Quintorigo - Musical acrobatics in grey

After the promising debut of "Rospo", Quintorigo confirmed their talent and versatility on their new album, "Grigio", which blends jazz, classical and hard rock into a boundless cocktail of musical experimentation

by Claudio Fabretti

The quintet from Romagna, Quintorigo, with one foot in the sonorities of the Balanescu Quartet and the other among the distorted guitars of the hardest rock, blend sounds and emotions in a musical centrifuge powered by an interweaving of violins and cellos.

Across the ten tracks of Grigio, compositions alternate, starting from a classically-inspired base before taking off toward other shores, branching out at the crossroads that leads on one side to jazz and on the other to rock. It opens with the reggae-tinged single "La nonna di Frederick lo portava al mare", moves on to a reprise of the theme from Spike Lee's film "Lola darling", and into the musical-theatre atmosphere of "Nola". The title track is a clear homage to a Paolo Conte-esque "Grigio", while "Precipitango" (featuring a flugelhorn solo by Enrico Rava) is a Piazzolla-style tango twisted into a jazz key. "Malatosano" is a tipsy blues number, "Egonomia" a weighty, serious theme, and the taut cover of "Highway star", the hard-rock classic by Deep Purple, is an eloquent demonstration of Quintorigo's ability to play even hard rock with an almost chamber-music instrumentation. There's also room for a multi-voice performance ("Zara"), enriched by the extraordinary qualities of singer John De Leo. Originals and covers thus combine into a tangle of biting sonorities, oblique rhythms and estranging vocalizing. "You have to break away from the pop-centric view of covers," says De Leo, whose vocal acrobatics recall those of the great Demetrio Stratos of Area. "That view tends to confine covers as if they were a second-tier repertoire compared to one's own compositions. In reality, if we look to other musical genres, jazz above all, interpreting a cover is an essential part of an artist's musical world. For us, reworking a cover ends up turning it into an original piece, thanks to the arrangement but also simply to the instrumentation of our quintet, which by its very nature tends to radically rewrite the sonic fabric of a song, dressing it in its own clothes. All without ever forgetting that underlying irony that lets us take music as lightly as a game. But a serious game: the kind children play, learning precisely in the moment they play most seriously."

What makes Quintorigo's musical game work is a formula that forgoes the classic instruments of rock in favor of an acoustic set: violin (Andrea Costa), cello (Gionata Costa), double bass (Stefano Ricci) and sax (Valentino Bianchi), joined by Enrico Rava's flugelhorn. The result is a somewhat disjointed but undeniably fascinating jumble of sounds and words. After their debut at the 1999 Sanremo Festival, where they won both the Critics' Award and the Quality Jury Award, and later triumphed at the Premio Tenco as well, Quintorigo have by now established themselves on the new scene of Italian singer-songwriter music, alongside artists such as Avion Travel and Massimo Volume.

Live too, Quintorigo take plenty of risks and challenge their audience, with the secret intent of gradually educating pop's most unprepared listeners in jazz and classical music. So far, the results have been positive. "Fans of Biagio Antonacci and Jovanotti might find some of our material a bit difficult," says saxophonist Valentino Bianchi, "and a jazz purist might not be entirely satisfied either, but we've noticed that our music comes across as enjoyable to most people, because they find a thousand influences in it. Ours is a contaminated genre, but not a difficult one — it doesn't aim to be cerebral. Basically, we follow a pop-oriented approach."

Behind Quintorigo lies a long history of live work with jazz and pop musicians, alongside classical studies at conservatories in Romagna. Two approaches no longer at opposite poles: "By now many conservatories are starting to open chairs in jazz and electronic music, and are gradually opening up to genres that aren't strictly classical," they recall. "But it still depends a lot on individual management and on the teachers." Among their main influences, Quintorigo cite Stravinsky, Miles Davis, Fats Waller, Jimi Hendrix, Faith No More, Herbie Hancock.

Out of so many different musical strands came their debut album too, Rospo, where strings that sound like electric guitars meet possessed saxophones, a double bass driving the rhythm as a protagonist in its own right, and De Leo's incredible voice ranging across countless different timbres, from James Brown to Bobby McFerrin, from Demetrio Stratos (Area) to Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols). A successful marriage, also rewarded at the 1999 Sanremo Festival, where Quintorigo won the Critics' Award. And now, with "Grigio", the moment of definitive consecration seems to have arrived for the band from Romagna.

In 2003 Quintorigo forcefully returned to the spotlight with In Cattività.

Two tracks alone, placed right at the opening just after the intro "Illune (ninna-nanna)", would be enough to earn the word masterpiece: the first gem is "Neon Sun", which reveals the full extent of their rhythmic talent (even without drums), their undeniable "rock" energy, their mimetic skills. But Quintorigo are also masters of the tricky art of the cover, and they're not afraid to go head to head with music's most sacred monsters: hence "Clap Hands", from the repertoire of Tom Waits, an artist spiritually akin to this quintet.

In times like these, even Quintorigo won't pass up the chance to voice their opinion on world events, and they do so with the sarcastic invective "U.S.A. e getta". But it's the more intimate moments that hit the mark, starting with the splendid "Dimentico", enriched by a guest appearance from Ivano Fossati, followed by another highly personal cover, this time of the overplayed swing standard "Night And Day" by Cole Porter, and finally by a reprise of "Deux Heures Des Soleil", perhaps the darkest and most fascinating episode on the record.

Another masterpiece is the suite "Raptus", split into three movements, which represents the band's most experimental side, the one where Quintorigo give free rein to their visions, dividing the triptych between pure avant-garde, jazz forays and rhythmic openings bordering on hip-hop (for the first time a drum kit appears). Closing things out are "Darn That Dream" and "Illune", again featuring Fossati as a special guest.

De Leo's departure, however, puts the very existence of the band to a hard test.

Il Cannone (2006) indeed shows a band still fairly disoriented. At the microphone now is a woman, Luisa Cottifogli, who nonetheless seems at ease amid Quintorigo's wild, perverse rhythms. From the reggae delicacy of "Alligator Man" to the severity of "Il Cannone", the spell seems to hold. But the disorienting pop-rock of "Il Clone del Padre" fails to leave a mark. More fascinating, if anything, are the sensual Arabesque of "Ranni Li" or the a cappella style exercise of "Soon I Will Be Done".

There are plenty of covers: from the jazz of Charles Mingus, to the pop of Police, to the reggae of "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley, Cottifogli leads us on a journey of discovery into the new Quintorigo, right up to the cover that sparked controversy: "Luglio agosto settembre (nero)". The long-distance duel between Stratos and De Leo never really happened. Let's be clear: Cottifogli's version is exceptional, but one can't help regretting never getting to hear it sung by the bearded, charismatic vocalist. The final cover is... of the old Quintorigo themselves: "Grigio".

Il Cannone sets off on a new path, inevitably regressing from its dreamlike, introverted predecessor In Cattività. As intimate and spleen-laden as that album had been, this one instead leaves the feeling of homework dutifully done.

Contributions by Mauro Roma ("In Cattività"), Dario Ingiusto ("Il Cannone")