Franco Ambrosetti: Nora
Enja Records

In a career filled with peak moments, Nora is quite possibly Franco Ambrosetti's crowning achievement. Consider: for the project, the Swiss flugelhornist assembled an all-star collective featuring guitarist John Scofield (on two pieces), bassist Scott Colley, pianist Uri Caine, and drummer Peter Erskine, with the ensemble augmented by a twenty-two-piece string orchestra conducted by Alan Broadbent and featuring violinist Sara Caswell as concertmaster. Every participant is world-class, and their cumulative credits would make the jaws of even the most hardened critic drop. Reduced to its simplest, Nora is Ambrosetti's take on the jazz artist-with-strings genre made famous by Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown in the ‘50s and tackled by many a jazz artist since.

Born in 1941, Ambrosetti debuted as a leader in 1965 with A Jazz Portrait of Franco Ambrosetti and has blazed an adventurous trail ever since. During the ‘70s he led his own outfits and toured with the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band; a decade later, he was recording in NYC with artists such as Tommy Flanagan, Geri Allen, Phil Woods, Michael Brecker, Steve Coleman, Dave Holland, and Billy Hart. Over the past decade he's recorded with Greg Osby, Terri Lyne Carrington, and fellow trumpeter Randy Brecker. It's telling that the trumpeter has consistently recruited young players as well as seasoned vets for his dates, his ears ever open to new sounds.

On Nora, Ambrosetti's less brassy horn player than sensual crooner; that's especially so when much of the material's romantic ballads. Treatments of “All Blues” and “After the Rain” see him paying homage to two legends, and Gruntz is likewise honoured with the inclusion of “Morning Song of a Spring Flower,” a tune Ambrosetti played as a member of Gruntz's ensemble. The album also features gorgeous versions of Victor Feldman's “Falling In Love,” John Dankworth's “It Happens Quietly,” and the chestnut “Autumn Leaves.”

Ambrosetti's own two compositions hold up splendidly, the beautiful “Nora's Theme” especially. One might expect the title to be a loving reference to his wife; in fact, it originated from material he wrote for a 1997 theatre production of Ibsen's A Doll's House. The tune opens sumptuously with strings before the leader enters, notes sparse in number but lovingly tendered. Clarity of purpose and purity of tone are resoundingly evident in the playing. His partners then join the proceedings, each one attuned to the romantic aura of the piece and careful to not disrupt the delicate balance. Attempting to resist the music's seductive pull is futile when the quiet majesty of the playing is so strong. After a lovely introduction by Caswell, the flugelhornist takes over in “Sweet Journey,” and Caine later enhances the performance with an understated lyrical expression. During “It Happens Quietly,” Ambrosetti luxuriates in the enveloping warmth of Broadbent's strings, and listening to “Falling in Love,” it's easy to picture oneself doing exactly that.

Perpetuating the romantic spell is “Morning Song of a Spring Flower,” Scofield now aboard to add another arresting colour to the painterly mix and share the front-line with the leader. He's also present for a dignified treatment of “After the Rain,” a fitting choice of closer for the album. Though “All Blues” receives a suitably relaxed treatment, with the strings delivering the classic refrain, Ambrosetti seems to reference Miles directly with a few stabbing phrases during a solo that's considerably more playful and exuberant than those in the ballads. Caine gets a chance to weigh in too, his solo a bluesy, swinging, and tasty turn. The leader dons a mute for the resonant opening of “Autumn Leaves” before blowing openly for the second half of the haunting rendering.

December 2022