Prometheus is the new album by double bassist Jacopo Ferrazza, to be released Jan. 24 on CD and digital, by Teal Dreamers Factory. The album is preceded by the release of two singles, Titan Rises on Dec. 13 and Oceanine Chorus on Jan. 10.

For his fifth debut album, three years after Fantasia, Ferrazza is on a path of personal rebirth. Some aspects remain unchanged from his previous work, starting with the lineup. In fact, Ferrazza's double bass and synths are joined again by Enrico Zanisi's piano and synthesizer, Livia De Romanis' cello and Valerio Vantaggio's drums, with Alessandra Diodati's voice acting as a binder, in a constant dialogue with the instrumentalists.

The cover artwork is also closely related to that of Fantàsia; in fact, both were born from the creativity of ‘Sophia Zaccaron, whose strongly dreamlike drawing serves as a preamble to the album's content.

The Roman double bassist interprets the figure of Prometheus no longer as an external saving entity, but as a symbol of the human being himself, who, exploring his own interiority, rediscovers fire. The latter is understood as the set of those primordial and natural capacities that contemporary society has trapped and through which Promethean man can rediscover the authentic self and contact The myth of Prometheus, titan friend of humanity and progress, who steals fire from the gods to give it to men, remains in the background, taking on a new, deeply humanist meaning

“Prometheus, Ferrazza explains, represents contemporary man oppressed by fears, conformity and doubts. Fire, a symbol of vitality, intuition and creativity, becomes a metaphor for human potential that, by resisting external pressures, evolves and rediscovers its authentic essence.”

Each track is a sound world of its own, and the voice is the common thread of a journey of self-discovery. Frequent are the changes of atmosphere and dynamics: we move from dreamy, relaxed suggestions to tighter moments filled with drama, in which the lineup traverses progressive, gothic, and at times dissonant influences, which well express the torment and difficulties of the progress of human consciousness.

Jacopo Ferrazza completed his academic studies at the Frosinone Conservatory of Music. He has won numerous awards and honors, including best bassist in the Jimmy Woode Award competition and was listed among the top three Italian talents in Musica Jazz's Top Jazz 2017 and 2019. In 2018 he received the SIAE award as one of the best Italian jazz talents, and in 2022 he won the Global Music Awards in the jazz category with his album Fantàsia.

He was a professor of jazz double bass and ensemble music at the “Braga” Conservatory in Teramo for three years and since 2022 he has been a tenured professor at the “Refice” Conservatory in Frosinone, where he teaches jazz composition and jazz ensemble music. Throughout his career he has played with formidable performers (Dave Liebman, Nicola Piovani, Fabrizio Bosso, Enrico Rava, Paolo Fresu, Mario Biondi, Enrico Pieranunzi, etc.) and performed at festivals and jazz clubs in Europe, the United States, Asia and Africa. He has released Rebirth (2017) and Theater (2019) for the CAM Jazz label and a solo double bass album entitled Wood Tales (2021) for Teal Dreamers Factory. 

‘Fantàsia Jacopo Ferrazza’s new album was released on the 25th of February for the Teal Dreamers Factory.
Over the past years the Roman bass player has made a name for himself amongst the brightest young Italian jazz musicians, having performed as a sideman to many acclaimed artists such as David Liebman, Greg Hutchinson, Camille Bertault, Logan Richardson, Enrico Rava, Enrico Pieranunzi, Paolo Fresu and many others.

After his solo experience in ‘Wood Tales’ (published on Feb. 2021) Jacopo Ferrazza comes back as a band leader, guiding a quintet with two very special guests, Fabrizio Bosso (trumpet) and Marcello Allulli (sax). 
A dreamlike world emerges from Ferrazza’s compositions and is outlined by the right balance between modern jazz, chamber music and electronic music.
 
The nine tracks of ‘Fantàsia’ follow a narrative that resembles a sequence of disjoined dreams appearing in an unorderly fashion nonetheless composing a greater holistic story.
As the music unfolds, introspective lyrics written by Ferrazza himself describe the thoughts of a WWII soldier, briefly before his death during the Normandy landings (La Course), as well as Siddharta’s concept of the cyclicality of time (River Theatre) and again the surreal tale of a time-travel vortex (Blue Glow).
Interstellar voyages, synesthetic worlds and the theme of afterlife are also part of ‘Fantàsia’, the latter being a topic very dear to Jacopo Ferrazza, especially after his record ‘Rebirth’ (Cam Jazz 2017).
 
Starting from his approach to the double bass’ acoustic sound, the Italian musician develops an accurate overall aesthetic to his compositions through electronics and pianist Enrico Zanisi contributes greatly to this intent thanks to his extensive use of synths, becoming a fundamental element to creating a precise setting in each track.
The album becomes an intentional screenplay where each element has its specific role, for example Valerio Vantaggio’s drums hold the music’s emotional pulse. Alessandra Diodati, here in her first recording experience, guides listeners through the different layers of the chronicle with her voice. And again Livia de Romanis’ cello represents the fire, a primordial force we find behind the most vivid nocturnal visions. The trumpet played Fabrizio Bosso incarnates an irruptive element which deconstructs all the rules of a well designed world, and last but not least, the Shorter-like tone of Marcello Allulli’s sax has a cathartic and celebrative role in the ending of the record.
 
The element that leads the musical narrative is Jacopo Ferrazza’s double bass, that always joins his music partners enhancing each role, underlining the different personality of the band’s members and pulling the whole architecture’s strings together.
 
‘Fantàsia’ is an album that witnesses the vital creativity of Ferrazza, which manifests itself also in his attitude to explore, especially those little shadows of our daily life, where we can find, if we look closely, a magical world waiting to be experienced. 
 

‘Wood Tales’ is Jacopo Ferrazza’s new album, released the 5th of February, 2021. 
Seven of the twelve tracks are original material composed by Ferrazza. The remaining tracks are jazz standards written by composers the likes of Fabio Zeppetella (Choro Pra Gianlu) and Enrico Pieranunzi (Les Amants), also in Wood Tales we have a new take on the Beatles' ‘Blackbird’ and Duke Ellengton’s ‘Sophisticated Lady’. The album ends with ‘A New World’, the only original composition of that was recorded using overdubbing.
 
In Wood Tales the double bass is stripped down to its core, giving more emphasis on the timbre and sound colors. 
 It’s a project that revels its essence in the search of identity through rhythms ,melody and timbre, supported only by the use of the voice and the double bass’s bow. 
Using Jacopo’s words “I felt the need to go back to the roots, to stay in touch with the soil, with the reality of the sound itself, with the pure nature and also the ‘dirt’ of the wood itself”.
 
In the new effort by the musician and composer from Rome, we can hear the influences of Charlie Haden, Ray Brown, Larry Grenadier, also references to John Patitucci’s music and Ares Tavolazzi (with whom Ferrazza studied in the early years). It’s not by chance that Tavolazzi himself wrote the liner notes of this record.