adEIdJ – Associazione delle Etichette Indipendenti di Jazz

Press Release

Luca Gusella, born in 1962, graduated in 1986 at Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. After playing classical music, with both symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles, from the 1990s he devotes himself more and more exclusively to jazz. He played and recorded with, among others, Giorgio Gaslini and Andrea Dulbecco, Enrico Intra and Germano Zenga, Artchipel Orchestra and Nexus group. "Portraits" is, finally, Luca Gusella's first album as a leader. Here he leads a trio completed by the proven and faithful Andrea Grossi on double bass and Alessandro Rossi on drums. The band proposes a musical project with jazz flavor but with overlaps in other genres and a particular attention to rhythmic research and interplay. The vibraphone and the malletKat, with their multiple sonorities, the double bass and the drums merge, offering a chiaroscuro sound range of effect and refinement. "Portraits" presents a musical itinery inspired by the artists who contribuited to Gusella's training as a musician, but also to the sonorities of the 1970s that accompanied his first listening (see the dedications presented alongside some tracks of the album).

Track List

01) Felix (Luca Fabio Gusella)
02) Kary's Trance (Lee Konitz) dedicated to Andrea Dulbecco
03) Visa (Charlie Parker) dedicated to Billy Cobham 
04) Time Remembered (Bill Evans)
05) Etude 26 (David Friedman) dedicated to Beppe Sciuto
06) New Rumba (Luca Fabio Gusella) dedicated to Chick Corea
07) Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (Charles Mingus) dedicated to Mahavishnu Orchestra
08) Giant Steps (John Coltrane) dedicated to Keith Emerson
09) Infant Eyes (Wayne Shorter)
10) Amanda (Luca Fabio Gusella)
 

Personnel

Luca Gusella (vibraphone, malletKat)
Andrea Grossi (double bass)
Alessandro Rossi (drums)

Recording Data

Recorded and mastered by Vins De Leo, mixed and edited together with Luca Gusella, at Crossroad Recording Studio, Cologno Monzese (Milano), Italy, in February 2024