No More Mr. Nice Guy
Raffaelle Sanzi, the Renaissance artist obsessed with purity of form, has a namesake whose prime directive is to question and recreate bebop in a new image. Raffaelle Molinari's premiere album, No More Mr. Nice Guy (Accurate), blends subtle writing skills with sturdy playing by saxophonists Doug Yates and George Garzone, guitarist Luigi Tessarollo, and alert drummer Matt Wilson. Born in Napoli on January 17, 1962, "Lello" Molinari bought an electric bass when jamming friends were already playing drums and his mom's piano. "I was listening to English rock (Yes, Genesis) until I heard my teacher play in a bebop band". Then it was Miles, Monk, Mingus: classicist, innovator, rebel. Emigrating with his family to The North at 20, Lello was ripe for classical studies with Maestro Manfredini at Milano's Conservatory. So it went: baroque day and bebop nights. Work with the Italian Vocal Ensemble (3rd prize, 1985 Jazz Cup Competition) earned him a scholarship to Berklee College (BA, 1989). His quartet played UmbriaJazz in 1988, but the lure of Boston had hooked Lello: he met and worked (gigs, Europe twice) in the quartet of saxophonist/educator George Garzone (whose wild trio The Fringe is taking off after 20 years), toured Canada with Either/Orchestra, became a daddy. He stayed on, won a Boston Jazz Society Scholarship, earned a Masters from New England Conservatory, but still had to sell his fine old Italian bass for a new plywood one. "Nothing comes easy," he says with an Italian shrug.
Lello titles tunes with questions marks ("C'era Chi?", "Blues Anyone?") and writes unusually (parallel duets, 12-tone touches, a tart, odd-intervalled lullaby). "Writing for horns and guitar offer chances" says Lello, "for the bass to be more in the foreground, not just playing roots." So Lello plays nice walking things on his debut, but bends ears, too.
Lello Molinari has made a fine gambit by hiring in-demand Bostonians: Doug Yates and Matt Wilson are Accurate rosterians in Either/Orchestra and Mandala Octet; Garzone is a world-class bopster/outster. His quintet copped third (again) in the 1992 Hennessy Cognac Jazz Search at Charles Hotel's Regattabar.
But somebody told Molinari "Nice Guys finish last," so he's changing his tunes.
- Fred Bouchard
