adEIdJ – Associazione delle Etichette Indipendenti di Jazz

Press Release

Recorded three years after his first solo piano album «Aspiciens Pulchritudinem», «Skies of Sea» showcases the great strides the musician from Siracusa has made over this time frame in his instrumental technique as well as his expressive style, more and more mature and personal. Besides having been one the most appreciated Italian jazz drummers for at least thirty years, Francesco Branciamore highlighted even more his talent as composer and arranger in «Remembering B.E.», an album where he plays no instrument but pays tribute to Bill Evans by conducting a chamber music sextet and now proves the unexpected, brave piano test in 2018 wasn’t an extemporaneous pause in his artistic career at all. He has proved that with his second, even more impressive solo album recorded at the same studio and with the same piano. The past two years of forced reclusion due to the pandemic have allowed him to further hone his piano skills thanks to consistent practice, but also to fine-tune new, interesting musical ideas. «Skies of Sea» is introduced as a sort of suite divided into fourteen short, intense piano sketches lasting between two–and–a–half and three minutes. They manage to touch upon the most diverse kinds of atmospheres, from the hypnotic, evocative title–track to A Prayer for Chick, a touching tribute to Chick Corea. Such fourteen gems prove how his introspection and reflection keep standing as pivots to Branciamore’s music, to whom the word ”jazz” is becoming more and more limiting. It’s pretty hard to draw up a ranking, but we’d like to mention again the intimate, meditative Deep Inside, almost a largo, as well as the cantabile melody The Remaining Time or the heartfelt lyricism of Soul Touch. The pressing rhythm of the final track With Eyes on the Sky sounds like the natural evolution of the opening track as well as the ideal closure of a strongly evocative album where nothing seems left to chance.

Track List

01) Skies of Sea
02) New Directions
03) So Infinity
04) One More Please
05) Deep Inside
06) Sobral
07) A Prayer for Chick
08) Five Quarter of Moonlight
09) Soul Touch
10) 5.4.2020
11) Danzon
12) The Remaining Time
13) No Man's Land 
14) With Eyes on the Sky

Personnel

Francesco Branciamore (piano)

Francesco Branciamore plays a Steinway & Sons piano, model D274, prepared by Lorenzo Jacolano Spagna

Recording Data