Giovanni Tommaso, Rita Marcotulli, Alessandro Paternesi - Around Gershwin (2018)

How can we still read Gershwin by subtracting him from the charms of "New York in black and white" eternalized by cinema? The title of this record immediately tells us that here there is no re-reading but a positioning "around" the great George. As if that were not enough, only four of the ten pieces are by Gershwin while the others are signed by Thomas; who is the mastermind of the project even if, very conveniently, he also puts in the company the names of his talented companions. The pieces composed by him contain somehow a Gershwinian seed, sometimes explicit ( An Italian in Paris blatantly quotes An American In Paris ). Very interesting, however, is the work done on the glorious songs, sometimes transfigured to the point of being almost unrecognizable. One for all,But Not For Me : the original melancholy slips into the gloom wisely constructed by Tommaso's bottom and Marcotulli's left hand. In short, the trio looks at Gershwin through a window, never really confronting him but aiming to build an empathic conversation on the piano-bass-drums formula, not devoid of courage and full of intensity.