leonardo Schiavone's waking clarinet and Sergio Lattuada's emersonian keyboards, the instrumental experimentation of the crimsonian "Fase" with the aggressive hard-rock guitars of Roberto Giuliani and the trumpets and xylophones of Maurizio Bianchini, to the jazz-rock symbiosis of the intricate and genesian "Elzeviro". "Maxophone" also shows its great versatility in more tranquil and baroque landscapes, as in the exquisite "Al Mancato Compleanno Di Una Farfalla" guided by acoustic guitars, Alberto Ravasini's falsetto singing and Leonardo Schiavone's medieval flutes, and in the melancholic languor of "Mercanti Di Pazzie".

An impeccable sonic cocktail that finds its close in the orchestral "Antiche Conclusioni Negre", a track that flows between jazz, Canterbury scene and progressive manners, features Schiavone's hysterical saxophone and whose instrumental crescendo brings silence for Lattuada's ecclesiastical organs and an epic chorus to bring the work to a close.

"Maxophone" is an excellent album, on a par with the best works of the divine trilogy of Italian Progressive Rock (Banco, PFM and Le Orme). After the singles "Il Fischio del Vapore" and "Cono di Gelato" from 1977 and without further recording support, the band went into a long period of hibernation (more than 40 years...) until the 2017 release of "La Fabbrica Delle Nuvole". Like their compatriots Museo Rosenbach, surely with a little more continuity the Italians would have reached a place of greater prominence in the general consideration of the genre.

Cult album.

4/4.5 stars