ZONE

Rewiew:

Zone – Gimali
2008
One Eyed Fish / Irma

Another delight from Irma Records’ vault of recent releases. Zone is the alter-ego of Enzo Torregrossa, one of Italy’s most prominent musicians in the contemporary jazz scene and Gimali is Zone’s latest release.

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Enzo Torregrossa is one of the best modern jazz musicians actually. His work in films of Italian director Gabriele Salvatores has earned him multiple awards in his home country and beyond. Enzo has also played with household names within the jazz circle, including the late Dizzy Gillespie. Since the mid-2000s, Torregrossa calls himself Zone (anagram of Enzo) and has placed this personal project in the taste of the specialized European jazz audience as well as in other related sound niches. In 2005, Zone released debut album Madrugada (“daybreak”), counting with Manola Micalizzi in vocals; this recording focused on the exploring of Brazilian sounds.
With new album Gimali, Torregrossa goes deeper in his passion for jazz, merging with danceable electronic beats such as house as well as with other environments made for a chillout lounge. The recordings result has been a sophisticated group of songs that –for themselves or through a remix- can just waltz into any lounge or dancefloor. Vocals on Gimali are from Robert Lee and Annie Rock; less than acquiring a starring role for every tune, they just complement any atmosphere according to what each song demands.
Title track is set at the album’s opening foreseeing into what we will listen throughout the album, a consistent backbeat with voice, bringing upfront the jazzy sounds of Gherardo Catanzaro’s Rhodes piano on a head to head collision with percussion, feat to admire also on the track “Finally”.
“Slave” escapes from the uniform tempo imprinted in many of the album’s tracks, rotating towards an acoustic sound deep into dense funk parameters. Gimali’s 15 tracks include “Angel’s Wings”, a posthumous tribute to Angelo D’Arrigo, record man for microlights and hand glider flying. Other fine details in Gimali include a dazzling Spanish style guitar in “Barajas”, one of the few instrumental tracks in this album.
Gimali makes Zone a jazz project not only with knowledge about contemporary rhythms, but also with enough ambition to make them his own with outstanding results.
- By CantorPistola

Bass player Enzo Torregrossa, better known as Zone, is one of the best Italian musicians in modern jazz today. Winner of important awards like the Golden Globe and the Italian award Nastro D’Argento for the film score of ‘Sud’, directed by Gabriele Salvatores. His latest album 'Madrugada', which crossed jazz with electronic music and Brazilian beats, received an amazing response from critics and was Top 10 in iTunes’ Jazz & Latin charts in various countries. On his new work ‘Gimalì’, produced by Ohm Guru and Ninfa for One Eyed Fish, Zone explores the various aspects of today’s jazz sound among tradition, fusion and dance. The output is true contemporary jazz dancefloor music. Among guest musicians on the album are Robert Lee and Annie Rock on vocals and Gherardo Catanzaro on piano and keyboards. Rewiew: Loop-magazin - Gimali

Nu Jazz mit klarem Einschlag zum Bossa Nova – und etwas darüber hinaus: „Gimali“ verschmilzt auch all die üblichen Zutaten von Dance und Eletronic. Aber Enzo Torregrossa, der Mann hinter Zone, macht dabei eine hervorragende Figur. Nichts ist hier revolutionär, alles erprobt und bereits vor Jahren für gut befunden – aber wo heute die meisten mit dieser Formel nur noch Gähnen erzeugen, hat man hier mal wieder einen Anlass, um breit zu grinsen und die Füsse dazu zu schwingen. „Gimli“ klingt, als ob man die Sonne ins CD-Fach eingelegt hätte. So soll es sein – so ist’s recht! - Mit Nu Jazz hat man Lust auch mal wieder die Füsse zu schwingen ZONE - „GIMALI“

A jazzy band with a soulful feel -- and one of the deepest-sounding sets we've heard on the Irma label in a long time! Zone's got a warmly grooving quality that we really love -- an approach that almost reminds us of some of the best British groups trying to do classic American soul at the end of the 80s -- but served up here with a few more contemporary touches too -- especially in the rhythms, which can be nicely dynamic. Vocals are by both a female and male singer, switching off from track to track -- and instrumentation includes great keyboards, piano, guitar, tenor, and trumpet -- grooving with a breezily soulful feel on the best numbers. Titles include "Vou Voltar", "Gimali", "Soul Desires", "Finally", "September", "Angel's Wings", "Frontera", "Madrid", and "Slave". © 1996-2009, Dusty Groove America, Inc. - Gimali

Agrandir Avec la chaleur de ses derniers jours, un petit album de Bossa Nova n'est pas du tout le malvenu, surtout quand il est de qualité. Le bassiste Enzo Torregrossa, plus connu sous son nom d'artiste Zone, a pensé à nos beaux jours avec la sortie de son album Gimalì. Cet artiste est un des meilleurs musiciens italiens de Jazz moderne de sa génération. Il a reçu de nombreux prix dont un Golden Globe et un Nastro d'Argent pour la bande son du film "Sud" de Gabrielle Salvatores. Son précédent album Madrugada n'était également pas passé inaperçu non plus puisqu'il a eu un succès tant critique que public en se classant dans de très nombreux pays dans le Top 10 Jazz & Latin de iTunes.
Pour ce nouvel album, Zone s'est entouré de nombreux collaborateurs de talents comme Robert Lee, la vocaliste Annie Rock, le saxophoniste Gaetano D'Angelo et le pianiste Gherardo Catanzaro. Le résultat est totalement surprenant. Bien qu'étiqueté Bossa Nova, cet album se veut multiculturel. Il est une fusion entre un son jazz plus classique avec les sons de jazz actuel, des sonorités Latin, Samba. Tout se mélange nous offre ce qu'on pourrait appeler un Jazz Dancefloor "bossa novesque". Le track éponyme nous permet de découvrir la superbe voie d'Annie Rock sur une mélodie venant directement des pays de la chaleur. Soul Desires contre balance en nous offrant une voix masculine sur une mélodie plus RnB/Jazz. Les anges nous offrent même un peu de leur sagesse au travers d'Angel's Wing qui dans une mélodie tout en douceur nous emmène pour une superbe ballade Bossa Nova. L'artiste n'a peur de rien puisqu'il ose même une petite percée dans le milieu House avec un titre Latin House, London Dance, pari plutôt réussi.
Tant cet album est riche et varié d'un point de vue ouverture aux autres cultures aussi mais de part l'immense richesse de ses sonorités et ses mélodies finement travaillées, qu'il représente un ensemble. La notion d'album prend ici tout son sens en nous offrant une oeuvre complète, ayant une plus forte valeur ajoutée, s'il est écouté dans son ensemble que la valeur d'une simple addition de pistes complémentaires. Bienvenue dans son univers! - GIimali

Enzo Torregrossa, aka Zone, has meticulously created an intriguing fusion of jazz and dance music to yield a unique melody the jazz scene hasn t yet tasted. The Italian bass player has made comrades of two very different genres of music, and collided what most would consider polar opposites to combine into musical eloquence. Zone will most notably be recognized for a risky marriage of two seemingly distant musical expressions and making one great sound. - - Chelsea Harmon

Zone's latest album, Madrugada', is a spectacular fusion of contemporary jazz and dancefloor culture - Madrugada

Madrugada contains some very danceable, very listenable music. The kind of stuff that some popular club DJs would call “jazz remixes”. Whether the jazz cognoscenti are prepared to embrace such an offering is another question altogether. However, Italian bassist Enzo Torregrossa, the prime architect and author of the project, is a bona fide jazzman, who has logged sessions with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie. The influence of classic bossa nova and samba as purveyed by Astrud Gilberto and Gilberto Gil dominates the disc. Great examples of this are to be found on Fortuna and Penso Em Mim (featuring Manola Micalizzi), and Brasilena. - Madrugada

Lush!!! - Rosie Kendrick