What happens when you bring the worlds of jazz and Monteverdi together? Is there a musical meeting-point where the two can exist? Claudio Cavina clearly has been believing in this possibility for some time (witness some very “modern” moments in his recent Glossa recordings of the Scherzi musicali and L’incoronazione di Poppea).
Yet this is not La Venexiana playing jazz: Cavina and his musicians do not change a note of the original scores. Instead they bring all their experience and expertise of playing Monteverdi’s madrigals, sacred music (the 1610 Vespers being their current performing focus) and operas to bear on a group of “ ballads” from the 17th century, but in the company of a select quartet of improvising jazz musicians on saxophone, accordion, double bass and drums and all with the warm, soaring story-telling vocal tones of Roberta Mameli shining through as the protagonist.
The clue lies in the album’s title, with the musicians tipping their hats and paying hommage to jazz standards. And Cavina says that within Monteverdi ’s music, “there is something modern, something new and innovatory which encourages one to dare, to go further.” Listen to the results...
