adEIdJ – Associazione delle Etichette Indipendenti di Jazz

Released by Auand Records, “Behind Anatomy” is the result of a collective effort. It features Italian dynamic, creative musician Francesco Bearzatti on tenor saxophone and clarinet, alongside double bassist, composer, and electronic producer Stefano Risso, and drummer Mattia Barbieri – a musician who brings the same energy and approach to both electronic and acoustic music.

In this context, the addition of electronics (by Stefano Risso) becomes much more than usual – a valuable assistant. Intentionally excluding a harmonic instrument, the trio treats electronics as a kind of fourth musician, adopting it to fill in the otherwise missing harmonic textures.

Why create music inspired by Otto Preminger’s 1959 film “Anatomy of a Murder”? Perhaps because this movie is a significant chapter in the history of cinema? Or maybe because its soundtrack has a unique allure?

As Stefano Risso explains on behalf of the group: «We don’t know for sure. We've always loved Duke Ellington's soundtrack. We’ve been thinking about building a story around it for a long time. Also, the idea of composing music not for an actual soundtrack, but to reinterpret a film score, really appealed to me. The concept is very straightforward – it’s about extracting parts of that soundtrack and finding new harmonies and rhythms by layering sampled music. To explain it better: two chords taken from different pieces create a polychord; two rhythms from different original pieces create a polyrhythm. Starting from there, you can imagine, combine, and write new music. And that’s exactly what we did. It’s similar to the idea behind hip-hop. In many of these pieces, we’ve created sections we call “Hip,” which are like choruses with very simple melodies, though layered over polychords or polyrhythms. It’s a layering process that reveals the blues in the original soundtrack, the simplicity of hip-hop, and the freshness of contemporary jazz.»

“Behind Anatomy”, released by Auand Records, will be available on September 20 on all major streaming services and on October 25 as Compact Disc.

A good example of the compositional process and the work behind this album is the fourth track, ‘A La Guy Lombardo - More Blues - A La Guy Le Querrec,’, where Duke Ellington’s soundtrack and Risso’s original composition blend together. Risso explains it in detail: «I started with two pieces from the original soundtrack (‘La Guy Lombardo’ and ‘More Blues’), and I tried to musically assemble them in a “rounded” way. These pieces have different tempos and keys – even if not too far apart, they are still distinct, not directly related to each other. In the electronic production phase, I tried to create melodic connections between the themes and riffs, moving from one to the other rather quickly. It’s like constantly starting, stopping, speeding up, and slowing down – essentially, a kind of melodic zigzagging. To achieve this, I thought about how John Zorn might approach a similar idea. The concept was mine, of course, but I tried to see it through his eyes, and what came out was a sort of Ellington in a blender. Once that was done, I composed a new melody (‘A La Guy Le Querrec’) to serve as a counterpoint to the two original melodies. We knew it might sound “wacky”, and perhaps it really does, but that’s exactly what we love about that track. In the end, the listener will decide whether we achieved our goal or not.»