The Groove
Multiple Personalities Make Music at the RegattaBar
On Tuesday, October the 2nd, Bassist and Berklee College of Music faculty member, Lello Molinari, took to stage his star-studded group and engaged the RegattaBar's audience in a colorful tour of his musical history and background. The performance featured primarily the stylistically diverse songs of his new record, Multiple Personalities, but it didn’t fail to showcase some of Molinari's remarkable compositions from the past as to welcome the release of his new album as a review and positive affirmation of the artist's musical heritage and development.
Friends, fans, students, and colleagues, as well as a number of hotel guest gradually filled the seats of Boston's well-respected jazz venue. A guitar pioneer and teacher much sought after in the jazz community, Mick Goodrick took his place on stage to attend some final preparations on his kidney-shaped custom guitar. Moments later, a rich applause accompanied the entrance of band leader Molinari, drummer Marcello Pellitteri, and The Fringe's saxophonist, George Garzone, as they took up their instruments and instantly kicked off the show with a rendition of the tune "Simone". Projected against the colorful chord voicings of Goodrick's guitar, Garzone seized the first solo opportunity to display his reputed technical and melodic ability and lead the song into climatic heights. The follow-up, a beautiful Neapolitan piece entitled "Quando", saw singer and recent Berklee graduate Chiara Civello delivering a lush, sensuous vocal melody met by the musicality of her native tongue. It was particularly satisfying to see the singer's engagement beyond the number of songs she contributed to on Multiple Personalities. While one could expect her to cover Garzone's composition, "Anthony Goes to Marty Gras", as well as the Neapolitan ballad, "Malafemmena", her involvement surpassed anticipation with an extensive scat over the latter tune and a masterful interpretation of what is identified on the play list merely as "Duke's". On the Neapolitan dance "Tarantella", Civello joined the interactive play of Garzone and Trombonist Jeff Galindo by harmonizing the Melody. In addition to songs from his new album, Molinari picked out two of his old compositions and combined them in a medley. While the rather spacious and hypnotic pieces (slightly reminiscent of European jazz such as that of Jan Garbarek) fit in well with the diverse body of music associated with Multiple Personalities, they also stood to illustrate the musical history and development of the open and multi-faceted mind behind the works.
The performance also featured pianist Frank Carlberg who in his dim, far left corner of the stage, seemed to remain in the background for most of the show. While the enthusiasm and ability of the individual band members was apparent throughout the performance, there was some confusion at times, as to who would take the solo, resulting, as it seemed, in two missed improvisation opportunities. Nonetheless, each tune, original and standard, had its own unique charm and never failed to call on the attention of the listener. Multiple Personalities is an exciting and rich musical account of Lello Molinari's background. The album can be checked out at Berklee's CD library or may be purchased over the internet at http://lellomolinari.com.
