STEFANO BATTAGLIA — Things Ain't What They Used To Be (1987-2016) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tracklist :
1.    All In Love Is Fair  9:21
Written-By – Stevie Wonder
2.    Our Love Is Here To Stay  6:01
Written-By – George Gershwin - Ira Gershwin
3.    When I Fall In Love  7:40
Written-By – Edward Heyman, Victor Young
4.    I've Grown Accustomed To Your Face  6:00
Written-By – Alan Jay Lerner - Frederick Loewe
5.    Moon River  8:55
Written-By – Henry Mancini
6.    Things Ain't What They Used To Be  6:57
Written-By – Mercer Ellington, Ted Persons
Credits :
Bass – Piero Leveratto
Drums – Gianni Cazzola
Piano – Stefano Battaglia

STEFANO BATTAGLIA — Auryn (1989) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Pianist Stefano Battaglia is one of the most prolific musicians in Italy. He has played on dozens of dates either in the classical or jazz field, but nowhere does one get a true sense of his contribution as on his solo recordings in the jazz idiom. Here, like his influences Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett, and Bill Evans before him, Battaglia focuses intently on the spaces between melody and harmony, and how mode and interval influence them both in composition. Also, unlike his predecessors who seem to have come by their voices naturally, Battaglia is forever honing that sound that he has come to believe is singular to him. This date with longtime collaborator bassist Paolino Dalla Porta and drummer Manhu Roche is one of trio exploration into the realms of subtle, though precise, melodic invention, and how it turns the modal nature of jazz into something more open, more elongated, and even free, because its concerns are with nuance rather than with the norms of composition. On the title track, a shimmering eighth note melody emerges from the ether and is transformed into an elegant, almost classically integrated, theme that is pushed to its limit by the rhythm section. On "The Real Meaning of the Blues," Battaglia's arpeggio study is intervallically challenged by Dalla Porta's own pizzicato machinations that serve to unify to very separate ideas. Also, on "Toy Roads," Cuban jazz figures are undercut with late bop chromatics in a whirlwind of syncopated rhythm and angular scalar studies without ever sacrificing the melody. This is one of Battaglia's earlier recordings, but it is also one of his very finest. 
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1.    Auryn    6:00
2.    Toy Roads    8:45
3.    Emilie Marie    7:37
4.    The Real Meaning (Of The Blues)    7:12
5.    Some Little Notes For You    5:32
6.    Gleam    8:39
Credits :
Bass – Paolino Dalla Porta
Piano, Composed, Arranged By – Stefano Battaglia
Drums – Manhu Roche

STEFANO BATTAGLIA — Sulphur (1995) FLAC (tracks), lossless

This is Italian free jazz from a two-thirds Italian trio. While pianist Stefano Battaglia and bassist Paolino Dalla Porta may not be well known to many outside of the hardcore improv audience, drummer Tony Oxley better well be. His presence on the disc suggests one thing: that his collaborators are more than capable. The ten pieces here, as engaged with free improv as they are, are compositions nonetheless authored by various members of the group. The engagement between Oxley and Dalla Porta is nearly telepathic. Given Oxley's extremely busy style, it's no wonder that Dalla Porta chooses to play from the hip, offering short staccato bursts to highlight Oxley's high-hat runs, and longer, deeper octave tones to his snare and tom-tom flurries, and bowed ostinatos when bass drum and ride cymbal are employed exclusively. Above all this rides Battaglia's skittering skeins of tonal clusters and outrageously lengthy single note runs. The basis for this piano/bass/drum trio's communication seems to lie in the roots of augmented minor pitches introduced by Battaglia in each of the works found here, no matter the author's signature. Does it swing? Nope. This is internal music that explores the interior working of the trio as it tries to examine its own harmonic identity between individuals. It's head music to be sure, but ominous, fascinating stuff nonetheless. The brilliant sonorities with which Battaglia and Dalla Porta express themselves individually and in counterpoint to one another are worth the price of admission alone. But then, so is Oxley's mysterious, ever-moving drumming. 
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1.    Stanza #1  4:46
Composed By – T. Oxley
2.    Lifebeat  7:16
Composed By – S. Battaglia
3.    Mercurial  6:21
Composed By – S. Battaglia
4.    Stanza #2  5:06
Composed By – T. Oxley
5.    Science Of The Heart  6:01
Composed By – S. Battaglia
6.    Game #1  7:10
Composed By – P. Dalla Porta
7.    Picasso  3:07
Composed By – P. Dalla Porta
8.    Duchamp
Composed By – P. Dalla Porta
9.    Klee  3:54
Composed By – P. Dalla Porta
10.    Game #6  3:37 
Composed By – P. Dalla Porta
Credits :
Acoustic Bass – Paolino Dalla Porta
Drums – Tony Oxley
Piano – Stefano Battaglia 

STEFANO BATTAGLIA · PIERRE FAVRE — Omen (2000) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia is known for his excellent technique and sensitive touch. So is percussionist Pierre Favre. It comes as no surprise that these two would someday find each other and record a duo album. The results are often slow and pretty, sometimes bordering on new age fluff, but never crossing the line. Battaglia is a master of discovering the essence of single notes, as he lets each tone resonate with near-perfect clarity. Favre, too, eschews the bombastic, treating each sound with delicate precision. Often he whispers his thoughts through his instruments, shading and complementing his partner. The nine pieces, all composed by the pianist, lack conventional melody, but each is architecturally sophisticated. At times Battaglia takes it outside, with blinding speed, reminding the listener that his light touch is by choice, not limitation. At those moments, Favre follows, though he is more restrained, never overpowering his partner. While not all of it is successful, this recording, recorded in Switzerland, should satisfy admirers of both Favre and Battaglia and attract some new fans. Steve Loewy
Tracklist :
1.    Landing    10:15
2.    Omen    6:21
3.    Marionette    3:20
4.    Danse    8:57
5.    Moth In The Amber    5:31
6.    Cry    5:07
7.    Gestural    4:22
8.    Crossing    4:09
9.    Ashokh    7:44
Credits :
Percussion – Pierre Favre
Piano, Music By – Stefano Battaglia
Text By [Quote In Booklet] – Rainer Maria Rilke

STEFANO BATTAGLIA · TONY OXLEY — Explore (1990) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This is an interesting title in the wake of the notion that Stefano Battaglia composed most of these pieces and has performed them on earlier recordings -- both solo and with various groups -- and that Tony Oxley is such a renowned improviser. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding this music, all listeners have is this music, and this meeting is as awe-inspiring on record as it is on paper. Battaglia is Italy's premier new jazz pianist. Deeply influenced by the pointillistic chromaticism of Paul Bley, Battaglia is at home playing in both vanguard and "straight" settings. Here, listeners get his lyrical side for the most part, relying on Oxley as a percussionist more than as a drummer. Of the 13 selections on this set, Battaglia and Oxley collaborated on only two. So Oxley is free to roam, holding up whatever light stick he wishes to the prism of Battaglia's timbral panorama and illustrating it any way he wishes. The clear standout tracks here are the more experimentally arranged ones such as "RTA," with Battaglia playing both the inside and the outside of the piano simultaneously, improvising on a melody he wrote based on a folk song from Sardinia. It's all different shades of D minor, and Oxley, delighted by the turn of the strings being plucked, uses rattles and shakers on his cymbals and his skins while Battaglia rumbles across the middle register inverting each of the sequential chords and turning them inside out with two pedals down the entire time. Also notable is the joint composition in two parts that serves as the title work, where Oxley assumes his role as one of a melodist along with Battaglia, who opens up shimmering harmonic vistas to create room for the drummer's shards of bells, sticks on wood, rattles, etc. There isn't a weak or unbeautiful moment on Explore; it is the mature work of two grand masters of modern music. 
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <- 
Tracklist :
1.    Moonstone  3:35
Composed By – Stefano Battaglia
2.    Explore 1  4:59
Composed By – Stefano Battaglia, Tony Oxley
3.    Hits, Breaks And Blocks  1:19
Composed By – Stefano Battaglia
4.    South Africa February Dance  4:44
Composed By – Stefano Battaglia
5.    Uneven  2:34
Composed By – Stefano Battaglia
6.    Rapture  4:45
Composed By – Stefano Battaglia
7.    Jar  4:38
Composed By – Stefano Battaglia
8.    RTA  8:42
Composed By – Stefano Battaglia
Piano [Prepared Piano] – Stefano Battaglia
9.    Chant Of The Ocean Sirens (Mana Of The Sea)  5:15
Composed By – Stefano Battaglia
Gong – Tony Oxley
10.    Mr. Hooks Beats The Band  6:45
Composed By – Stefano Battaglia
11.    Amethyst  3:33
Composed By – Stefano Battaglia
12.    Still Rain  3:37
Composed By – Stefano Battaglia
13.    Explore 2  3:27
Composed By – Stefano Battaglia, Tony Oxley
Credits :
Drums – Tony Oxley
Piano, Percussion – Stefano Battaglia 

STEFANO BATTAGLIA — Baptism (1994) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The boss man of Italian jazz pianists, Stefano Battaglia is a musical chameleon. On this solo collection, he moves through an astonishing array of styles and syntaxes, all the while expressing his own deft and original musicality with grace and ingenuity. The set starts of with "Tristano," a tribute to the late bebop pianist who fused bebop, modal motifs, and the use of repeated arpeggios in ascending scales and angular intervals to achieve a music that is at once physical and cerebral. Battaglia takes five of Tristano's main themes and, in his playing style, winds them through scalar motifs to come out the other side with an intimate portrait of the man, painted by a student who has extended his concepts. "Transmutation" encapsulates Tristano too, but through chromatic extensions of both McCoy Tyner and Dave Burrell, while nodding in the direction of Marilyn Crispell. Elsewhere, Battaglia reaches into the fake books of pianists from Keith Jarrett ("The Golden Bough"), Bill Evans ("Baptism"), and Misha Mengelberg ("Youniverse"), seeking a point where the seams blur and the different stylistic approaches no longer hold sway in the piano's language. In order to achieve this, Battaglia informs each of his compositions, each of this homages as it were, with an elegant sense of harmonic extrapolation and contrapuntal verve. He leaves an obvious skeleton while decorating it with tonal tattoos: themes and motifs that come from the inside and move to the surface, all the while using his remarkable technical facility to transform his historical and linguistic subjects into newly created sonic paintings of tender, moving beauty. 
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1.    Tristano    4:09
2.    Baptism    3:55
3.    Transmutation    2:35
4.    The Golden Bough    4:20
5.    Bluesiana    6:11
6.    Streams    2:21
7.    The Chant    2:33
8.    Observe    6:00
9.    Singularities    3:06
10.    Youniverse    4:21
11.    Fugatha    4:09
12.    Wish    4:01
13.    Requiem Pour Renée Daumal    2:53
Credits :
Piano, Composed By – Stefano Battaglia 

MAURO ORSELLI | EVAN PARKER | ANTONELLO SALIS - True Live Walnuts (1998) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

A classic of '90s avant garde jazz, True Live Walnuts features Italian percussionist Mauro Orselli joined by British saxophonist Evan Parker and keyboardist Antonello Salis for some of the most fascinating free music of recent years. Performing just two pieces live at the Europa Jazz Festival in Noci, Italy, the three bring about an extraordinary union of disparate voices in a coherent whole. Orselli is stupendous on percussion, where he interacts with Parker as a second horn. The percussionist also chimes in with water sounds from a bucket, as well as radio waves. Salis can be ferocious on piano, but he is just as compelling on accordion, where he gets equal time. Parker seems to enjoy the company, and on both soprano and tenor saxophones he is in top form. The near hour of recording time whizzes by, as the diversity, skill and joyous disregard of convention are irresistible. Steve Loewy
Tracklist :
1    Presences    49:00
2    Nuts    7:36
Credits :
Percussion, Performer [Water], Electronics [Radio] – M. Orselli
Piano, Accordion – A. Salis
Soprano Saxophone [Soprano Sax], Tenor Saxophone [Tenor Sax] – E. Parker

ANTHONY BRAXTON — Small Ensemble Music (Wesleyan) 1994 (1999) FLAC (tracks), lossless

The first issue from the prolific Italian label Splasc(h)'s international series, this CD fills an important gap in the work of Braxton by focusing on his non-quartet work of the mid-90s. Actually taken from a single concert of duo, trio, and quartet performances, the compositions are characteristically complex, though absorbingly and fascinatingly so. While the level of his classic quartet recordings is hard to beat, these small groups give a different view of the composer/performer - one laced with abstraction and densely layered harmonies. "Composition No. 107," with trombonist Roland Dahinden and pianist Jeanne Chloe, revisits an earlier version recorded with Garrett List and Marianne Schroeder. The two saxophone features, "Trio Improvisation" and "Duo Improvisation," incorporate harmonies in strikingly different ways. "Three Compositions for Sextet," is perhaps the highlight, with two of the three compositions never before recorded. Unfortunately, the sound quality is a tad weak throughout. Steve Loewy
Tracklist :
Duo And Trio Music    
1    Trio Improvisation 8:53
Alto Saxophone, Bass Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet, Contrabass Clarinet – Anthony Braxton
Baritone Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – André Vida
Bass Clarinet, Oboe, Shenai – Brandon Evans
2    Composition N° 107 20:24
Piano – Jeanne Chloe
Soprano Saxophone, C Melody Saxophone [C-Melody Saxophone] – Anthony Braxton
Trombone – Roland Dahinden
3    Duo Improvisation 6:42
Percussion – Eric Rosenthal
Sopranino Saxophone – Anthony Braxton
4    Three Compositions For Sextet (21:13)
4.1    Composition N° 44 (108D+96)+168    
4.2    Composition N° 136    
4.3    Composition N° 43 +(96)+168
Accordion – Ted Reichman
Alto Saxophone, Clarinet, Sopranino Saxophone – Anthony Braxton
Bass – Joe Fonda
Drums, Vibraphone – Kevin Norton
Trombone – Mike Heffley
Violin – Jason Wong

ANTHONY BRAXTON | DAVE DOUGLAS - Six Standards (Quintet) 1996 (2004) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tracklist :
1    Woody'n You 11:52
Written-By – Dizzy Gillespie
2    Blues And The Abstract Truth 16:25
Written-By – Oliver Nelson
3    Ruby My Dear 13:52
Written-By – Thelonious Monk
4    Like Sonny 6:54
Written-By – John Coltrane
5    Lazy Bird 11:16
Written-By – John Coltrane
6    Dee's Dilemma 11:05
Written-By – Mal Waldron
Credits :
Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Mark Whitecage
Double Bass [String Bass] – Mario Parvone
Percussion – Warren Smith
Piano – Anthony Braxton
Trumpet – Dave Douglas