”Rough Line is Angelo Mastronardi’s third record as leader. The pianist from Puglia, also founder of
the label that released the album, GleAM, is accompanied by Rogers Anning on double bass and
Carmelo Miceli on drums. The record features eight tracks: six originals and new versions of the
timeless classics “All The Things You Are” and “Oleo”. The album opens with “All In My Hands”.
The rhythm, with a jazz rock flavor, supports the beautiful theme performed by the synth, effective
and ingenious. The sounds are beautiful and the track explodes during the virtuoso piano solo.
“Follow Me” is characterized by a nice groove and demonstrates the excellent interplay of the three
musicians: Mastronardi plays fast and articulate lines, the rhythm supports lightly but flawlessly.
Without a doubt it is a song that you will “follow” willingly! A moderate mood, more inspired by
gospel and soul is that of “Everything I Need”, with the bass (the sound is reminiscent of Pastorius)
playing the theme. An intriguing version of “All The Things You Are”, revised for keyboard only,
follows. It is a song that again refers to the world of 70’s fusion and interpreted with great
originality. Sounds of Nu Soul are those of “Away From The Scene”, which features the drums in
the foreground, constantly struggling with rhythmic ambiguities (explicit and not). “Oleo” is
interpreted with the taste of the acrobatic hard-bop of the 50s: particularly successful is the solo
by Mastronardi, a true virtuoso of the piano, who amazes with ever new and different idea. The
following is “7-Our” is perhaps the most fascinating track of the collection: the keyboard alone
explores fascinating and personal worlds. Rough Line is an eclectic record that showcases the
different souls of Mastronardi: swing, jazz rock, love for virtuosity but also at the same time for
simplicity, taste for experimentation and originality very well combined with the knowledge of
tradition.
Eugenio Mirti - JazzEspresso 2021
“With “Rough Line” Angelo Mastronardi, his third album as a leader,
demonstrates an original and mature piano style and a solid compositional sensitivity, capable of
bringing together tradition and experimentation in a balanced way”
F. Caruso - JAZZIT Magazine 2020
“Its volatile energy is directed laterally fa more than cyclically. It, too could easily be identified as
something coming from NYC as Italy...this is music that sticks to sunny tone and chipper
disposition(...) The pianist released a new album in 2017 called New Things, Same Words. It’s a
solid straight-ahead session, and sounds like it could source from NYC as easily as the pianist’s
Gioia del Colle, Italy home turf. It’s got a free-flowing lyricism that displays plenty of activity(...)”
David Sumner - BirdistheWorm 2018
“Faithful to the line of the most modern jazz, capable of finding the most dynamic sounds but
respectful of the tested modules of ballads, this work on behalf of the pianist Angelo Mastronardi
is compact in the proposal of seven tracks linked by a common thread and in the solidity of the
musicians ... Angelo Mastronardi has ample space in the first minutes of the introductory piece
(which gives the title to the work) to let the best of himself be heard (an open and enveloping
sound, an uncommon sense of lyricism), ... remarkable flexibility of the pianist, evidently gifted with
great quality but able to share spaces with traveling companions ..... New Things, Same Words is
completed in a circular way by gathering in itself the essential and vital extracts of jazz, excellent
proof of a quartet of absolute excellence. “
Sergio Spada - Jazz Convention 2017
“Themes proposed, always singable, capable of drawing sound pictures that oscillate between
accentuated timbral dynamics and ballad passages” Eugenio Mirti - JAZZIT 2017
“Mastronardi is not simply virtuosic, because in his fingers both academic studies and a visceral
passion for improvisation resound, with a gentle and careful use of the left hand and crystalline
notes that flow from the right”
Alceste Ayroldi - MUSIC JAZZ magazine 2015
“A polychrome work, dedicated to researched linguistic and structural inventions”
Antonio Di Vita - JAZZIT magazine 2015
“Under the banner of melody this discographic debut of the pianist and composer Angelo
Mastronardi flanked by the double bass player Michele Maggi and the drummer Walter Forestiere.
The three present nine songs of which six originals to which three standards are added (... these
three reinterpretations that the trio shows an absolute originality to highlight a full expressive and
executive maturity (.....) the other pieces, mainly the result of Mastronardi alone, are appreciated
both for that melodic research which was mentioned at the beginning and for the sense of the
structure that is always well present (....) and above all a Mastronardi pianist of excellent stature
(...) within an often improvised phrasing it is possible to identify echoes of “other” music to
demonstrate the deep knowledge of matter from an artist who is easy to predict a bright future “
Gerlando Gatto - A Proposito di Jazz 2015
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