CD Title: Hot & Fresh
Leader or group name: LEGS 4et
Names of musicians and the instruments they play:
Stefano Maimone: electric bass & effect
Luigi Rinaldi: Alto Sax, Soprano Sax, Bass Clarinet
Enrico Smiderle: Drum & percussions
Gabriele Carbone: Piano, synth, Hammond, vocoder
Track details:
1. Moanin / Car in Flame (Charles Mingus / Stefano Maimone) 5.51min
2. Epistrophy (Thelonious Monk) 4.01min
3. Saturday (Stefano Maimone) 7.40min
4. Hot & fresh (Stefano Maimone) 8.12min
5. Sunrise in Ronc (Stefano Maimone) 2.24min
6. Morning in Ronc (Stefano Maimone) 9.30min
7. I remember you (dedicated to Fede) (Stefano Maimone / Gabriele Carbone) 8.17min
8. Freeze (Stefano Maimone) 5.52min
Recording details:
Date and place of recording: 01/08/2017 Bologna (BO) Italy
Recording and Mixing engineer Gaddaman
Studio and Mastering @ Red Pill facility
The band started out in 2015 and this is their debut album. It has been compiled in order to explore a range of musical interests inside and peripheral to jazz and including electronics, funk, hip-hop and other world-music sounds. The intention, for Maimone, was to explore the music of his gurus and to ensure that it would not overcome his own musical style and direction.
The tunes were written for the quartet, allowing each of them the liberty to express their own musical background, idiosyncrasies and features.
The virtuosity of Mingus and Monk is frankly applauded with regard to Moanin’ and Epistrophy in tracks 1 and 2 and this alone shows how fresh older music can sound. The whole CD is fresh-sounding and the band have the courage to travel far.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham http://www.jazzviews.net/legs-4et---hot--fresh.html
The team of Luigi Rinaldi/sax, Gabriele Carone/key, Stefano Maimone/eb and Enrico Smiderlie/dr plug in for some soulful fusion. The sax and keyboards create a thick cream on the funky read of Charles Mingus’ "Moanin’" during a medley, with a hip Headhunter synth pulsating with Rinaldi’s soprano sax on the title track. Maimone’s bass lays down a hip pulse for some rich alto work on a sleek "I Remember You" while the team gets into a space groove on a Weather Reportish "Morning in Ronc." Some eerie chords float on "Sunrise in Ronc" and the rhythm team gets kinetic as the band bops on a rich take of Thelonious Monk’s "Epistrophy." In the tradition from bop to electronics and going out into the ozone layer.
George Harris http://www.jazzweekly.com/2018/09/legs-4et-hot-fresh/
Il sassofonista baritono inglese George Haslam presenta sulla sua Slam Productions l’esordio di una band italiana, il LEGS 4et, con sede a Bologna, un progetto partito nel 2015 che si basa sui tanti suoni del jazz contemporaneo, dal mainstream alla fusion. Sono guidati da Stefano Maimone al basso elettrico, gli altri sono Luigi Rinaldi ai sassofoni alto e soprano ed al clarinetto basso, Enrico Smiderle alla batteria ed alle percussioni e Gabriele Carbone al pianoforte, sintetizzatore, Hammond, Vocoder. È un album ricco di brio, divertente, che certamente si fa ascoltare senza fatica, ricco di invenzioni, live in studio ed in sede di masterizzazione con le varie piste sovrapposte. I quattro fanno omaggio con due cover, Moanin di Mingus che apre il disco e Epistrophy di Thelonious Monk, eseguite con idee originali, specie la seconda sembra un brano di jazz rock da sempre, con un piglio da parte di Rinaldi alla David Sanborn, abile nel mettere insieme le tracce dei sassofoni contralto e soprano ed a dialogare con sé stesso. Più lento e sospeso il tema di Saturday con le tastiere elettriche ed il basso elettrico in evidenza con a seguire il sax soprano con un intervento dall’intenso lirismo. Come già mostrato nei brani precedenti, anche qui si mostra una bella abilità nell’uso delle varie tastiere, acustiche ed elettriche e delle tecniche possibile in studio, al servizio della musica. Hot & Fresh di Maimone sembra provenire dalla penna di un Herbie Hanckock anni ’70, quando rivoluzionava il jazz ed il funky con album rivoluzionari come Sextant o quelli con gli Head Hunters. Il grruppo italiano sa giocare con quelle atmosfere dando una propria impronta al tutto, un suono originale e coivolgente in cui elettrico e acustico trovano una loro complementarità. Si arriva fino alla composizione finale, Freeeze, con facilità ed un approccio originale alla fusion. Vittorio Lo Conte. Musiczoom July 2018
The English baritone saxophonist George Haslam presents on his Slam Productions the debut of an Italian band, the LEGS 4et, based in Bologna, a project started in 2015 that is based on the many sounds of contemporary jazz, from mainstream to fusion. They are led by Stefano Maimone to the electric bass, the others are Luigi Rinaldi to alto and soprano saxophones and bass clarinet, Enrico Smiderle on drums and percussion and Gabriele Carbone on piano, synthesizer, Hammond, Vocoder. It is an album full of brio, fun, which certainly makes you listen without effort, full of inventions, live in the studio and when burning with the various overlapping tracks. The four pay homage with two covers, Moanin di Mingus which opens the disc and Epistrophy by Thelonious Monk, performed with original ideas, especially the second seems a piece of jazz rock forever, with a look from Rinaldi to David Sanborn, skilled in putting together the traces of the alto and soprano saxophones and to dialogue with himself. Saturday's theme is slower and more suspended with electric keyboards and electric bass in evidence, followed by soprano sax with an intervention of intense lyricism. As already shown in the previous passages, here too we show a great skill in the use of various keyboards,