That is so a thing with the jazz gene. Jazz musicians have this gene of course. As befits a gene, jazz musicians are already born with this special gift, and it comes to the fore at the latest over time. Anyway, without this special gene nothing at all goes in jazz. Not much different it is with the classic gene. You have it as a musician or you do not have it. Musicians equipped with both genes are extremely rare. The great classical pianist Gulda belonged to this species. What happens when Mother Nature has been generously endowed exclusively with the classic gene and one believes there is a need to also materialize oneself in jazz at the zenith of one’s career or even afterwards: then one fails or makes a fool of oneself in jazz circles. Record labels of wannabe Jazz performing classical musicians like to see it differently, because this obvious malady nevertheless can be used financially pretty well thanks to the reputation of the prominent classical musician poaching in foreign territory. All the better that even today there are classical musicians, who own the jazz gene. Alessandro Quarta is one of them. As a classical violinist who is successful as a virtuosic soloist and also in the Orchestra Sinfonica Arturo Toscanini, he is one of those rare birds of paradise. Cross-bordering he never did think to be beneath himself in second row or to be active as a soloist and as an arranger for such prominent jazz and rock and pop stars as Carlos Santana, Mark Knopfler, Eros Ramazotti, Boy George, Adriano Celentano, Liza Minnelli, Gianna Nannini, Zucchero, Joe Cocker and Robbie Williams.

After his two successful albums, One More Time and Charlot, Alessandro Quarta has now released an album dedicated to Astor Piazzolla, which was recorded in Lecce, southern Italy, and mixed in Munich. The ingenious recording technology justifies itself the purchase of this album, which is available in addition to surround formats as a two-channel 96 kHz download in FLAC format. Without any added effects, the stereo version reproduces the recording room almost tangibly in three dimensions and creates a live atmosphere that is rarely heard so convincingly over a sound material. Piazolla's Tango Nuova, with all the sophistication of the arrangements and the thrilling rhythm, is presented by the master himself in a full-fat stage. The fact that the full-bodied and physically stable sounding accordion is responsible for this view of the tango becomes immediately apparent when one compares it to the violin dominated, primarily filigree designed Piazzolla tango of Alessandro Quarta, which largely abstains any triumphant gesture. Responsible for the fact that the typical pulsation of the tango is not neglected in all subtle illumination of the Piazzolla tango compositions are the musical partner of Alessandro Quarta, who are equally involved in the successful realization of the eleven tracks of the album: Giuseppe Magagnino, piano, Franco Chirivì, guitar, Michele Colaci, double bass, and Cristian Martina, drums. It speaks for the sovereignty of Alessandro Quarta that he is always ready to give up his role as a solo tango artist in favor of his fellow musicians, as in the last title "Charlot", where the piano and the accordion alone celebrate the subject farewell in melancholy with echoes of Fritz Kreisler's Liebesleid over a very long distance interrupted only for a short time by a lively tango insert of the violinist. Sure thing: The classically trained violin virtuoso Alessandro Quarta undoubtedly has the jazz gene. He and his teammates love the quiet and very soft sounds, which are a rarity in the world of tango, representing however more than a sympathetic, namely a convincingly independent variant of the Tango Nuova.

Alessandro Quarta, violin