Elisabetta Antonini

“I have just heard a fantastic recording honouring the Beat Generation and to say this recording is wonderful would definitely be an understatement. I'm thrilled that a group of beautiful young musicians have shown such tremendous depth and understanding for my heroes. This is a recording full of great musicianship, strong knowledge of the bebop era and a deep, soulful understanding of jazz. I want to thank each and everyone of you from the bottom of my heart for keeping jazz music alive.... I love you all dearly!” Sheila Jordan

Review by Enzo Pavoni, AUDIO REVIEW - THE BEAT GOES ON- Candid, 2014 After a long absence for some years now Candid has recommenced its activity by diversifying its production and placing its trust in off beat projects like ElisabettaAntonini’s The Beat Goes On, who is the first musician in Italy to sign with this legendary label. It’s an intriguing concept but not without complications in which the singer puts some of the beatpoets to music: Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso, Burroughs, Ferlinghetti. Antonini does a fine job of giving breathing space to these celebrated rhymes; she avoids suffocating them with pretentious heaviness, instead opting for a simple approach: the most frenetic swing bop, manipulations of sound and voice “as tasteful as they are effective”, altering her own voice, broadening her musical range. This explains the inclusion of Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind, Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock, Horace Silver’sCookin’ at the Continental, Thelonious Monk’s Well you Needn’t and David Douglas’s Orujo. The eight remaining tracks are originals which hold their own with the classics thanks to ElisabettaAntonini’s talent (vocals, electronic effects, compositions, arrangements) and her celebrated partners:. The unique quality of The Beat Goes On lies in the convincing interplay between the authentic readings of the Beat poets which were extracted from old recordings that, in spite of the use of artifice sound like they come from the same session, and the instruments. Since it’s not possible to cover all the tracks we will limit ourselves to citing Ginsberg’s legendary Howl and above all to the moving Requiem for Bird Charlie Parker (Corso): Bearzatti’s vibrant, overdubbed horns lend support to Antonini, who dares to reach for vocal nuances which penetrate the soul. Highest respect.

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“I have just heard a fantastic recording honouring the Beat Generation and to say this recording is wonderful would definitely be an understatement. I'm thrilled that a group of beautiful young musicians have shown such tremendous depth and understanding for my heroes. This is a recording full of great musicianship, strong knowledge of the bebop era and a deep, soulful understanding of jazz. I want to thank each and everyone of you from the bottom of my heart for keeping jazz music alive.... I love you all dearly!” Sheila Jordan

Review by Enzo Pavoni, AUDIO REVIEW - THE BEAT GOES ON- Candid, 2014 After a long absence for some years now Candid has recommenced its activity by diversifying its production and placing its trust in off beat projects like ElisabettaAntonini’s The Beat Goes On, who is the first musician in Italy to sign with this legendary label. It’s an intriguing concept but not without complications in which the singer puts some of the beatpoets to music: Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso, Burroughs, Ferlinghetti. Antonini does a fine job of giving breathing space to these celebrated rhymes; she avoids suffocating them with pretentious heaviness, instead opting for a simple approach: the most frenetic swing bop, manipulations of sound and voice “as tasteful as they are effective”, altering her own voice, broadening her musical range. This explains the inclusion of Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind, Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock, Horace Silver’sCookin’ at the Continental, Thelonious Monk’s Well you Needn’t and David Douglas’s Orujo. The eight remaining tracks are originals which hold their own with the classics thanks to ElisabettaAntonini’s talent (vocals, electronic effects, compositions, arrangements) and her celebrated partners:. The unique quality of The Beat Goes On lies in the convincing interplay between the authentic readings of the Beat poets which were extracted from old recordings that, in spite of the use of artifice sound like they come from the same session, and the instruments. Since it’s not possible to cover all the tracks we will limit ourselves to citing Ginsberg’s legendary Howl and above all to the moving Requiem for Bird Charlie Parker (Corso): Bearzatti’s vibrant, overdubbed horns lend support to Antonini, who dares to reach for vocal nuances which penetrate the soul. Highest respect.

Review by Francesco Peluso, FEDELTA’ DEL SUONO After some significant productions in a minimalist style, singer and composer ElisabettaAntonini offers this intriguing and well produced album, The Beat Goes On, which is dedicated to The Beat Generation poets and is accompanied by Francesco Bearzatti (tenor sax and clarinet), Luca Mannutza (piano), PaolinoDalla Porta (doublebass), Marcello Di Leonardo (drums). For this talented Roman artist, Gregory Corso, Allan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Lawrence Ferlinghetti represent a starting pointfrom which to propose an interweaving of anxiety, revolutionary thought and the lyrical transgression of these poets and the jazz of those years (Fifties/ Sixties). With the perfect fusion between maudit poetry and delirious bebop the five protagonists of this work offer a collective interplay which to say the least is thrilling.Bearzatti’s exuberant and dynamic instrumental voice blends with Mannutza’s elegant softness, while PaolinoDalla Porta’s solid groove supports Marcello Di Leonardo’s imposing drumming, and the result is an ensemble of multiple formal nuances. With her singing the band leader expresses an artistic personality and breadth to which with refined vocals she adds the above mentioned poets and the use of some electronic alchemy. From Horace Silver’s pyrotechnical Cookin’ at the Continental to the funky atmosphere of Antonini’s New York Blues, from the soft melodic line of On the Road to the west coast settingof the medley of Holy and Joni Mitchell’s beautiful Woodstock (U.S.A. posterchild of pacifism), from theburning funereal accompaniment of Requiem for Bird Charlie Parker to the rarefied strains of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind which concludes the album, ElisabettaAntonini in The Beat Goes On gives us a slice of American history, bringing to light in an original way the lyrics and musical loves of that group of students that possessed visionary inspiration.

Review by Roberto Paviglianiti, JAZZIT Nov/Dec 2014 THE BEAT GOES ON Candid, 2014 ElisabettaAntonini’s voice lies at the center of the expressive discourse of The Beat Goes On: it reveals an instinctive, creative and repeated use of scat; in some passages her voice makes itself harsh and dissonant while at other moments often provides hummable melodies. A group of worthy musicians work with her in a sequence of tracks where the listener encounters original compositions as well as rearrangements which are consistent with the concept of the Beat Generation around which the entire work revolves. The album assumes very stylistic forms, passing from moments that have a bluesy taste to ballads, from bop arrangements to electronic music. Everything has been conceived and arranged by the leader who has also inserted the recorded voices of some of the Beat protagonists such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, going beyond stereotypes to create a personal vision (…). The aesthetic aspects of the album are delineated through a careful selection of literary material which has been transformed into music and the final result reflects a consistency of artistic intention.

From an article by Luca Conti, MUSICA JAZZ, Dec 2014 This year the Gian Mario Maletto Award “…goes to ElisabettaAntonini, an accomplished singer the recognition of whom will only surprise those who in the course of the years have not followed her notable artistic evolution and maturity. “

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