Guido Santoni

An awesome piano trio from Italy with a beautiful melody line which is generated by deep piano sounds, improvisation with unleashed exuberance and a wonderful rhythm section. A masterpiece of piano trio improvisational work which combines the sophistication of modern European style with the energy of traditional jazz”. --Jazz Tokyo, Jazz Critique Magazine.

As in the previous "Inside A Dream" (Artesuono, 2010), also in the new "Fit To Fly" Danilo Gallo on double bass and Umberto Trombetta Gandhi on drums complete the trio led by Guido Santoni. The pianist proposes a lineup of nine songs, all autographs, from which his passion for singable themes clearly emerges, characterized by linear and tonally smooth melodies with extreme precision. His is an elegant pianism, referable briefly to that of Bill Evans, with dynamics treated in detail and deriving both from classical studies and from the passion for the art of the piano trio. A coherent way of operating, which never betrays its own stylistic creed, as is clear from the opening track Sudden Flashes, where Santoni designs a harmonious soundscape, while Gallo and Gandhi create very subtle rhythmic textures. Patterns and meanings that chase each other during the entire lineup until touching a sort of expressive intimacy, almost confidential, as happens in Beyond My Boundary, even if there are some micro tensions close to introspection. The one contained in "Fit To Fly" is music essential and understandable, never simplistic and realized through spontaneous developments. The cover image is a photo signed by Mario Giacomelli. --JAZZit Magazine

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An awesome piano trio from Italy with a beautiful melody line which is generated by deep piano sounds, improvisation with unleashed exuberance and a wonderful rhythm section. A masterpiece of piano trio improvisational work which combines the sophistication of modern European style with the energy of traditional jazz”. --Jazz Tokyo, Jazz Critique Magazine.

As in the previous "Inside A Dream" (Artesuono, 2010), also in the new "Fit To Fly" Danilo Gallo on double bass and Umberto Trombetta Gandhi on drums complete the trio led by Guido Santoni. The pianist proposes a lineup of nine songs, all autographs, from which his passion for singable themes clearly emerges, characterized by linear and tonally smooth melodies with extreme precision. His is an elegant pianism, referable briefly to that of Bill Evans, with dynamics treated in detail and deriving both from classical studies and from the passion for the art of the piano trio. A coherent way of operating, which never betrays its own stylistic creed, as is clear from the opening track Sudden Flashes, where Santoni designs a harmonious soundscape, while Gallo and Gandhi create very subtle rhythmic textures. Patterns and meanings that chase each other during the entire lineup until touching a sort of expressive intimacy, almost confidential, as happens in Beyond My Boundary, even if there are some micro tensions close to introspection. The one contained in "Fit To Fly" is music essential and understandable, never simplistic and realized through spontaneous developments. The cover image is a photo signed by Mario Giacomelli. --JAZZit Magazine

The cover has never told an album better. A beautiful black and white photograph of a landscape in the Marche countryside. The squared lines and geometric contours of the photo tell the piano style of Guido Santoni. Accompanied by two trusted musicians, Danilo Gallo on double bass and U.T. Gandhi on drums, this second project, the first was Inside a Dream again with Artesuono, condenses the ideas and awareness of two years of work. Don't expect an agitated and heart-pounding pianism but a long and meditated sound characterized by calmness and almost obsessive attention to nuances, accents, dynamics. Bill Evans influence is around the corner even if the melodic lines are contemporary and catchy. It is a small geometric design that takes shape. The Fit to fly track is an example of this: the flat start alone is preparatory to the development of the theme, simple but effective. Gallo and Gandhi complete the sketch by tracing small tense rhythmic lines, animated by a vigorous complicity. We also point out Beyond My Boundary in which the improvisation becomes more excited and tenacious, Santoni accepts the numerous solicitations of the two companions and opens up to a rougher pianism. The rest of the album does not deviate from this desired and sought-after mood, an almost classic work in its own way that reconciles us with the world: simple, immediate, almost instinctive. --Jazz Convention

Inside a Dream, inside a dream that comes true, music as life, the piano trio as the perfect vehicle to translate deep emotions and feelings, spirituality and poetry. The dream is that of Guido Santoni, an eclectic and transversal pianist; the trio is completed by the expert drummer U.T.Gandhi and the double bass player Danilo Gallo, recent winner of the Top Jazz referendum; the music is the one contained in Inside a Dream, enhanced by the immaculate sound of Stefano Amerio's recording studios.
The climate that informs Inside a Dream is the one dear to Bill Evans' trios: sweetness of the phrasing, simple listening melodies but supported by a refined harmonic texture, the notes that acquire meaning thanks to the nuances, improvisation as a process of exploration of human feelings, slow, progressive, without clamor but deep and essential.And, of course, the steely interplay between the musicians (very surprising since the three had never played together before this recording) with the double bass not only rhythmic support but equal voice in an intense and stimulating dialogue with the piano. For its part, the drums create the ideal conditions for the unraveling of the interpretative trails that are formed through a subtle play of brushes, with the prevalence of the melodic aspect of the instrument, with the rhythmic dimension that expands thanks to delicate impulses and gentle vibrations of leathers and metals. --All About Jazz

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