Tony Cattano - Naca [Aut Records 033]

Going back to back to December 2016 with the review of Tony Cattano's "Naca" album which sat and arrived in our post box only recently. Cattano, as the leader and founder of the Naca quartet formed by him as well Emanuele Parrini, Matteo Anelli and Andrea Melani - all of them considered to be working at the top of Italy's thriving contemporary Jazz scene - delivers a wide-ranged menu of ten compositions with this one, starting from the very free combination of over the top uptempo passages and abrasive scrapings in the opener "Fior Di Conio" to the nicely swinging grooves of "Il Salto Del Pachiderma" and its stoic, yet fascinating bass motif to the more comical, slightly kitsch- and Psychedelia-covered approach of "Erva Mate" which literally unrolls a cinematic sequence within the listeners head. With "Colpo Die Fulmine" the quartet enters territories of heartfelt melancholia, "Krastan" is a complex, high speed arrangement for Film Noir-influenced dancefloors on the brink of madness whereas "Impro" weighs in more melancholia, sadness as well as a certain feel of danger whilst living up to the expectations evoked by the tunes title before "Un Piccolo Improvisto" gets back into a playful, yet experimental swing that brings old, hand-drawn cartoon TV series with a tongue-in-cheek attitude back to mind somehow and so does "Yellow He", defo the happiest cut on "Naca" with its fascinating slap bass progression and matching plucked string motif. Finally "Trappin'" is the coolest take on Cool Jazz with a certain swing and a grand portion of mid-track experimentation we've heard in ages whilst the closing tune "Settecamini" seems to be reminiscent of one of the great crooning Jazz standards we cannot remember the name of at this very point in time. An interesting, yet also demanding one from the Aut Records catalogue, this is.