Franco Ambrosetti - Sweet Caress

[GA Russell]

Swiss trumpet legend Franco Ambrosetti  applies his Sweet Caress to second album of ballads with strings arranged by Alan Broadbent   To be released in immersive sound format on Enja Records.

CD, LP AND DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE ON AUGUST 9, 2024. Enja / Edel Enja 9853 / LC 18386

Franco Ambrosetti - Flugelhorn Alan Broadbent - Piano, Arranger, Conductor  John Scofield - Guitar Scott Colley - Bass Peter Erskine - Drums Sara Caswell - Violin, Concertmaster   Jeff Levenson - Producer

 

A companion piece to Franco Ambrosetti’s previous strings collaboration with pianist-arranger Alan Broadbent on 2022’s Nora, the sublime ballads album Sweet Caress finds the Swiss trumpet legend addressing such jazz classics as Mal Waldron’s “Soul Eyes,” Charlie Haden’s “Nightfall,” Les Alrich’s melodic and mellow “Old Friends” and J. Russel Robinson’s “Portrait of Jennie,” a tune originally written for a 1948 movie of the same name and which became a hit song later that year for Nat King Cole before being covered by J.J. Johnson, George Shearing, Blue Mitchell, Red Garland, Oscar Peterson and Wes Montgomery. It was even included on Clifford Brown with Strings, the 1955 album that ignited Ambrosetti’s youthful ambition to pursue jazz.   Soulful with a touch of poignant introspection and melancholy, Sweet Caress recalls Frank Sinatra at his apex looking back on his life and career on September of My Years, his landmark album from 1965 with sumptuous orchestrations by great arranger Gordon Jenkins. And as Gil Evans once called Miles Davis “a singer of songs” in their landmark collaborations together (1957’s Miles Ahead, 1958’s Porgy and Bess, 1960’s Sketches of Spain), so it is with Franco and his arranging partner Broadbent, who has fashioned a comfy bed of strings for Ambrosetti to lie on.

Franco Ambrosetti  © Mariana Meraz

And the trumpeter responds with some of his most heartfelt playing of his storied career on Sweet Caress, which casts a spell allowing listeners to get lost in reverie, recalling past loves, precious moments and golden memories of times gone by.   Backed by an all-star core group consisting of pianist Broadbent, guitarist John Scofield, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Peter Erskine, augmented by a 29-piece orchestra arranged and conducted by Broadbent, Ambrosetti pulls heartstrings on a winning program that includes four Franco originals in the alluring “Habanera,” his sparkling “Colors of the Wind,” the tender “When the Sun Never Sets” and the beguiling title track.   “This is actually the third album that I did with strings,” said Ambrosetti. “The first one was with Don Sebesky at the end of the ‘70s for Gryphon, an American label [Sleeping Gypsy, released in 1980]. Over the years, I decided that I wanted badly to do another album with strings, because the more you age, the more you have to say in a ballad. When I was a young musician, it was all about beating Chet Baker in a jam session with fast notes. That was my goal. But then with age, you start to understand that a ballad brings you to a different mood and you want to express that. And now, at my young age of 82, it is an immense satisfaction to play ballads and interpret a melody like this.”

As arranger for Sweet Caress, Franco made the perfect choice in Broadbent, who served as arranger-conductor on Ambrosetti’s previous orchestral project, 2002’s Nora. A native of New Zealand and longtime resident of Los Angeles who wrote and arranged for Woody Herman’s bands of the ‘70s and Charlie Haden’s Quartet West during the ‘80s, Broadbent had apprenticed under Nelson Riddle before serving as arranger-conductor on orchestral recordings for Natalie Cole, Paul McCartney, Diana Krall, Shirley Horn, Michael Bublé, Andrea Bocelli, Mel Torme, Michael Feinstein, Steve Tyrell, Sheila Jordan, Abbey Lincoln, Jane Monheit, Marian McPartland, Kristin Chenoweth and Scott Hamilton. Through all of those projects, he brought his own unique skills to the table as arranger. “One thing I love about music is that, just through notes you can move people and be moved,” said Broadbent. “Whether it’s jazz, classical, popular music or standard songs, if it has that certain human quality to it, that’s what I am looking for. And if it can be art on top of that, so much the better.”   Throughout Sweet Caress, Broadbent does not shy away from dark voicings and downright dissonance, if needed. “Because that, to me, is where the love is, where the soul is,” he said. “It’s in those details. There’s a saying that goes, ‘the devil is in the details.’ But if you pay attention to those details in art, it’s paying attention to all of our feelings. And in our own little way, we can contribute to that kind of feeling.”    Following their first encounter together on Nora, Broadbent pointed out how collaborating with Franco was like “two musical souls finding each other.” That truth is even more apparent on Sweet Caress, which continues that intimate, intuitive chemistry between the two musical souls. “We all know as musicians, within a few bars of playing music together, whether we have an affinity for this person or not,” Broadbent explained. “You resonate together like tuning forks, and from that comes the music. So I am just very fortunate that Franco heard something in me that he felt close to.”

© Jim Anderson

Broadbent continued, “I’ve always wanted to have passion in everything that I do as a musician, and Franco has allowed me to do that. Because although I’m a passionate pianist, I like to translate that feeling as well into an orchestra, which I believe is the most beautiful thing on the face of the planet. And here I am, writing for this marvelous instrument — the orchestra — with my feelings projected onto Franco’s. So it’s a deeper experience than just being entertained. There is something deeper here.”   Sweet Caress is scheduled for an August 9th release on the Enja label.  www.francoambrosetti.com   TRACKS 01 Soul Eyes [06:44]  02 Portrait Of Jennie [05:43]  03 Sweet Caress [05:05]  04 Habanera [07:42] 05 Nightfall [07:00]  06 Old Friends [05:41]  07 Colors Of The Wind [06:21] 08 When The Sun Never Sets [06:33]    Total [49:29]    Recorded at Sear Sound, NY, December 2023    Stereo Mixed at Anderson Audio New York, Studio L, Brooklyn, NY Recorded and mixed by Jim Anderson   5.1 Surround Mixed at Skywalker Sound, a Lucasfilm, Ltd. Company, Marin County, California   Produced by Jeff Levenson, Franco Ambrosetti  

ABOUT THE ARTIST Franco Ambrosetti is a grand seigneur of European jazz, his playing style has been described as "cheeky and yet so elegant, so age-wise and yet so youthful, so clear and yet so unbound" (SRF). From the very beginning, trumpeter and flugelhorn player Franco Ambrosetti's sparring partners have been the greats of the scene. Names such as Kenny Clarke, Cannonball Adderley, Dexter Gordon, Phil Woods, Michael Brecker, Steve Coleman, John Scofield, Greg Osby, Geri Allen, Kenny Barron and many more adorn his musical CV. He inherited his love of jazz from his father Flavio Ambrosetti. As a multi-instrumentalist, he was one of the key figures of bebop in Europe at the time and founded the first jazz festival in Lugano.   In addition to his enthusiasm for jazz, Ambrosetti was also bequeathed the family business by his father and he mastered the seemingly incompatible: running a company with several locations and a few hundred employees through business life, while at the same time making music on an equal footing with the best in jazz. Franco Ambrosetti has done this for his entire working life and combined both careers with brilliance. He managed the balancing act of also being a manager as a musician. "It's not so easy the other way round, because you can't be a manager and a musician if you don't have the talent," says Ambrosetti.

[sonnymax]

14 hours ago, GA Russell said:

"To be released in immersive sound format on Enja Records."

Sounds interesting, but what does it mean?

[T.D.]

30 minutes ago, sonnymax said:

Sounds interesting, but what does it mean?

I googled and it appears to be some kind of development/refinement of surround sound, binaural, Dolby Atmos, ....

But it didn't seem clear whether special devices (headphones, amps, multiple speakers, ...) are required. I didn't have time to investigate further.

[sonnymax]

Thanks for the effort. Perhaps the OP would chime in?

[GA Russell]

To the Members of the Voting Academy VOTE WITH YOUR EARS   Franco Ambrosetti's Sweet Caress   "A beautiful album informed by deep knowledge of tradition and tinged with a bit of nostalgia for the lush studio orchestra recordings of bygone eras, Franco Ambrosetti’s Sweet Caress is a testament to lyricism…and to Alan Broadbent’s skills as an orchestrator." - Mark Lomanno 

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Sweet Caress - Franco Ambrosetti