RARITY # 60

FRANCO CERRI QUARTET
COLUMBIA SEMQ 153 (EP 45 rpm) – ITALY, 1960.

It’s a pleasure to relaunch the “Rarity” series of collectable 7” and 10” (45 and 33 rpm). 

It’s even a greater pleasure to restart the series with a contribution by Ernst who has been a key contributor to the Series and to the blog since the early days.

So what do we have here?  A session recorded on November 10, 1959 in Milan, Italy, by the Franco Cerri Quartet composed of .

• Franco Cerri, guitar
• Renato Sellani, piano
• Giorgio Azzolini, bass
• Gianni Cazzola, drums

Three standards and a composition by the leader.  No idea who is the Franco to whom the first track is dedicated.  I assume  /hope  it is not the Spanish dictator – he did not like jazz - nor is it Cerri,  I doubt Franco Cerri would dedicate a blues to himself. Photographer Franco  Scheichenbauer perhaps ?

TRACKS

A1. Blues For Franco (F.Cerri)                            3:13
A2. Stella By Starlight (V.Young)                         3:07
B1. Darn That Dream (Van Heusen/Delanoe)     3:05
B2. Just Friends (Klenner/Lewis)                        2:58

A NEW SOUND FROM ITALY

A NEW SOUND FROM ITALY

Basso – Valdambrini Octet (Italy, 1959)

Paul D, who is a fine connaisseur of Italian Jazz, suggested we post something Italian this month.  There are already a few excellent blogs devoted to Transalpine Jazz and we did not want to duplicate any post already available.  We decided to start with one of the most famous partnerships in the history of Italian / European Jazz: tenor sax Gianni Basso & trumpet-player Oscar Valdambrini aka Basso - Valdambrini.

As the first Basso-Valdambrini Quintet LP (1959) is already posted on the Jazz from Italy blog, we settled to post the second album, A New Sound from Italy, also recorded in 1959 but in an Octet configuration. The LP is pretty rare in vinyl format but it had been reissued on CD by a small Italian label in 2003.  The CD combined two LPs under the title "Blues for Gassman": this LP and the album Basso Valdambrini present Dino Piana.  However, to the best of our knowledge, the CD is already OOP. 

Since Paul has both the LP and the CD, he just ripped the eight original tracks from the CD. Less work and probably better sound quality!

So here is an opportunity to hear this classic EuroJazz LP which features also Swedish legend Lars Gullin on six out of the eight selections.

A new sound from italy

a)  Oscar Valdambrini (tp) Mario Pezzotta (tb) Attilio Donadio (as) Gianni Basso (ts) Lars Gullin (bar) Renato Sellani (p) Franco Cerri (b) Jimmy Pratt (d)

Milan, December 10, 1959

b)  same  -  Milan, December 17, 1959

c)  Oscar Valdambrini (tp) Mario Pezzotta (tb) Glauco Masetti (as) Gianni Basso (ts) Lars Gullin (bar) Renato Sellani (p) Franco Cerri (b) Jimmy Pratt (d)

Milan, December 21, 1959

d)  Oscar Valdambrini (tp) Mario Pezzotta (tb) Glauco Masetti (as) Gianni Basso (ts) Attilio Donadio (bar) Renato Sellani (p) Franco Cerri (b) Jimmy Pratt (d)

Milan, December 23, 1959 

1.  INDIANA (c)

2.  FASCINATING RHYTHM (a)

3.  BLUES FOR GASSMAN (c)

4.  FATA MORGANA (a)

5.  HOW ABOUT YOU (b)

6.  THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER YOU (d)

7.  PETER OF APRIL (b)

8.  HOW DEEP IS THE OCEAN (d)

 Basso-Valdambrini discography here