Another fresh one put out via the ever expanding Aut Records label on January 8th, 2k25 as the imprints cat.no. 120 is "Really The Blues", the latest full length album effort by Italian clarinet player Alberto Popolla who, over the course of 13 pieces and an approximate runtime of roughly 52 minutes, takes on an array of original Blues-leaning cuts from artists like Randy Weston, Louis Armstrong, Eric Dolphy, Jelly Roll Morton and others, tackling them with his instruments of choice, the tapping of his foot and what is described in the accompanying press release as a 'pedalboard of objects' and turning them into a set of inward-looking, Blues-infused Jazz pieces for night late listening, with Randy Weston's "Anu Anu" being one of the most expressive and probably thought provoking of the bunch for us whereas Popolla's approach to Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground" seems to be both informed by Minimal Music and echoes of partly grating nocturnal DarkJazz whilst Jimmy Giuffre's "Cry, Want" is as tender as it gets in this context and Milt Jackson's "Bags' Groove" is clearly flirting with influences of old time Jazz just to name a few. A quite interesting affair, this. Go check!
Album artwork on Instagram!
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