The tri-continental roots (Africa, North America, and Europe) of this superb quartet might make for good copy, but the music on the Domino Quartet’s Radio 3 Sessions (Auand, 2005) is focused so squarely on top-flight collective music making that such details become trifling. The brawny, soulful, and melodic jazz churned out by local winds maestro Sean Bergin (a native of South Africa), Chicago drummer Hamid Drake, trombonist Gianluca Petrella and bassist Antonio Borghini (the latter two both from Italy) willfully ignores any kind of stylistic purity, leaving the music to swing, bluster and bounce in various, visceral combinations. The blues looms heavy here, and the muscular, fat-bottomed attack recalls the best of Charles Mingus, whose ‘Peggy’s Blue Skylight’ gets a powerful reading; it’s also hard to miss the pronounced kwela flavor that dances through several other ebullient pieces. For a group that convenes only sporadically, the Domino Quartet hit like lifelong pals.
Contacts
Booking & Management
