Tonino Montella

Tonino Montella: All by Myself

by Eric J. Iannelli
May 25, 2004

Tonino Montella’s All by Myself begins peculiarly (with a recorded broadcast about Medicare) and grows more peculiar as it progresses. The opening acoustic number, “If Someone Would Only Love Me,” changes abruptly and unexpectedly into a loping Bill Evans-like conversation with multiple solo overdubs that include banjo, flange/wah-wah electric guitar, and a violently picked acoustic. Instead of enriching the song, however, these polyphonic elements have the opposite effect. There is simply too much empty space between them. The song therefore ...