Marco Pignataro is a distinguished jazz saxophonist who, together with Danilo Perez, directs the Berklee Global Jazz Institute (BGJI), the world premiere jazz center of musical creativity at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He can already look back on numerous albums that he has recorded together with different formations.

His most recent grouping is Marco Pignataro's Dream Alliance and their joint project is the album Awakening, due out in April 2022. This formation consists of Marco Pignataro (soprano, alto & tenor sax), Kenny Werner (piano, backing vocals), Nadia Washington (vocals, guitar) and Devon Gates (bass, vocals).

In today's fast-paced world, it's often the first track on an album that decides whether a listener likes it or not. In this specific case, Marco Pignataro did everything right. With the first two pieces, renditions of world-famous hits by Stevie Wonder (Send One Your Love) and Ben E. King (Stand By Me), the maximum in listening pleasure from the world of pop music is delivered to the interested listener.

Pignataro does not limit himself to a pure reproduction of the melodies, but approaches the essence of the songs with a lot of joie de vivre, jazzy meticulousness and a touch of Bossa Nova. The participating artists move at an incredibly high level that does justice to their outstanding position in the jazz world. With the 30-year-old singer Nadia Washington, he has also found a voice that renders the songs in an unaffected, believable and warm-hearted way.

The rendition of Stand By Me turns into vocal sensuality, perfectly complemented by Devon Gate's sonorous acoustic bass. There is nothing strained but much that musically springs from the deepest soul. Of course, with such musical delicacies, one caters to the expectations of the audience. Can the album live up to this demand with the following tracks?

With Naked Absence, Pignataro first confronts us with the purist solo performance of his alto saxophone, which is joined by Nadia Washington reciting at the end. This is followed by his own composition Farfallina (Butterfly), which unites Nadia as lead singer in chorus with Devon and Kenny. The solos by Marco and Kenny that then unfold are, despite their melodiousness, nevertheless to be located in jazz. Let's just call it moony romantic jazz.

Still Winter contains Nadia's narrative element, which is accompanied and enriched onomatopoeically by the other members of the team. Before the listener's frustration spreads in the face of such elitist performance, Pignataro reconciles us with a highly jazzy new interpretation of Gilbert O'Sullivan's Alone Again Naturally. Well, towards the end of the piece, the musicians run a bit off the horses with their free jazz interlude, but that doesn't diminish the overall impression.

I Caught A Reflection Of Me is to be understood literally, because Pignataro not only lives out the depth of his saxophone but also of his inner emotional world. As if the expressive strength of his instrument were not enough, Nadia again brings terms into play in narrative form.

And again Pignataro kidnaps us into the world of pop with a rendition of John Lennon's and Paul McCartney's stroke of genius Because. Nadia and Devon blend their voices in harmonic unison, giving equal importance to empathy and musical knowledge of harmony theory. Ode To The Wounded Clouds is an unusual title for an atmospheric piece that appeals more to the jazz intellectual than the general public.

Inspiration springs from the pen of Kenny Werner and effortlessly eludes the stylistic categorization of the critic, who sees himself transported in rudiments to the border world between opera and jazz. The album closes with Moon Thread's Prologue At Night, which begins with a solo performance by Pignataro on saxophone before being joined by the other co-conspirators.

The album by Marco Pignataro's Dream Alliance Awakening leaves an ambiguous impression. On the one hand, we experience the extremely skillful reinterpretation of decidedly grateful melodies from the pop world; on the other hand, we have to face the challenges of ambitious original compositions by Pignataro and his comrades-in-arms. One satisfies the taste of the general public, the other demands intellectual understanding.

 

 

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Album Information

Title: Awakening
Artist: Marco Pignataro's Dream Alliance
Year: 2022
Genre: Smooth Jazz
Label: Zoho Music

1) Send One Your Life (6:02)
2) Resilience of Light (1:34)
3) Stand By Me (4:37)
4) Naked Absence (1:34)
5) Farfallina (7:27)
6) Still Winter (2:19)
7) Alone Again Naturally (7:08)
8) I Caught A Reflection Of Me (4:48)
9) Because (3:27)
10) Ode To The Wounded Clouds (4:02)
11) Inspiration (4:57)
12) Moon Threads Prologue At Night (4:46)