BELLA BAND

This Italian guys were playing a really awesome jazz fusion on their one and only album. Excellent musicianship with lots of brass and a fantastic guitar playing. All tracks on this unfortunately rather short album (well it has still been in the vinyl era!) are just brilliant. There is not any weak one present.

The album opens with Fairadiesis which is a quite up-tempo and bit funky song with awesome soprano sax, clarinet, keyboards and guitar playing. Really hard for me to recall any band that sounded like this. Regarding musicianship it's absolutely on par with bands like Mahavishnu Orchestra or National Health although they don't sound like any of them. Promenade is a more quiet and the longest one of the four tracks. It starts with very soft and smooth keyboards and brass and one could almost think this one is a bit boring one, but wait a moment until it's developing into a magnificent and interesting song. After about three minutes there is a section with awesome guitar and bass play combined with brass and in its further course the song is filled with tempo and mood shifts before it finally returns to the initial theme. Really a fantastic and versatile track and anything else than boring. Porotopostrippa Sul Pero sounds completely different from the previous two and I've got the impression that here they are showing their full talents. It's a rather weird one but still very well accessible and pleasant to listen, starting with fantastic a bit spacy keys, then guitar and brass at their very best, an awesome sax solo and a great almost Hendrix-alike guitar solo. After 8 minutes one thinks there is a sudden ending, but the music still continues after. This one is the absolute highlight of the album. Last track of the original vinyl release Cipresso Violento is actually not weaker than the previous ones. Starting rather quietly like smooth Jazz it develops soon to a very vivid fusion one as well, again with great performance of all musicians. On the CD re-issue (unfortunately only on expensive Japanese label) there is one extra track called Mattutina which is as well a very nice one.

SUMMARY

This completely unknown Italian band with a name, from that you wouldn't expect anything interesting created with their only album a really excellent one I'd like to recommend to anyone liking jazz and intricate but accessible jazz-fusion with an awesome musicianship! This little lost gem is absolutely worth 4,5 stars!

Share this BELLA BAND review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to hdfisch
• Report this review (#35663)
• Buy BELLA BAND music online with PA partners
• Show all BELLA BAND MP3/Stream
• Go to BELLA BAND page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Bella Band page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for BELLA BAND related discussions