Naked

Tracklist

01. Intercity
02. Tell me your wishes
03. On my name
04. Naked
05. Somewhere folk song
06. That day, that morning
07. Last time blues

Personnel

Massimiliano Rolff, Double Bass
Emanuele Cisi, Tenor Sax
Andrea Pozza, Piano
Enzo Zirilli, Drums

All compositions and arrangements by Massimliano Rolff

LINER NOTES by Guido Festinese/Italian Jazz Institute

Naked, nude, bare. A situation where the person who must introduce himself, does it without screens: willingly or not. There are sad voices in the Italian media that promote beauty and creative licenses to “artistic” characters, that actually feel perfectly comfortable behind a blanket of screens. And nobody has the audacity to scream, just like in that nice fairy-tale where “the king is naked!”. Here we are on the other side of the fable: here the protagonists are small heroes and craftsman of constancy, people that believe in what they do, doing their best, never on the covers of national magazines, those without the illusion of guiding the destiny of music, while the Italian culture dances in Titanic’s hall (but nobody has noticed the iceberg yet, and, as the Italian comedian ‘Totò’ said: “there is the fog, but it’s invisible!). There’s no illusion, but the taste for beauty, pursued and found, at any cost. Max Rolff, re-introduces himself “naked”: and this word could have many meanings, in the complex world of the bassist and composer that, has for a while now, been one of the most active cultural souls around. Rolff makes a step forward and finds new inspiring energy, with the Naked Quartet, where the music is really laid bare: without embellishments, without devotion to that mysterious and ambiguous “taste of the big audiences”, that produces basic things, and owns the supposition to really know what people really want. The rest of the Naked Quartet, chosen by Rolff, are Emanuele Cisi, Andrea Pozza, Enzo Zirilli. Musicians of absolute excellence and acclaimed sobriety, they are ideal travel mates for Rolff’s “mainstream jazz”. Rolff is careful of the beat, of the elastic and exact rhythmic presence, of melodies that spring in a moment of inspiration, that become obligatory training for wonderful solo flights: much more here, than in the the bass players’ previous album, “Unit Five”. Rolff tells that for many months his CD system played numerous Joe Henderson records: and here you can find many thoughts and the ductile writing of this unsung hero, that delicate and essential moment that brought hard-bop towards more open forms of jazz, to unknown territories where a musical revolution of sufferance took place. Sometimes, as happens in Naked, it is important for us to witness a crossing passage, the coming of age.