‘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.