Record of the day: Fabio Concato, “Dancing with Chet Baker”

Fabio Concato
“Dancing with Chet Baker” (Universal CD 548628-2)

In a musical panorama crowded with musically illiterate songwriters such as ours, the stylistic references of a musician
like Fabio Concato might even seem risky: Jobim’s Brazil, Bill Evans’ jazz (and Chet Baker, in fact), musicians like Michael Franks, Paul Simon and James Taylor, all people who know music and are not content to put together four cross rhymes on three chords repeated for forty years.

Concato’s musical sensitivity pushes him towards refined atmospheres, harmonically simple yet never banal, supported by
arrangements that leave room for his voice completely devoid of the macho testosterone of certain rockers or the mischievous-prophetic saccharine of his other presumed poet colleagues (of which Fabio creates a hilarious parody in the song “Che stress”).
Fabio tells daily stories, and even if his image among the general public has remained the very limiting one of the singer of “good feelings”, songs like “Portati via” and “Oltre il Giardino” deal with much more painful and challenging themes, giving voice to the more melancholy side of a personality who often loves to encounter irony in the world around him.

“Dancing with Chet Baker” is Concato’s most successful album (even if it did not experience the commercial success of previous works) thanks to the excellent level of the compositions, increasingly musically sophisticated, underlined in the best possible way by Bruno Zucchetti’s arrangements (undoubtedly the best of those who have covered his songs with sounds in recent years), who uses electronics in a very discreet way and extracts multiple colors from his arsenal of keyboards and samplers makes listening to songs even more delightful such as “Chicco di caffè”, “Naturamente”, “Tinti” and “Quanta nostalgia”, often sweetly accompanied by light percussion and musical interventions by DOC jazz musicians such as Massimo Moriconi and Marco Tamburini.

It takes a lot of courage to tackle Jobim’s “Wave” singing in Portuguese and using the same vocal textures as João Gilberto, but Concato can do it like no one else in Italy, playing on the pauses, the half voices, on the border between the said and the unsaid. a saying that reveals a profound familiarity with the Carioca musical culture.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.

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