CINCINNATO

"Cream to Gentle Giant, from Mahavishnu Orchestra to Area, with a slight touch of Isaac Hayes!"

That is how keyboardist Giacomo Urbanelli described his influences to an interviewer. Another in a long line of impressive Italian bands that made one heartfelt album and disappeared.

Cincinnato would rehearse in a friend's basement and always spent an hour or more on jamming improvisation to get warmed up, a practice they believed a necessity to the creative process. They did not see themselves as locked into the jazz-fusion pigeonhole and believed in total musical freedom as a way of expressing freedom in real life. They recorded this album in Milan in only 3 days and all in one take so it has a very "live" feel to it.

The music is quite lovely and interesting to my ears. My best description would be spacious, atmospheric, esoteric, a little spacey, warm, and with a decidedly unhurried, laid back feel to it. This is largely (though not completely) instrumental music whose goal seems to be the spirit of improvisation. I would recommend it very much to listeners who love a patient exploration of rock building and subsiding slowly with piano, acoustic and electric guitar, bass, and agile drumming. For those kinds of listeners this is probably 4 star material, but for the wider audience of this site we are in 3-star territory as this is not material that offers instant payback to fans of modern rock music used to high-gloss productions and "testosterock." The sound and production are decent but obviously dated compared to today.

With the recent high quality lp-sleeve reissue we can rediscover this little known group with better sound, gatefold sleeve, and booklet with photos and history. The CD version also features 3 bonus tracks, two of which are new performances and one live cut from 1972. A nice package, especially for Italian progressive fans: 3.5 stars.